New Orleans ? One good story has to end here this weekend.

Will it be that of a team that rallied around a backup quarterback who had been all but written off, then saved a season that looked like it was going nowhere?

Or will it be that of a team supposed to finish last, but ended up surprising the league and delighting the victory-starved fans of a region recovering from an epic natural disaster?

The Philadelphia Eagles (11-6) and the New Orleans Saints (10-6) both have had remarkable seasons, and they’ll converge tonight in the Louisiana Superdome, a stadium with its own storied past.

“It’s been a good ride so far. I don’t want it to end,” Saints running back Deuce McAllister said. “So it’s up to us to make plays and not let it end.”

McAllister, whose upbringing in central Mississippi gives him a special bond with fans in the region, has never been to the NFL playoffs. One victory gets him to the NFC championship game, which would be new ground for the 40-year-old Saints franchise.

NFC title games have become old hat for the Eagles under coach Andy Reid. They’ve been to four of the last five, winning once. They’re still looking for that first Super Bowl victory, but this didn’t look like their year when superstar quarterback Donovan McNabb went out for the season with a fluky knee injury.

But reserve quarterback Jeff Garcia has been a good fit for the Eagles, having thrived under a similar offense in San Francisco before a pair of miserable seasons in Cleveland and Detroit.