LANDOVER, Md. - On paper - and in the papers - it looks as if the Eagles will catch the New York Giants at just the right time this Sunday.

There will be headlines all week about the freakish nightclub incident that left star wide receiver Plaxico Burress with a bullet hole in his thigh, and about linebacker Antonio Pierce’s role in the whole mysterious turn of events.

The Giants have a record of 11-1, good for a commanding lead in the NFC East. They travel to Dallas a week after playing the Eagles.

Meanwhile, key players like running back Brandon Jacobs and center Shaun O’Hara are playing hurt. Safety Sammy Knight and defensive tackle Fred Robbins aren’t playing at all.

On paper - and in the papers - the Giants should be the kind of mess the Eagles were in their post-Super Bowl season. You may recall that a problem-child wide receiver and a couple of injuries were enough to destroy the 2005 Eagles.

But no.

“The distraction gave us a win, 23-7,” Pierce said, referring to Burress’ gunplay Friday night and the Giants’ dominant play here yesterday against the Washington R-word.

Here’s a headline that seems too obvious to print: The Giants are an excellent Football team.

It is unclear just how that came to be. They were a pretty good team last year going into the playoffs as a wild card. They got hot at the right time, earning the right to be the final victim of the dynastic, undefeated New England Patriots.

The Giants somehow won that game - Burress, you may recall, caught the winning touchdown pass - and became a great team by doing it. That’s the reverse of the usual procedure, but it worked. All the Giants have done in 2008 is win 15 of the 16 meaningful games they’ve played.

They lost their two star defensive ends before the season, Michael Strahan to retirement and Osi Umenyiora to injury. They have endured Burress’ disruptive behavior, which includes everything from missed meetings to 911 calls to his home for domestic disturbances, and now an allegedly self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Instead of unraveling, as the Terrell Owens-plagued Eagles did, the Giants have gotten tighter.

“When we come into the office, as we call it, we go to work,” said O’Hara, a nine-year veteran out of Rutgers.

“We had a job to do,” Pierce said. “I’m a professional Football player. Come Sunday at 1 o’clock, when the whistle blows and you’re between those lines in the stadium, that’s the only focus you’ve got. That’s what this team always does: focus on our opponent and the challenge ahead.”

The Giants did the Eagles a favor by beating Washington, which is now 7-5 and easier to catch in the wild-card race. But that doesn’t change the fact that the Eagles almost have to beat the Giants in the Meadowlands to stay in that race.

The absence of Burress should be of some comfort. The 6-foot-5 receiver has played seven games as a Giant against the Eagles. He has caught 32 passes for 561 yards and five touchdowns.

His replacement, Domenik Hixon, caught 5 passes for 71 yards against the R-word here. He also let cornerback DeAngelo Hall snatch a pass from his grasp for an interception. He’s no Burress, but the 6-2 Hixon isn’t bad.

Not having Burress makes it a little easier on Jim Johnson’s defense, but that’s it. There will be no destructive fallout, not in this locker room.

Jacobs, the mammoth running back, said he talked on the phone with Burress yesterday.

“He’s doing fine,” Jacobs said. “He called me, laughing and grinning. I made a few jokes about the situation and he laughed, which is what I wanted to hear. If he could laugh, I knew he wasn’t down. And he shouldn’t be down. It was a mistake that happened and that’s that.”

It will be much more for Burress, who could face charges for illegal possession of a firearm - as well as the physical damage to his leg.

But the Giants, as a team, make a lie of the assumption that such incidents are automatically distractions for teammates.

“I’m not going to say it’s easy to get over the distractions,” defensive end Justin Tuck said, “but you’ve got other distractions when you’re on the field.

“It doesn’t affect us at all,” Jacobs said.

The Giants’ methodical victory over the R-word was testament to that. In miserable conditions, Eli Manning threw for 305 yards and a touchdown. Jacobs and Derrick Ward cranked out respectable running yards against Washington’s stacked-up defense. The Giants’ offensive line was as dominant here as it was at the Linc on Nov. 9.

On paper, the Eagles are catching the Giants at the right time. In reality, it turns out there is no right time. They will have to beat the best team in the NFL without any help from Plaxico Burress.

Contact columnist Phil Sheridan at 215-854-2844 or psheridan@phillynews.com.

Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/philsheridan.

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