Eagles eye payback vs. Saints

NEW ORLEANS — Saints coach Sean Payton dismisses the premise that the Eagles could derive extra motivation from the widespread perception that New Orleans ran up the score when they met in November. “My question would be: We’re all playing hard in these divisional playoff games, right?” Payton began, referring to today’s rematch in the divisional round of the NFC playoffs. “Are you going to play harder (because of a perceived slight)?” Still, Payton expects a more competitive affair than the Saints’ 48-7 blowout of the Eagles on Nov. 18, which gave Philadelphia the dubious distinction of becoming the first reigning Super Bowl champion to lose by that wide a margin in the following regular season. The Eagles appeared to be sinking fast when their loss in New Orleans dropped them to 4-6. But they’ve rallied to win 6-of-7, including a road victory against the Los Angeles Rams that helped New Orleans capture the conference’s top seed. “They’ve kind of been in a playoff role really going back to those games, needing to win to get in,” Payton said. “So it’s impressive.” Now the Eagles, who opened as 10-point underdogs this week, can ruin the Saints’ Super Bowl dreams with a second straight road upset. The Eagles survived last week’s wild card round with a 1615 victory in which quarterback Nick Foles engineered a late scoring drive capped by a fourthdown touchdown pass. And that only stood up after Chicago kicker Cody Parkey’s “double-doink” miss on a field-goal attempt that hit both the upright and crossbar in the final seconds. Philadelphia likely will need more offense in the Superdome, where the Saints averaged 37 points in Drew Brees’ seven home starts. “I assume they’ll come in as motivated as ever. Just like we’re going to come in as motivated as ever,” Brees said. “Just two really good teams about to play in a playoff game.”