Not the Alamo for Eagles fans, but close

They were the Eagles faithful, the true believers who, ignoring the omens of playoff doom, got on planes Friday to Dallas, hearts swollen with hope underneath their green jerseys.

There was Giovanni Caranci, who grew up in Philadelphia and now has four cheesesteak restaurants in Phoenix. He shelled out $1,000 for the trip. "There was no doubt in my mind the Eagles were going to win that game," Caranci said.

There was Patrick Moeller, hanging out in the parking lot with his Eagles One RV, wired to play the Eagles fight song and the theme from Rocky. He dared to dream of a crushing blow of vindication.

"First play from scrimmage, let's go 40 or 50 yards downfield," said Moeller, a developer from Moorestown. "Go for it all."

And there was Roy Johnston, a financial consultant from Exton and self-described "fanatical" fan, who said he also had gone to Dallas for the Eagles' last two playoff games there - both losses. After the 1996 game, a blizzard closed airports and stranded him and his son in Dallas for two days, with nothing to wear but their Eagles gear.

"We just had to take our lumps," he said before kickoff Saturday night. "I'm hoping it's different this time."

With the Eagles coming off a 24-0 pasting by the Dallas Cowboys to end the regular season, there were signs that a lot of Eagles fans weren't exactly overflowing with optimism.

Dave Smith of Baltimore was trying to unload tickets in Philadelphia, thinking he could depend on the bitter Eagles-Cowboys rivalry to gin up interest. In the end, he expected to be stuck with a couple of thousand dollars' worth of seats.

"No response at all," he said. "I'd give it to 'em at cost. Nobody ever called me."

Moeller knows about this rivalry up close. Instead of driving Eagles One himself, he deputized two of his employees, John McHale and Dan Mooney, to do it for him.

Mooney and McHale are lifelong fans of Dallas, though. Last week, they parked the bus outside the Cowboys practice facility and decked it out with Cowboys flags and a sign: "We Stole the Bus."

McHale, 6-foot-8 and more than 300 pounds, dares to attend Eagles home games in Cowboys gear. "Threats but nothing physical," he said. "The occasional beer."

A friend who's an Eagles fan once emptied a cup on the head of former Dallas coach Jimmy Johnson.

"Except, it wasn't beer," McHale said. "That was a buddy of mine, unfortunately. Not classy, no - but then, he's an Eagles fan."

On Saturday, it was lonely in the stands for Philadelphia supporters: "I've been going to away games for six years," Moeller said. "It was the least amount of Eagles fans I've ever seen."

But there were the resolute ones, like Johnston, who follows the Birds with the zeal of the converted. Born in Boston, raised to root for the Patriots, he became an Eagles season-ticket holder after moving to Philadelphia in 1969.

"I tell the story that Boston was my No. 1 team. I settled here, they became my No. 2 team," Johnston said. "Now it's evolved to the point where I hate them as much as Dallas."

That's hardly surprising. After the Eagles lost the 2005 Super Bowl, Johnston's son Chad, now 37, had to have the Patriots logo tattooed on one of his shoulders to settle a bet.

"Believe me, his mother was not happy," Johnston said. "But he said, 'Dad, you always taught me when you make a commitment, you've got to live up to it.' "

It could have been worse: The original wager called for a tattoo on the backside. And Chad added his own touch - an eagle about to clutch the Patriots logo in its talons.

For the faithful Philadelphia few, Saturday's game offered some early flashes of hope, with the long touchdown pass from Michael Vick. Then came the rest of the second quarter.

"Boy, did the roof fall in," Johnston said in a telephone call at halftime. "Of course, I am taking plenty of heat here, being virtually the only Eagles fan in my entire section."

The taunting got worse as the game went on and the Eagles absorbed a 34-14 beating. The stoic Philadelphia fans expected no less, knowing how Dallas fans are treated in Philadelphia.

"We'll spit on you" was a predictably popular jeer, given the controversy over an Eagles employee's spitting on the Cowboys star. "Yankee, go home" was another one.

"There was absolutely nothing you could say back," Caranci said.

Yesterday, the humbled Eagles fans made their way to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, trying to digest another bitter ending and, same as every year, debating how much to blame quarterback Donovan McNabb.

"It's like a movie you see over and over again," Caranci said. But nobody was talking about turning his back on the Birds.

"We'll be there next year again," Caranci said. "In the stands, hoping to God we get over the hump again."