Saints Seek Playoff Breakthrough Today : NFC: They will try to beat the Eagles for their first postseason victory.

It has been quite a holiday season for the New Orleans Saints.

“We traveled on Christmas Day, we practice on New Year’s Day and if things go the way I hope they will, we’ll still be at it heading toward Mardi Gras,” Saint defensive lineman Jim Wilks said.

The Saints (12-4) will play the Philadelphia Eagles (11-5) today, seeking their first postseason victory after three failures.

The Eagles also will be trying to end a playoff losing streak, extending to 1980. Three consecutive losses in playoff openers cost coach Buddy Ryan his job two years ago.

“That doesn’t matter to me,” Eagle Coach Rich Kotite said. “What I’m concerned about is the 1992 Eagles, where we are right now, how we got here, the way in which we’re playing and the way we’re approaching this game.”

The game matches two of the NFL’s top defenses. New Orleans led the league with 57 sacks and fewest points against (202) and ranked second in the NFC in overall defense. The Eagles were third in total defense in the NFC, and had 56 sacks.

On offense, Philadelphia is sixth overall in the league and the Saints are 14th.

“Our running game has been a big disappointment,” Saint Coach Jim Mora said. “It wouldn’t scare anybody. I know it wouldn’t scare our defense.”

New Orleans lost its season opener to Philadelphia, 15-13. During that game, Philadelphia rushed for 186 yards--the most given up by the Saints this season--as Herschel Walker got 114. The Saints won all 10 of their games when they held opponents to fewer than 100 yards rushing.

The Eagles have practiced amid recorded crowd noise to simulate the hostile situation they will face in the Superdome.

“All we concern ourselves with is what we have to do,” Kotite said. “If we do what we’re supposed to do, we can take care of crowd noise and momentum.”

“It’s all or nothing for both teams, and I think we’ll play well.”