EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - In the theater of the absurd, Tiki Barber couldn't hang onto the ball, Matt Bryant couldn't kick it and, still, the New York Giants couldn't lose.

Not even with four turnovers, three mishaps in the red zone and two phantom holding penalties that wiped out touchdowns.

Yesterday, on a day they had to be, the Giants were unbeatable in their own way. Forging through a multitude of offensive mistakes, they landed in the playoffs with a hard-to-imagine 10-7 overtime victory over the Philadelphia Eagles at Giants Stadium.

More amazingly, the guys who kept them from winning in regulation - Barber and Bryant - were the guys who won it in overtime.

Barber countered three lost fumbles, one inside the Eagles' 5-yard line, with a career-best 203 rushing yards.

Bryant, a 27-year-old rookie kicker from Baylor, missed a 36-yard field goal and dinged an extra point off the right upright before hitting a 39-yarder to win the game 5:10 into overtime.

Four weeks after the Giants had been written off at 6-6, they not only have new playoff life, but a four-game winning streak to go with it. This was redemption all around.

"We said a while ago - it's over when we say it's over and that is what this team showed," Giants coach Jim Fassel said.

At 10-6, the Giants will sit back today to learn their destination in the NFC playoffs. If the Atlanta Falcons (9-5-1) win in Cleveland, the Giants will get a sixth seed. If the Falcons lose, the Giants land a fifth seed. Either way, they're on the road from here on out.

The 12-4 Eagles, meanwhile, will fidget over lost opportunity. They could have locked up the No. 1 seed in the NFC and home-field advantage through the playoffs with a win. Now they need the New York Jets to beat the Green Bay Packers (12-3) today in this same stadium to send the playoffs through Veterans Stadium. If the Packers win, the playoffs run through frigid Lambeau Field.

Either way, the Eagles get a first-round bye, which is valuable time for injured quarterback Donovan McNabb, who missed the last six games of the regular season with a broken ankle.

The Eagles had their chances yesterday. David Akers, who had made 23 of 24 field goals inside 40 yards, missed a potential game-winner from 35 yards with less than two minutes left in regulation.

Philadelphia won the coin toss for overtime, but a 32-yard kickoff return to their 45 went to waste when Giants safety Shaun Williams intercepted A.J. Feeley at the New York 37.

The more-desperate Giants outplayed the Eagles by a wide margin. They amassed 461 yards against the NFL's No. 2 defense, ran 75 plays to Philadelphia's 49 and had a 13-minute edge in time of possession.

"The game never should have been that close," Giants defensive end Michael Strahan said.

It was close because the Giants made it that way. In the end, the Giants won because Fassel resisted temptation and didn't replace Barber with backup Ron Dayne.

"Everyone was asking me if we should get Dayne in, and I said, 'Nope, he's [Barber] the guy who got us here; he's the guy who's going to stay in and win it with us," Fassel said.

"That's the same thing I told Matt Bryant. He missed a field goal, he shanked a kickoff and chipped a PAT, and I told him, 'I have no options here, I've shown a lot of faith in you, you owe me one,' and he made it."

Barber said the fumbles might have resulted from "trying too hard." But he was appreciative that the Giants let him keep trying. The most telling comment he heard on the sideline came from running backs coach Eric Studesville.

"He said, 'You know, we rode you all the way here, and we're going to ride you all the way through.' You know it was encouraging to hear that. They never gave up on me."

Barber got the ball on each of the Giants' six overtime plays leading to Bryant's field goal. A 15-yard, unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Philadelphia helped by pushing the Giants into Eagles territory. The Giants were even able to dodge another fumble on a botched handoff from quarterback Kerry Collins to Barber, who recovered it himself.

As good as Barber was - he had 276 scrimmage yards - the Giants also won because of Jeremy Shockey, their inspirational rookie tight end.

Shockey led the team with 10 catches for 98 yards and scored their only touchdown that wasn't overturned by penalty. He showed his toughness when he went across the middle for a 20-yard reception in the fourth-quarter touchdown drive and took a hard hit from Eagles safety Michael Lewis.

His 7-yard touchdown catch a few moments later came when he wrestled a Collins pass from safety Brian Dawkins in the end zone on an Eagles blitz.

The Giants had lost earlier touchdown passes to Charles Stackhouse (6 yards) and Amani Toomer (43 yards) on holding penalties that appeared questionable on replay.

But on this day, there was nothing the Giants couldn't overcome.