Eagles Defense: “We’re Not Quite Dead Yet.”

On a “South Park” episode a few years ago about the odd trend of dance-offs, Butters holds out joining a dance team because he is still haunted by the memory of a tragic accident. Butters eventually relents, only to watch in horror as his shoe flies off during a competition and indirectly kills his opponents.

“No Jesus!” he cries. “Not again.”

I bring this clip up because it popped into my head while I was watching Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme turn the ball over five times against the Eagles Sunday. When we last saw our intrepid hero, he was coughing up six turnovers in a shocking playoff loss to the Cardinals, in January. If you’re keeping score at home, that’s 11 turnovers for Delhomme in a span of less than seven quarters of play.

Wow.

Forget 7-11. How about 11-7. At what point did Jake think to himself, “No Jesus! Not again!”? After the second turnover? Fourth?

But enough lame Delhomme jokes. The point is Delhomme single-handedly may have revived a sleeping Fantasy giant: The Iggles defense.

Experts smartly predicted the demise of the Iggles D heading into this season. Once a surefire No. 1 Fantasy D, the Iggles lost coordinator Jim Johnson, middle linebacker Stewart Bradley and safety Brian Dawkins from a unit that ranked third in the NFL last year. That’s their coach, their signal-caller and their emotional leader.

Then, for the season opener against the Panthers, the unit lost linebacker Joe Mays and started a rookie at free safety who had played corner in college (Macho Harris). As a result, Fantasy gurus from Westchester to Venice Beach last week urged Fantasy owners to do something they have rarely done over the last decade: Sit the Iggles D on the bench.

Woops.

Before halftime Sunday, the unit had already accounted for two touchdowns, one on defense and the other on special teams. For the game, the Iggles tallied seven turnovers and five sacks. They also held the Panthers to under 200 yards of offense and 10 points. In sum, they posted a 43-point Fantasy day (depending on your league scoring) -- a total they may never have reached even in the days of Hugh Douglas, Jeremiah Trotter, and that fan who used to point the the green arrow wide to distract opposing field goal kickers at The Vet.

“They had numbers of what you might find in a video game,” opined CBSSports.com (And yes, I just quoted the ‘Fantasy Analysis’ section of my league’s home site). “They were flat out insane.”

It’s hard to imagine the Iggles D enjoying so much success again this season. They were good on Sunday, but they were also the recipients of some more Delhomme cookies. Drew Brees, whom the Iggles face this week, is not such a generous chef.

The Iggles D may in fact sink to the level of Fantasy backup at some point this season, but for one glorious basterd of a week, they were a true No. 1 once again.

Because I don’t have the unit on my roster, I think I speak for Jake Delhomme and our favorite blond cartoon character when I say: “Not again!”