Eagles and Cowboys Won’t Be Charming Third Time Around : NFC: These teams love to talk up the rivalry, but Aikman and Cunningham could take over spotlight.

For the third, final, and most important time this season, the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys have the pleasure today of squaring off against their currently most-hated foes--who happen to be each other.

This NFC divisional playoff game amounts to a simple grudge match.

Even though the Cowboys and Eagles last played each other in the playoffs in 1980, these are teams that need no postseason incentives to pummel one another and keep the fires burning.

And besides their mutual dislike, the Cowboys (13-3) and Eagles (12-5) have measured themselves against one another all season long in the brawling NFC East.

The Eagles, who finished one game behind Dallas in the division, hit their peak in October, in a Monday night rout of Dallas at Veterans Stadium that raised their record to 4-0.

Then Dallas seized control of the division--and sent the Eagles into a monthlong funk--Nov. 1 in Dallas, when the Cowboys stomped the Eagles in the rematch.

Round 3 is in Texas Stadium, and this is the one that gets the winner a berth in the NFC championship game.

The pregame rhetoric has been highlighted by the public enmity between Dallas tailback Emmitt Smith and Eagle safety Andre Waters, who was activated from the injured-reserve list Friday.

Smith, who says the heavy-hitting, oft-fined Waters has taken cheap shots at his knees, was bottled up in the first game, then ripped through the Eagles for 163 yards in Dallas’ victory this season. Waters has called Smith a coward.

“That will be settled on the field from one goal to the other,” Smith said in Dallas. “The game won’t be settled by talking.

“We’ll have to run the ball effectively to beat the Eagles. I got a few big plays the last time we played when they blitzed.”

Beyond this posturing, the most intriguing drama probably will be played out by two high-profile quarterbacks--the Eagles’ Randall Cunningham and the Cowboys’ Troy Aikman, who face two of the toughest defenses in the league.

Cunningham, who has long been plagued by whispers that he can’t win the big game, actually has an edge in that category over Aikman. Cunningham is also 9-1 against Dallas.

Last week against the New Orleans Saints, Cunningham led the Eagles to the team’s first postseason victory since they beat--you guessed it--Dallas in 1980. Before rallying the Eagles from a 20-7 deficit for the 36-20 victory in New Orleans, Cunningham had been 0-3 in the playoffs.

But it was in the loss to Dallas this season that Cunningham hit his lowest point.

Befuddled by Dallas’ active defense, Cunningham was benched in the second half. Cunningham sat out the next game, too, yielding to backup Jim McMahon, before regaining his job and his touch in December.

“It’s a memory that I’ll remember because when you get benched, it’s not a good situation,” Cunningham said. “They say you can learn something by it.

“I didn’t learn anything by being benched. I got more frustrated. I know now that if I go out and play like Randall wants to play, that won’t happen anymore.”

Aikman, meanwhile, will be starting his first NFL playoff game.

Because of a late-season injury suffered against--you guessed it--the Eagles, last season, Aikman was replaced by backup Steve Beuerlein for the Cowboys’ two playoff games until relieving Beuerlein in Dallas’ second-round loss to Detroit.

Aikman has been injured twice by the Eagles’ big pass rush, threw three interceptions in the Eagles’ victory this season, and once was sacked 11 times by the Eagles in one game.

“The talk . . . will be that the last time we beat ‘em was a fluke,” Aikman said. “It also will be about Aikman’s first playoff start.

“I don’t feel I have anything to prove against the Eagles. I’m looking forward to it. I’m not all froze up because it’s just a playoff game.”

Dallas Coach Jimmy Johnson doesn’t seem to be worried about Aikman’s big-game experience in the Cowboys’ first home playoff game since 1983.

“Troy can’t be intimidated one iota. If you think otherwise, you don’t know Troy Aikman.

“Playoff experience is overrated. We’ve been in a lot of crucial games. We play in the NFC East and we’ve been in the big games.”