If Brett Favre could wave his magic wand, he would take back the interception that ended his season. Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

PHILADELPHIA -- Well, sometimes the magic works and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes, when things fall just right, you end up looking like Harry Potter. And sometimes, when they don't, you look like Mrs. Potter, my third-grade teacher, who was nothing to look at, believe you me.

The Green Bay Packers' magical postseason came to a screeching halt Sunday when the not-so-magical Philadelphia Eagles pulled something, out of who knows where, to beat the Packers in an NFC Divisional game.

The Packers, truth be told, should have won this game. They had it in their hands. It was sewn up. In the bag.

But then, almost painfully, the Packers let it go. Bit by bit, decision by misdecision, blown play by blown play until, late in the fourth quarter, an unconscionable lapse by the Packers' defense allowed the Eagles to convert a fourth-and-26 play from the Philadelphia 26.

And then, after a Philadelphia field goal forced overtime, Brett Favre, the Pack's magician of a quarterback, fired up an unconscionable pass that floated into the arms of Eagles defensive back Brian Dawkins, and the magic of the Packers season was no more.

That miracle win by Arizona, on the last play of the regular season, that knocked Minnesota out of the postseason and put the Packers in? Means nothing now.

The gutsy win last weekend over the Seattle Seahawks in the wild-card round, when Al Harris picked off Matt Hasselbeck in overtime and ran it in for a touchdown in overtime? Forget it. Meaningless now.

All the talk of destiny? Please.

"We believe in the Eagles," said Eagles tight end Chad Lewis.

"You talk about some destiny out here," kicker David Akers said. "We got guys out there with a lot of heart and they went all the way down to the wire to show it."

The truth about all that Packers magic, of course, is that there was no magic in the first place. A little bit of luck, maybe. Some good play by some good players.

But destiny and magic and all that were no foe for bad play calling Sunday, not to mention just plain bad play. And when you have bad play and bad play-calling against a team like the Eagles, there's nothing magical about it. Even the Packers realize that now.

"It's a blessing we were even in the playoffs," said Packers defensive end Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila, "or even made it to the second round. So I wouldn't say it's that disappointing."

To Packers fans, though, Sunday's 20-17 loss was devastating because, really, the Packers had this game won. Even without the magic.

Even when Packers coach Mike Sherman eschewed a field goal and failed to get his team into the end zone at the end of the first half, ending up short on a fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard-line with two minutes left, the Packers had it won.

Even when Sherman decided to give up the ball on fourth-and-1 with 2:30 left in the game, giving the Eagles the ball with one last chance to tie, Green Bay had this game won.

Even when the Eagles pulled off that fourth and 26 after they got the ball back in the fourth quarter -- Donovan McNabb connecting with Freddie Mitchell for 28 yards -- and even when they kicked a field goal to tie the score and send the game into overtime, the Packers weren't dead. They still had a chance.

But then Favre found himself under a heavy rush, and he heaved up the dying quail of an interception, and the Eagles, finally, put an end to all the talk of magic when Akers nailed a 31-yard field goal in overtime for the win.

So the Packers' five-game winning streak and their magical reputation died at the hands of the Eagles, a gritty, all-too-real team that somehow found some magic of its own in the cold of Lincoln Financial Field.

"We don't need fate," Mitchell said. "We have Five [McNabb]."

Sunday, reality took over here in Philadelphia, and it wore the green of the Eagles. The old Pack magic was no match for it.

John Donovan is a senior writer for SI.com.