A 12-year-old cousin who lives in South Jersey hit me with this one: “Why do the Eagles eat their cereal out of the box?”

“Okay,” I bit, “Why?”

“Because the closer they get to the bowl, they choke.”

This morning, the Eagles can eat their Wheaties from the bowl. They beat the Atlanta Falcons with surprising ease, 27-10, in a game that was only suspenseful if you gave credence to the Fox commentators whose job it was to keep you from changing the channel.

The Falcons, of course, are a mediocre team that scored just three more points of offense than they gave up on defense all season. Their presence in the NFC Championship Game should have been viewed as an embarrassment, but instead the game was heralded as a matchup of great quarterbacks. It seems that the football press just can’t understand that Michael Vick is nothing more than a younger, southpaw version of Kordell Stewart.

The Eagles’ defense didn’t really stuff the Falcons’ much-touted rushing game, they just made it irrelevant. Atlanta did okay on the ground, gaining 100 yards in 27 carries, but like all teams in big games that can run but not pass, they couldn’t score. Once the Eagles got ahead by 10 points in the third quarter, the Falcons gave up trying to run the ball.

The key to the Eagles’ defensive success was that their aggressive backs and safeties avoided making the common mistake of waiting to see what Vick would do and then trying to react to it. Instead, they forced him into doing something quickly, which is not what Michael Vick does well.

Early on, for instance, the Eagles were getting a hard outside rush out of defensive end Jevon Kearse, which the Falcons countered by having their speedy back, Warrick Dunn, run through Kearse’s vacated spot on a counter play. The play was designed to not only to take advantage of the Eagles’ aggressiveness but to force them to stop rushing Vick so hard to his left (the left-handed QB runs most of his sprint-outs to that side of the field).

But the Eagles would not hold back Kearse, and middle linebacker Jeremiah Trotter – their leading tackler on the day with eight – moved right into the Kearse’s spot in anticipation of Dunn. With Dunn shut down, Kearse and company went to work on Vick, sacking him four times, knocking him down four other times, and tipping one pass incomplete. The Falcons never could establish a rhythm and made only one sustained drive for a score, 70 yards just before the half for their only touchdown. They gained just 132 yards all the rest of the afternoon.

On offense, all the Eagles had to do was be patient and be themselves. Though Donovan McNabb ran the ball 10 times, his rushing yards weren’t really a big factor. For the most part, he used his mobility to stutter-step tacklers and give his receivers a chance to break into the open. Twice in key situations, he hit Brian Westbrook coming out of the backfield for key first downs. (Westbrook was the Eagles’ leading receiver with five catches.)

When close to the Atlanta goal line, McNabb didn’t try to force the ball to a wideout, but instead flipped a short pass to tight end Chad Lewis, who scored two touchdowns on just 5 yards’ worth or receptions.

It was the coolest, most polished performance of McNabb’s postseason career and sent out the unmistakable signal that if the Eagles don’t win the Super Bowl, it won’t be because of a choke.

***

Last night, the Steelers gave as impressive a lesson as you’ll ever see in how to win the stats and lose the game. They out gained the Patriots 388 yards to 322, out rushed them 163 to 126, sacked Tom Brady twice for 11 yards compared to one sack of Ben Roethlisberger for just 1 yard, led in first downs, 19 to 18, and led in time of possession, 31:31 to 28:29. Yet the final score, 41-27 Pats, looked even closer than it was.

The difference in the game? Two huge penalties in the first half, and Ben Roethlisberger’s three interceptions.