PHILADELPHIA (AP) -The Philadelphia Eagles spent every Tuesday during the season away from the field, relaxing and resting before starting preparations for their next game.

Thanks to quirky scheduling, the Eagles returned to practice a day early this week, less than 48 hours after a last-second victory over the New York Giants on Sunday sent them to the second round of the playoffs.

While both of the AFC wild-card winners - Indianapolis and New England - each have seven days between games, the Eagles (11-6) are playing the New Orleans Saints (10-6) six days after beating the Giants. Seattle's game at Chicago on Sunday is eight days after its victory over Dallas.

If the NFL would've scheduled the Eagles-Saints game for Sunday and the Seahawks-Bears for Saturday night, every team would've had equal rest.

``You can't even think about it,'' quarterback Jeff Garcia said Tuesday. ``You have to just keep focused and keep working on the things that we've been working on throughout the season. We got our day off on Monday and Tuesday becomes our Wednesday.

``It's one of those things where you can't worry about whether we should've been playing on Sunday or how the NFL could've helped us out or anything like that. It's the playoffs. We move forward.''

It's no different from playing the Sunday after a Monday night game. The Eagles were 3-0 on Mondays this season and won the following Sunday each time.

Coach Andy Reid held a shorter practice Tuesday to allow the players more time to recover. The game plan was implemented during the outdoor session, so the team likely is headed indoors Wednesday and crowd noise will be pumped through speakers to simulate the noisy atmosphere expected at the Louisiana Superdome.

``You give them the opportunity to bounce back and then you get back into a normal look on Wednesday and Thursday,'' Reid said.

Since the league went to the current playoff format in 1990, the team with the extra week to prepare for the divisional round is 28-4 in the NFC. Three of those four upsets have occurred in the last five years, starting with the Eagles' victory at Chicago on Jan. 19, 2002.

Carolina won at St. Louis in 2004 and in Chicago last year and Green Bay beat the 49ers in 1996. Reid was an assistant coach with the Packers when they won at San Francisco 11 years ago.

``I know that you have to practice hard and do what you do,'' Reid said. ``You don't change a bunch of things. You go about coaching your guys up and your guys go about working and doing their thing and studying, and you go play.''

These Eagles are a much different unit than the one that lost in New Orleans on Oct. 15. In that game, Philadelphia trailed the Saints 17-3 at halftime before rallying to go ahead 24-17 in the fourth quarter - only to lose 27-24 on John Carney's 31-yard kick as time expired.

The biggest change is at quarterback. Garcia has replaced an injured Donovan McNabb, leading the Eagles to six straight wins after losing his first start.

An offense that used to rely heavily on the pass is more balanced now with Brian Westbrook getting a bigger workload, and receiver Donte' Stallworth is healthy after missing his return game to New Orleans with a hamstring injury.

``We have to be more disciplined in certain areas,'' Garcia said. ``You can't afford to give them a short field like we did with New York. We have to be better as an offense in sustaining drives and trying to keep their offense off the field. Their defense has done a great job this year also in not allowing teams to convert third downs. It's just one of those things where efficiency is going to be a must.''Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.