Bermudian Antonio Pierce is less than optimistic about the New York Giants’ chances against high-flying Philadelphia Eagles in the opening round of the NFL play-offs this Sunday.“They (the Eagles) have a running back (Brian Westbrook) who should be in the Pro Bowl,” Pierce told reporters at Giants Stadium yesterday.

“They’ve got a big offensive line, probably the biggest in the league.

“The way they’ve been playing, it doesn’t seem anybody has been doing well against them the last five games. The way things look with the Eagles, it doesn’t look good for us.”

The Eagles swept their last five games, led by Westbrook and back-up quarterback Jeff Garcia, to finish the season with a 10-6 record and claim the NFC East title.

The injury-riddled Giants started the campaign 6-2 before scrambling into the play-offs with an 8-8 record.

“We’re going in hoping we can give them a great little challenge and see how the chips fall,” added middle linebacker Pierce, who joined the Giants from the Washington Redskins at the start of last season.

“We’re taking on an us-against-the-world mentality.”

Whether the reverse psychology works in the Giants favour is likely to boil down to whether New York can slow Philadelphia’s offence and handle the defensive pressure the Eagles are known for.

“We have a lot to prove. Obviously, we’re the underdogs,” said Giants head coach Tom Coughlin.

The Giants won 27-21 in Philadelphia early in the season before losing to the visiting Eagles 36-22 last month.

Help might be on the way for the Giants after regular guard Rich Seubert, sidelined for three weeks with a shin injury, practised yesterday.

Tight end Jeremy Shockey was also hopeful his injured ankle would heal enough to allow him to practice today.

Coughlin said he expected the Eagles to concentrate on stopping running back Tiki Barber, who rushed for 234 yards in last week’s win over the Redskins.

That could mean putting the onus on New York’s struggling young quarterback Eli Manning, the player Eagles defensive end Trent Cole said this week could be rattled by the pressure brought by Philadelphia’s blitz-happy defensive coordinator Jim Johnson.

“It’s an aggressive defensive style. There’s always something new and different for you,” Coughlin said about the Eagles.

“You might play a game and have, for example, 15 or 16 pressures in that game, and 10 of them be 10 different types. There’s not any one specific thing you can zoom in on.”

Giants centre Shaun O’Hara said: “Some defences are only good at doing certain pass-rushing blitzes. The Eagles team does a good job of running a plethora of different blitzes.

“A lot of teams aren’t capable of doing that because their players can’t adjust and can’t handle the volume of blitzes so they do a good job with that, which is what makes it so tough.”

Coughlin insisted, however, that the Giants belonged in the play-offs despite posting the worst record of all the teams in the post season.

“We’re apologising to no one. We’re here,” said Coughlin.

“I think everybody starts zero-zero. That’s the way this is designed. The important thing is to get into the play-offs and we’ve accomplished that.”

The Giants beat the Washington Redskins 34-28 in their regular season finale to secure a wild card berth.

“That really was a play-off game for us,” Coughlin said. “Win and you’re in. Lose and you go home. And that serves us well right now.”