Eagles starting middle linebacker Levon Kirkland, whose current tonnage is a more well-guarded secret than the formula for McDonald's secret Big Mac sauce, weighs more than any of the members of the Tampa Bay front seven. In fact, the 11-year veteran whose career was resurrected this season, has the weight advantage on more than half the NFL's starting defensive linemen.

	Levon Kirkland was third on the Eagles with 76 tackles this season.

And to Tampa Bay defensive end Simeon Rice, who checks in at perhaps 265 pounds (if the butcher has his thumb on the scale), that says something.

"They're more like the sledgehammer," said Rice, "and we feel like we are more like a knife. We're going to slice and dice you. The Eagles, they kind of want to bludgeon an offense, you know? Different strokes for different folks. The bottom line, though, is we both get the job done. I mean, what's the difference how you kill an offense, as long as you kill it?"

Indeed, for yet another season, the Tampa Bay and Philadelphia defenses are guilty of first-degree assault. They have been murder on opposition offenses, and that doesn't figure to dramatically change in the NFC championship tilt, where points almost certainly will be about as rare as a sober Eagles fan.

In posting a 12-4 record in the regular season, Tampa Bay ranked first in the NFL in total defense and defense versus the pass, allowed the fewest points (196) in the league, were sixth in sacks, third in third-down efficiency, tied for first with a plus-17 turnover differential, and scored five touchdowns on interception or fumble returns.

The Eagles, also 12-4, were No. 4 in total defense overall, were second in points surrendered (241), had the second most sacks, topped the league in third-down efficiency and were fourth in turnover differential, at plus-14.

If there is a common denominator for the two units, which both walk loudly and carry some big schtick, it is in their aggregate speed and quickness. The disparity in size certainly doesn't keep the Eagles from effectively running to the ball or from closing nearly as quickly on a quarterback as do the Bucs.

Sixty-something coordinators Jim Johnson of the Eagles and Tampa Bay's Monte Kiffin, a couple of defensive schemers who continue to be somehow overlooked when the subject turns to genius plotters, hammer home many of the same principles. But the ends -- or, more accurately, the ability to keep the opposition out of the end zone -- are arrived at with clearly different means by the two suffocating defenses.

No team plays more straight-up defense, their famed "Cover Two" scheme with very little variation, than Tampa Bay. It is a defense that relies more on its superior athletes, most of them undersized for their respective positions, than on camouflage or subterfuge. The Eagles, despite similarly skilled players, are more about smoke and mirrors, start blitzing from the moment they step off the team bus, and rely on their pass rush to get to the quarterback before he can find the vulnerable creases in the secondary.

Even with the shared team speed, the blueprints are the equivalent of vanilla and chocolate, acknowledge quarterbacks who have faced both schemes in the past few years. "Obviously, they are both very effective, right?" said St. Louis quarterback Kurt Warner. "But they get where they want to get to in different ways. With the Eagles, you're going to see stuff you see nowhere else, like both corners coming on the blitz at the same time. They do a great job of not tipping you on the (pre-snap) read and then, whoosh, here they all come. Tampa Bay wants to get to you with its front (four) people. But they are just as punishing and they aren't going to give you the big play."

Tampa Bay weakside linebacker Derrick Books, the league's defensive player of the year for 2002, was espousing earlier this week about some of the similarities between the two units and those start at the top.

	“	They're more like the sledgehammer and we feel like we are more like a knife. We're going to slice and dice you. The Eagles, they kind of want to bludgeon an offense, you know? Different strokes for different folks. The bottom line, though, is we both get the job done. I mean, what's the difference how you kill an offense, as long as you kill it? ”
		— Simeon Rice, Bucs defensive end on the difference between Tampa Bay's defense and Philadelphia's

Not surprisingly, given their old-school backgrounds, Johnson and Kiffin both want to stop the run first, to force offenses into third-and-long, where they can attack the pocket and cultivate turnovers. But the Bucs will stop the run by slanting linebackers, relying on tackle Warren Sapp (all but invisible of late) to anchor the middle and occupy blockers, and counting on players to disengage quickly and find the football.

Philadelphia uses about as many run-blitzes as it does blitzes on third down, wants to funnel the run toward the behemoth Kirkland on early snaps, but still counts on penetration from tackles Corey Simon and Darwin Walker. In the secondary, where everyone but strong safety Blaine Bishop is headed to the Pro Bowl, the Eagles play more "Cover One" than virtually any other club in the league. And they can do so because cornerbacks Troy Vincent (who has slipped a little this year) and Bobby Taylor are big, physical cover guys, and because free safety Brian Dawkins is so versatile.

In fact, the safety position reflects another major difference in the schemes, several offensive coordinators pointed out.

Where the Bucs are more apt to bring strong safety John Lynch down closer to the line of scrimmage, to create an "eight in the box" front for stuffing the run, Johnson will use Dawkins in myriad creative fashions. He can blitz, or move out and cover a wide receiver in the slot man-to-man, or simply roam the deep secondary. One offensive coordinator from an NFC team referred to Dawkins as a "wind up toy," because he is "all over the place."

Certainly the high blitz quotient for the Eagles, and the fact they simply do not tackle as well as the Tampa Bay defenders, makes Philadelphia far more vulnerable to the big play. Philadelphia surrendered an astonishing 17 plays of 10 yards or more in a divisional round victory over Atlanta last weekend, yet the bottom line is that the Falcons never got into the end zone.

Tampa Bay knows all about that, of course, having failed to net an offensive touchdown in its last three matchups against the Philadelphia defense. But the Eagles offense knows full well it faces a daunting task in the Tampa Bay defense as well. The Bucs are incredibly quick to the ball, don't "bust" many coverages or miss assignments, and are wonderfully disciplined.

Even with the cartoonish Sapp, more caricature than crusher over the final month of the season, the Bucs take things seriously. Like the Eagles, they are a resourceful bunch, their aim to plunder and pillage an offense. Speed kills, in their case, and they are familiar enough with the Eagles offense to know where to attack with quickness.

"We can put the dagger in you and take it out and you'll never even know what happened," said Rice.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com.