NEW YORK -- Did someone say Miracle of the Ketchup Bottle?

We'll get to the other news of the weekend -- the sudden falling to the earth of the New Jersey teams, a brilliant piece of coaching by the Philadelphia defensive coordinator, the Vikings' tenuous renaissance, the greatest season for offensive rookies I remember, and the bravest performance of the weekend by an amazing football player -- but we'll start in Pittsburgh.

Actually, we'll start with the two wild-card races, just to get you warmed up. With three games to play (four for Carolina and Tampa Bay), there's more clarity in the AFC than in the NFC.

AFC (Three to qualify: One AFC East champion, two wild cards)

Indianapolis: 9-4 overall (8-2 in AFC)
Baltimore: 9-4 (7-3)
N.Y. Jets: 8-5 (6-4)
Miami: 8-5 (6-4)
New England: 8-5 (6-4)

How I see it: The Colts will not lose anymore, and they have Detroit and Jacksonville the next two weeks; they're in. ... The Ravens could catch Pittsburgh (10-3), which is at Baltimore and Tennessee in the next two weeks. ... If Baltimore wins the North, the Steelers win the other wild card by virtue of a gimme Cleveland game in Week 17. ... The AFC East is going to have two heartbroken teams. Only the division winner will make the playoffs. Flip a coin: I'll take the team playing the best defense: Miami. Incredible. Miami with a home playoff game.

NFC (Two wild cards to qualify)

Carolina: 9-3 overall (6-3 in NFC)
Dallas: 8-5 (6-4)
Atlanta: 8-5 (5-4)
Philadelphia: 7-5-1 (6-4)
Washington: 7-6 (6-4)
Chicago: 7-6 (5-5)
New Orleans: 7-6 (4-5)

How I see it: I like Carolina, but I don't trust the Panthers now as much as I do Atlanta, which is odd to say with the Falcons coming off a loss in New Orleans. ... The Panthers may have to win two of four against a tough slate to make it. ... I also don't see how Dallas recovers from that absurd loss in Pittsburgh. ... I see Philadelphia winning out (Cleveland, at Washington, winner-take-all with Dallas at home) and Atlanta edging Carolina on a tiebreaker for the other playoff spot.

Now for the subplots of the weekend:

• Tony Romo gets the loss in Pittsburgh. Romo and tight end Jason Witten both said the losing interception-returned-for-a-touchdown by DeShea Townsend was their fault. Witten looked like he slipped and read the route the wrong way coming out of his break on a slippery Heinz Field. Whatever. That ball, like so many others on the day by Romo, was thrown way off course, and it was the capper on the Steelers' 17-0 run in the final eight minutes to win.

There's no way Witten, had he broke right, would have been in position to catch this ball. So I put the blame on Romo. I assume it has to be part pinky, part weather, but this is only going to add to the perception Romo's not a big-game quarterback -- 19-of-36, 210 yards, one touchdown, three picks, one fumble -- though one of the picks was more Terrell Owens' laziness than a poor throw.

I don't buy that perception about Romo, by the way; I'm simply making the point that if the Cowboys don't make the playoffs, the thread of two straight playoff-opening losses and this horrible interception will begin to write the book on Romo. My other point is that Romo deserves the criticism, but let's let his career breathe before we label him some sort of A-Rod in the clutch.

This game will be dissected for days in Dallas and celebrated like few other Steelers wins ever -- and I mean that, because in neo-natal units across western Pennsylvania, nurses coo babies to sleep by cursing the Cowboys. But the Cowboys played it a little too safe for me in the fourth quarter.

With a 13-3 lead and 9:28 to play, on third-and-five from the Dallas 19, offensive coordinator Jason Garrett started to bleed the clock -- as it turned out, too soon. Romo handed to Tashard Choice, who was stopped for a loss of one. Within two minutes, the Steelers had a field goal, and Dallas went three-and-out, and Pittsburgh drove 67 yards for a touchdown, and then Romo made his fateful throw to Townsend.

Moral of the story: A 10-point leads on the road shouldn't be sat on with 10 minutes left. That didn't lose Dallas the game, certainly. But it didn't help.

• Wade Phillips sharpens r�sum� skills. What? Too early for this one? OK. We'll give it a week or two. Am I blaming him? Not at all. But it's not me Phillips has to worry about.

• Philadelphia defensive coordinator Jim Johnson and his men had a brilliant day -- and highlighted a big problem for the Giants. Maybe I wouldn't be writing this if Domenik Hixon catches the simplest deep ball he's ever had thrown to him in a football game, the sure touchdown on the first play of the second quarter. But the Eagles played a totally different defensive game with Plaxico Burress sidelined for New York, and it bodes ill for the Giants against tough defenses down the stretch (Dallas, Carolina, Minnesota).

When the Giants and Eagles played the first time this year -- a 36-31 Giant win four weeks ago -- you could see how Johnson consistently kept a safety deep, often to Burress' side of the field. "We had real matchup problems with Plaxico,'' Johnson told me after the Eagles' 20-14 win Sunday. "We always have. We had to double him a lot, and he was such a dominant force in the red zone.''

Burress had seven inches on the three Eagle corners he faced in the first game. Hixon is four inches taller than Sheldon Brown, Asante Samuel orLito Sheppard, but he's a beanpole, and you can jostle him and be physical with him. Burress not only had a Yao-versus-Kobe edge, but he knew how to box out in the old Michael Irvin way -- you know, without getting caught by the officials.

The other thing Burress' absence did to this game was allow the Eagles to be much more physical against the running game. You could see it right from the start. Brian Dawkins wrestled Kevin Boss like he was trying to impress Vince McMahon on one of the game's first snaps, a sign the Eagles were going to try to beat up the Giants. "No question about it,'' Johnson said. "We were going to be the more physical team today.'' The safety being in the box was hugely helpful.

First meeting: The Giants rushed for 219 yards, averaging 4.9 yards per rush. Second meeting: The Giants rushed for 88 yards, 3.7 per carry. "Our run lanes were so much better this time, and we didn't let Jacobs get out on the edge,'' Johnson said.

• Storm clouds gather over the Meadowlands. The Jets are this week's version of the cheap suit. Folded. Wrinkled. Fraudulent. They're 0-3 on the West Coast (San Diego, Oakland, San Francisco, with a game at Seattle in two weeks -- and let's not laugh at Seattle, the way the Seahawks played New England). It's going to be a tough pill for Woody Johnson to swallow after spending more money in football than any other owner in the offseason, to fall from 8-3 to out of the playoffs if they don't make it.

And the Giants, the other team at the Meadowlands ... No Burress. Maybe no Brandon Jacobs; Tiki Barber reported last night he may miss Sunday night's showdown in Dallas with a knee injury. And a weakened passing game. Maybe they've lost too many pieces, but I still think they're the best team in football.

• This offensive rookie class is the best I've ever seen. This is the first year in memory that two rookies have quarterbacked their teams to the brink of the playoffs. Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco are a combined 17-9. Ryan Clady, one of three starting rookie left tackles, has allowed a half-sack in 12 peerless starts for Denver. Seattle's John Carlson is one of the best tight ends to come out of the draft in years. Eddie Royal could finish with 80 catches for 1,000 yards in Denver. And the running backs. Chris Johnson (1,094), Matt Forte (1,081) and Steve Slaton (1,024) are 5-6-7 in the NFL rushing race.

Ryan would get my vote for Offensive Rookie of the Year if the balloting were this morning (the Falcons would be lost without him), but I'm someone who voted for Joe Thomas over Adrian Peterson a year ago, so I wouldn't rip you for going elsewhere with your pick. I'd probably go Ryan, Flacco, Clady, Forte, Johnson, Carlson, Slaton. Royal. Poor Slaton. He might gain 1,300 yards, and in another year, he might win it. This year he may get zero votes.

• Jared Allen is really mad at Gosder Cherilus, and the Vikings, by the way, are in first place. You probably saw the play -- Cherilus, from a kneeling position, lunging at Allen's knees as he ran cross-field to try to catch Daunte Culpepper on a scramble in the Vikings-Lions game in Detroit. Allen, the $72-million free-agent defensive end, went down as if shot and writhed in pain on the turf for a few seconds before getting up and going straight for Cherilus. Inflicting punishment was on his mind, from the looks of it.

"I still don't like it,'' he said an hour after the game, though clearly he wasn't going to share with me what he intended to do to exact revenge. "But you take care of that stuff on the field. He came up to me later in the game and sort of apologized for it, but ... Let's just say the Lions-Vikings rivalry is going to have a lot more meaning for me going into the future.'' In other words train your cameras on Allen and Cherilus the first time they meet in 2009.

Allen's feistiness has been vital for the Vikings, who now might have the ransacking Williamses in place for the rest of the season, depending on how difficult this Starcaps is for a Minnesota judge to divine, beginning this week. Tackles Kevin and Pat Williams, the centerpieces to the best run defense in football, were suspended for four weeks for violating the NFL's steroid policy by taking a diet pill with a substance, Bumetanide, that can be used as a masking agent. As long as their reinstatement lasts, their team will hold off the Bears and win the NFC North.

• I don't know how Wes Welker did what he did in Seattle. I mean this in a very positive way: In a business with a lot of interesting physical specimens, Welker is a freak of nature. Welker took the hit of a career last week against Pittsburgh across the middle, getting blown up by safety Ryan Clark on a vicious, but clean, hit. I wondered all week how Welker would respond. Would he miss any time? Call in sick? Beg his mother not to make him ever go out there again?

So he went to Seattle, caught 12 balls for 134 yards, added a two-point conversion catch on the decisive touchdown, and helped the Patriots come back to beat Seattle 24-21. Playing without Tom Brady, Welker has become Matt Cassel's ultimate security blanket and threatens to lead the NFL in receptions for the second-straight year. With 96 catches, he's four ahead of Houston's Andre Johnson with three games to play. A couple of weeks ago, I was talking with Texas Tech coach Mike Leach, who coached Welker in college. "He's indestructible,'' Leach said. Couldn't have said it better. I hope the Patriots realize Welker's incredible value.

The Fine Fifteen

1. New York Giants (11-2). What a weird way to clinch a division, licking wounds at home while Dallas choked in frigid Pittsburgh. G-men are 19-4 in the last 53 weeks. But one thing they have to be concerned with is how they struggled without the deep threat of Plaxico Burress. And that's not going to change. They've got the formidable, and angry, Dallas secondary to contend with next week, deep in the heart of Texas.

2. Tennessee (12-1). Titans not only clinched the division with the rout of the Browns. They also clinched a first-round bye. Now Jeff Fisher -- who told me earlier this year he's going to play the 16-game season all-out -- will have to make the same decision Tony Dungy's made for years: Do you take the foot off the gas in the last couple of weeks to avoid the risk of injury? No, coach, no. Don't do it.

3.Pittsburgh (10-3). My in-laws are from Pittsburgh, so I know what I'm talking about here: DeShea Townsend will never have to buy a shot and a beer in that town again.

4. Indianapolis (9-4). Haven't lost since the night of that weird rainout in Game 5 of the World Series.

5. Baltimore (9-4). Six minutes into what we all thought would be a good game, everyone's reaching for their clickers. That was the varsity against the JV last night.

6. Philadelphia (7-5-1). I know it's only two games, after a succession of bad ones, but this is not a team you want to be playing right now. Not with Brian Westbrook producing 166 yards a game over the last two weeks, not with Jim Johnson's defense playing superbly.

7. Tampa Bay (9-3). Lost at New Orleans, lost at Denver, lost at Dallas. Play at Carolina tonight. It's schneid-busting time. The Bucs are going to win a big roadie.

8. Denver (8-5). Broncs are 4-1 in their last five, with a three-game lead on San Diego with three to play. They're shaky, and frightfully young, but they could give somebody a tough game in January.

9. Atlanta (8-5). Tampa Bay comes to the Georgia Dome next week, so Sunday's loss has to go in the rear-view mirror soon.

10. Carolina (9-3). The NFL did a good job on the schedule this year, though I'm sure John Fox might argue. I say it's good because all the contenders in the NFC have tough tests left. Check out the Panthers quartet: Tampa Bay, Denver, at the Giants, at New Orleans. Whoa.

11. New England (8-5). Gut check win. Matt Cassel has more passing yards, by the way, than Aaron Rodgers, Brett Favre and Eli Manning.

12. Dallas (8-5). There are some serious -- I mean, very serious -- communication issues on the field between Tony Romo and Jason Witten.

13. Miami (8-5). The Dolphins are the winningest NFL team in history on Canadian soil. Or Canadian FieldTurf.

14. Arizona (8-5). Still, don't ask me if they can beat anyone in January.

15. (tie) Minnesota (8-5). I have to hand it to Jared Allen: He is one gutsy football player, the kind who could have played on the same field with Gino Marchetti or Deacon Jones or Joe Greene and been an asset. He got a sack on a bum wheel Sunday, giving him 12.5 for the year, the most by a Viking since Jon Randle in 1997.

15. (tie) New York Jets (8-5). Two weeks ago they were America's sweethearts after whipping Tennessee. Today they're ... they're ... well, bordering on awful. One third-down conversion at San Francisco, 20 minutes of possession time? They'll be lucky if the AFC East comes down to the winner of the Week 17 game between them and the Dolphins.

Quote of the Week I

"People get too preoccupied with style points. That was a beautiful football game.''

-- Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, after the Steelers scored 17 points in the last eight minutes to shock the Cowboys.

Quote of the Week II

"Win or lose, this ain't over. I can promise you that. You can't put the genie back in the bottle. We will fight this battle for a long time if need be.''

-- Attorney David Cornwell, to me Saturday night, on the fate of the five players facing suspension for four weeks for violating the NFL's steroid policy. (A Minnesota judge blocked the punishment Friday, saying he needed more time to study the arguments in the players' fight to have the suspensions dropped.

This is a very complicated story, and I don't think it's a story worth 1,000 words here because there's no indication we know anything this morning that might not change by tomorrow. As Sean Payton told me last night: "I can honestly say I know absolutely no more about this story than you do.''

I do know one thing: Cornwell thinks he has proof that the NFL did not suspend a player who tested positive for Bumetanide in 2006, and it's a major part of his appeal. The league, on the other hand, will argue that the terms of the steroid-testing program will call for the appealing players to have no access to prior medical testing records -- something in the drug-testing agreement with players. And around and around it goes.

"I'm playing football until I'm told otherwise,'' one of the players who tested positive, Minnesota defensive tackle Kevin Williams, said after playing Sunday in Detroit.

Quote of the Week III

"There's nothing to be afraid of ... It's been a wonderful ride so far. I think I'm a lifer. I love the city of New York. I love New Jersey.''

-- Plaxico Burress, in an enlightening interview last July with Leonard Lopate of the WNYC, the public radio station in New York.

Lopate, a superb interviewer, got some interesting stuff out of this 18-minute talk with Burress.

On whether he was intimidated in facing the Patriots last year: "It's football, not poker. There is nothing to be intimidated about.''

On how much he wanted to win the NFC title game and get to the Super Bowl: "When you actually lose the game, it's a lifetime scar. ... I always said to myself if I ever had an opportunity to get back to another championship game, I would just leave it all on the field and I wouldn't have any regrets after that game.''

On staying warm during the playoff game in Green Bay: "We weren't serving any Gatorade on the field. We weren't serving any water. We were serving chicken broth on the sideline. It has a high salinity. I don't want to drink water or Gatorade when it's minus-23 degrees. It was so good at the time you want to keep drinking, drinking, drinking it.''

Quote of the Week IV

"It's a pleasure to be in the presence of so many Giants' fans, all of whom I believe are unarmed.''

-- NBC News anchor Brian Williams, a native New Jerseyan and Giants fan, at a March of Dimes luncheon on Wednesday honoring NBC executive Ken Schanzer and Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber in Manhattan.

Quote of the Week V

"I've heard about the billboards. I don't rush out to pillory myself and look at them.''

-- Bengals owner, president and GM Mike Brown, on the four billboards put up around Cincinnati by a protesting group of fans called whodeyrevolution.com. The group is asking for donations of $18, or $1 for every year of Brown's stewardship of the team, and says on its Web site: "Einstein's famous quote, 'Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,'' should be framed and put above the door to Mike Brown's office.''

The Award Section

Offensive Players of the Week

Brian Westbrook, RB, Philadelphia. One day, if Westbrook stays healthy for three more years, there's a decent chance we'll discuss his credentials seriously for the Hall of Fame. If we do, someone will bring up this game against the Giants, with his team's season on the line. He set a career-high with 33 carries for 131 rushing yards and a touchdown, along with six receptions for 72 yards and a touchdown. Thirty-nine touches for 203 yards. On the same day, he passed Harold Carmichael as the franchise's all-time leader in yards from scrimmage (9,085).

Matt Schaub, QB, Houston. Playing in minus-three wind chill, he had the best game of his life, all things considered. In the Texans' 24-21 upset of the Packers at Lambeau, he completed 28-of-42 for 414 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. "I was just looking for someone to hug,'' he said afterward. Play many more like that, son, and you'll have plenty of folks who will want to hug you.

Defensive Players of the Week

Brandon Meriweather, S, New England. This is the kind of breakout game that can launch a player's career. Six tackles -- three of them behind the line of scrimmage -- plus one sack, two passes defensed and the most important forced fumble of his two-year career. With 1:56 left in the fourth quarter, he leaped over the line to sack Seneca Wallace, forcing the fumble that essentially ended the game. With injuries already battering the defense, and Vince Wilfork, Tedy Bruschi and James Sanders leaving the game with more of them, young guys like Meriweather have to come through for this team to make it to January.

Ray Lewis, LB, Baltimore. When will he slow down? 2014? The more I watch the Ravens, the more I marvel at his staying power -- and not just the staying power to hang around. He's excelling the same way he was in the Ravens' Super Bowl year, and he's leading the same way too -- at 33, in his 13th season. In the 24-10 beatdown of the Redskins (it could have been much worse), Lewis had 13 tackles (three for loss), two quarterback hits and a 13-yard sack.

Special Teams Players of the Week

Justin Tuck, DL, and Kenny Phillips, S, New York Giants. With the Giants bordering on being out of their NFC match with Philadelphia seconds before halftime, David Akers lined up for a field-goal attempt that would have given the Eagles a 13-0 lead. But Tuck fought through the Eagle wall, stuck his left hand in the air and blocked the attempt. Kevin Dockery picked up the ball at the Giant 29 and began running, and Phillips knocked holder Sav Rocca and pursuit man L.J. Smith off their pins long enough for Dockery to get the touchdown to make it 10-7.

Trent Cole, DE, Philadelphia. For the most athletic kick or punt block of the season, without question. Cole, all 270 pounds of him, leaped over the long-snapper, Jay Alford, on a Giant field-goal try in the first half and got his hand on a John Carney kick. Go find this one on YouTube. You'll have to see it three or four times to believe Cole's athleticism.

Coach of the Week

Jim Johnson, defensive coordinator, Philadelphia. As you saw up higher in the column, how could you not be wowed by what Johnson did with his defense against the Giants? His troops played far more aggressively than in the first meeting of the year against the Giants (when New York scored 36). In the first 57 minutes of the game -- before the Giants scored against a prevent defense in the final minute --Philly allowed only 141 yards.

Goat of the Week

Domenik Hixon, WR, New York Giants. You can't make a worse play than Hixon made on the first play of the second quarter. Eli Manning led Mr. Replacement Plaxico Burress perfectly, and he dropped it. No excuses, no pressure, no nothing. He simply dropped it, a perfect illustration of what this day was like for the Giants.

Stat of the Week

Detroit left tackle Jeff Backus, the first pick of Matt Millen's general-managership, has started every game in his NFL career, 125 in all. He has been a part of a 12-game losing streak, a 13-game losing streak and a 14-game losing streak.

"Not until we win that first game will I feel good about anything,'' he said, glumly, after Sunday's 20-16 loss to Minnesota.

MVP Watch

1. Peyton Manning, QB, Indianapolis. While the game against Cincinnati was still being contested, Manning was 24-of-29 with three touchdowns and no picks.

2. Matt Ryan, QB, Atlanta. I decided not to demote him. He stays No. 2, barely, because it's still an amazing thing that the Falcons are 8-5 and Ryan, a rookie, has thrown seven interceptions in 366 attempts.

3. Brian Westbrook, RB, Philadelphia. With the Eagles' season on the line at 5-5-1, Westbrook, battered and bruised, handled the ball 64 times in the next two games -- wins over Arizona and the Giants -- and produced 333 yards from scrimmage and six touchdowns. That's value right there. With his team's season on the line, he was the man most responsible for the Eagles winning two games.

4. Drew Brees, QB, New Orleans. As clutch as clutch can be Sunday, particularly on a vital two-minute drill before halftime against Atlanta.

5. Troy Polamalu, S/James Harrison, LB, Pittsburgh. I can't decide. They're nearly in a dead heat. Harrison makes three key plays a game. Polamalu leads the league in interceptions and patrols the middle like Jack Tatum.

Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me

The New York Giants printed their season tickets this year with photos of players on each ticket. Ten tickets, 10 different players. For their game against the Eagles on Sunday -- the Giants first home game since the Plaxico Burress shooting scandal -- the picture on the ticket was (you guessed it) of Burress, making his Super Bowl-winning touchdown catch, on the fade route in the end zone, to beat the Patriots.

"A fade,'' Randy Cross, my Sirius NFL Radio partner, said the other day. "That's appropriate.''

Dr. Z News of the Week

Your response to the news of Paul Zimmerman's two strokes was heartfelt and overwhelmingly positive. I visited Paul the other day at his new rehabilitation facility in New Jersey, and your e-mails -- printed into a 17-pound ream of more than 2,000 sheets of paper --are by his bedside, helping him get through what will be a long period of recovery. Also by his bed: a New York Jets sweatsuit, with "DR Z'' emblazoned on the pants, with a handwritten get-well note from Eric Mangini; and a huge bouquet of flowers from Eddie DeBartoloJr.

Linda, Paul's devoted wife, wanted to pass along her wishes, which follows now:

"Where do I begin? Do I start with the crushing blow of the strokes? And the damage to Paul's right arm and leg, and more importantly his loss of speech and the ability to read and write? My heart breaks 50 times a day as I watch him face this devastation.

"Or should I start at the place we are now? Paul's immense drive to come back, the movement he has forced into his right arm and leg, the ability to make us understand he is all there, his humor intact. He is a superhero, as one of our daughters calls him. That statement alone would send him reeling in pain, so don't tell him I actually said that in print!

"He is amazing. God, that word is small compared to the effort I see him exude hourly. Yes, the doctors and staff are amazed at his hourly progress. One of his strongest motivations is returning to his keyboard and writing about his beloved game.

"I owe so much to all of you for your outpouring of love and support. I sit by Paul's side during breaks in his rehab, reading over 2,000 notes that all of you have taken the time to write. We are savoring each one. Yes, he is ranking them from 1 to 10. After all, he has to keep up some form of rankings.

"With much love to all of you ... please keep us in your thoughts and prayers."

--Linda, a.k.a. The Flaming Redhead.

Good Guy of the Week

Derrick Mason, wide receiver, Baltimore.

Last summer I watched Mason sign every last autograph after a Ravens' training-camp practice in Westminster, Md. I mean, he signed for 57 minutes, maybe one every five or seven seconds, all the while sprinkling in comments and answers to questions all these kids and adults had. Remarkable, really. And I was told this isn't something Mason does two or three times in camp. It's something he does every day. "Why not do it?'' he told me. "These people come to support us, every year. Maybe they can't make it to a game, or they can't afford to go to a game. They're big fans, too. They deserve our attention.''

Knock me over with a feather, why don't you.

I have owed the "Good Guy of the Week'' to Mason all season, and I should have gotten to him earlier. The other day I asked Mason about the Plaxico Burress story, and how much it was impacting his life, and the life of his teammates. "We've talked about it quite a bit,'' he said. "Plaxico is a colleague of ours, even if a lot of our players are not close to him. He made a terrible mistake, and I hope it doesn't, but it could cost him his career. You've got to be smart when you go out. You've got to go to the right places with the right people. The way the world is now, with the economy hurting so bad, people are desperate out there. And when people are desperate, they might do crazy things.''

I asked Mason about owning a gun. "I don't own one,'' he said. "I really don't want to. But I am thinking about it now.''

What I Learned About Football This Week That I Didn't Know Last Week

NFL teams, particularly one of the league's hot teams this season, don't practice like your father's NFL teams did.

"We're not trying to land on the moon here,'' Atlanta coach Mike Smith said Friday. "It's a football game. The idea is to keep your players as fresh as possible late in the season while continue to teach them what they need to know to play each week.''

Who could argue with that? But coaches have different ways of getting to that point, and one of the reasons the Falcons have been revived this year (probably not a major reason, but it's part of the puzzle) is the smart way Smith has gotten his team to practice.

Players generally have Monday off, except to lift weights or perhaps to stretch and do limited aerobic and conditioning work on the field. Tuesday is a day off. In regular weeks, when games are played on Sunday, the practice work is done Wednesday through Friday. In the first eight weeks of the year, Smith had his players work in pads on Wednesdays, in shorts and shoulder pads on Thursdays, and in shorts on Friday. Helmets are worn each day. In the last eight weeks of the season, Wednesdays and Friday are in shorts without pads, and Thursdays are in shorts and shoulder pads for part of the practice only.

Each practice begins --on padded days -- with stretching and aerobic work, followed by a physical portion of practice, maybe 12 to 20 minutes of offense working against defense in a timed, up-tempo period with limited contact. Then the practice stops. Players take off helmets and pads, if they're wearing them, and put them aside for the first of three learning sessions incorporated into the practice.

Each practice contains three of what Smith calls "Concept Periods,'' 10- to 12-minute blocks in which players break down into their position groups, or into full offensive and defensive groups, and walk through concepts they'll be using in the game plan that week. "It might be the kind of session where we say to the players, 'If they do X this week, we'll do Y,' '' Smith said. Sandwiched between the three "Concept Periods'' are two practice periods, where the offense might work against the defense and run a set number of scripted plays Smith wants to make sure his players work on during the week .

"We always script the number of plays we'll practice in a week,'' Smith said. "But we never say how long we'll be at practice. We tell the players we have to get through X number of plays. A practice that's scheduled for an hour and 40 minutes might be, say, an hour-32 because the guys are setting a quicker pace. They know the quicker they get in an out of the huddle, the quicker the practice will be over.''

Smith credits past mentors Brian Billick, Marvin Lewis and Jack Del Rio for teaching him how to run efficient practices. He explained that these practices "mimic the way guys play. In a game, you play for a series, come to the sidelines, look at the pictures, and talk about what you're doing out there. We're doing the same thing with these practices -- you play, you look at the pictures, you learn.''

The Falcons must be learning pretty well. They're five wins better than they were a year ago, with three games still to play.

The Way We Were

Mike Shanahan vs. Marv Levy.

I'm not comparing these two distinguished head coaches because I feel they're very similar, though they both have left innovative stamps on football. Levy's one of the godfathers of special teams, while Shanahan has proven you can consistently contend with a very good quarterback, a marginal defense and marginal offensive talent, particularly at running back.

I compare them because Sunday in Denver, the 56-year-old Shanahan, who I'm certain plans to coach several more years, won his 154th NFL game, tying Levy for 15th on the NFL's all-time victory list for coaches. It got me thinking. Levy coached 17 years, went 154-120 and made four Super Bowls, winning none, as a head coach and made the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Shanahan has coached 16 years, is 154-100, and made two Super Bowls, winning both. If he gets to 200 wins -- or if he only comes close -- how can we keep him out of the Hall? If he never coaches another day, how can we keep him out of the Hall?

We're headed for a major coaching bottleneck at the Hall of Fame. Bill Belichick is going to get in, unless a bloc of 10 or so voters won't vote for him because of Spygate. He won his 150th game in Seattle on Sunday, the 17th coach to get to 150 ... Marty Schottenheimer and Dan Reeves are 6-7 on the all-time wins list ... Bill Parcells is ninth all-time, with two Super Bowl wins and four teams out of four led to the playoffs ... Mike Holmgren is 10th, with more wins than Joe Gibbs or Paul Brown ... Tony Dungy has the racial-barrier-busting Super Bowl win -- and only George Halas and Don Shula have better winning percentages in NFL history than Dungy's .650.

So what do you do with those seven? How many do you put in? It's unfair to judge those coaches whose careers are still active, but I'd say Parcells is the one who deserves to get in first, when his three-year period out of coaching is up in 2010. (Hall of Fame bylaws mandate a three-year wait for coaches after their last year on the sidelines.) After that, it's going to be mayhem, with the top coaches of this era competing with the top players ... and leftovers like Richard Dent and Russ Grimm still garnering significant support.

The Holiday Book Section

Lots of good selections out there this year, and I've highlighted nine of them here that I think will be appealing to real football fans. I've asked a future journalism star and pride of Montclair High's class of 2009, Emily Kaplan, with some guidance from me, to pick out short passages from each book so you'll get a flavor of what they're about. (Memo to deans of journalism schools across the United States: If you see an application in the file from Emily Kaplan, Montclair, N.J., she has my unstinting seal of approval. This kid has a chance to be really good.)

Not to prejudice you before you go out to buy, but I think three of these books are particularly noteworthy. Warrick Dunn's features a hair-raising trip to see the man accused of murdering his mother, on death row in Louisiana. Sal Paolantonio's about the roots of football is such a strong and, at times, riveting, living-history portrait that it's already in its third printing in three months; I love the excerpt here, linking Richard Nixon and Vince Lombardi. And I feel terrible that I haven't written more about Stefan Fatsis' effort in NFL training camp with the Denver Broncos. A Few Seconds of Panic is a must-read if you want to know what being inside a team is really like.

Here are the short excerpts of my holiday recommendations, beginning with one about the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry:

War As They Knew It, by Michael Rosenberg (Grand Central Publishing, $26.99).

"Former Ohio State captain Dave Whitfield had just come back from military service -- in Germany, not Vietnam, because the war was winding down. Now he was back at the site of his greatest days: the Ohio State locker room. Woody Hayes had asked him to give the Buckeyes a pregame talk. Hayes had reason to be nervous. His team, though extremely talented, was young and a four-point underdog to That School Up North. If the Buckeyes lost, Hayes would be an unthinkable 1-3 against Schembechler heading into next year's game in Ann Arbor. Earlier that week, Hayes looked out from his practice field -- way out, across a four-lane highway and up to a window on the tenth floor of the Fawcett Center for Tomorrow and he saw... a spy? Could it be? Hayes took no chances. He called the campus police. The cops arrived on the scene to find a Michigan fan filming Ohio State practice with a telephoto lens.

"Whitfield was searching for the right words to describe the intensity of this rivalry. He kept thinking of his last game, when he thought the Buckeyes were too cocky and they lost, 25-12 in Ann Arbor. At the end of his speech, he said, 'This is not a game... This is war.' Young Archie Griffin thought he understood the rivalry -- he had grown up in Columbus. But as Whitfield spoke, Griffin looked around the room and saw that his teammates had tears in their eyes. Then he looked at Whitfield and saw that he, too, had tears in his eyes."

How Football Explains America, by Sal Paolantonio (Triumph Books, $24.95).

"On the surface, it appeared that [Richard] Nixon and [Vince] Lombardi were, indeed, one and the same. Both worried that the counterculture movement was unraveling core Middle American values. In 1968, the Milwaukee Sentinel, in an editorial, said out loud what a lot of people had been thinking: that Lombardi should run for public office. 'He is articulate in matters of national concern,' the newspaper said.

"Indeed, in 1968, Nixon dispatched the man who would later become his attorney general, John Mitchell, to investigate the possibility of Lombardi being his running mate in 1968. But the Nixon campaign was disappointed Mitchell found that Lombardi, like many urban Catholics from the Northeast, was a Democrat. His parents voted for Franklin Roosevelt. In 1960, he voted for John F. Kennedy, whose love for football was well documented (all of America had seen the black-and-white photos of the Kennedy clan playing touch football at the family compound on Cape Cod). Shortly after taking office, Kennedy met Lombardi at a football banquet in New York. They hit it off and kept in touch, and when Kennedy was assassinated three years later, Lombardi joined a group of celebrities demanding stricter gun control laws."

Running for My Life: My Journey in the Game of Football and Beyond, by Warrick Dunn, with Don Yaeger (Harper Collins, $25.95).

"On going to meet his mother's murderer, who denied to Dunn's face that he killed her:

"Before I went to Angola, I spent hours in conversation with my Atlanta counselor, Pauline Clance. She believed it was a good idea, a positive move, because she clearly understood that there were some things in my life that I would never get over until I sat across the table from him.

"... I found myself in a small break room on Death Row at Angola State Prison, eye to eye with Kevan Brumfield. The days and nights leading up to the visit were somewhat unsettling. I tried not to let it dominate my mind, even pretending the meeting wasn't happening. I went to the movies. I slept a lot. I started gathering my thoughts and talking to my brothers and sisters, compiling questions they wanted me to ask. The weekend prior to the trip was difficult because we also lost to the New Orleans Saints on that Sunday. It was our third consecutive defeat and the sixth in our first seven games. Drained and tired, I actually just wanted to relax and enjoy the [bye week] off. It was really my first break since the start of the 2007 season.

"... Tears started to well in my eyes when I realized that I was laying it all out on the line for the guy who killed my mom. As I looked around the room, I realized everyone else in the room had tears in their eyes, too -- Brumfield included. I took thirty seconds, paused, collected my thoughts, and finally looked at him and told him: 'If you didn't do it, I don't know why you are here today, but I know why I am here today. I am here to forgive somebody. I am here because it has been fourteen years and it's time for me to move on. I was searching for answers. I've been going to counseling. I've started smiling. I've started laughing. I even had my first drink two years ago during a fun moment. It is time for me to forgive and move on.'"

The Birth of the New NFL: How the 1966 NFL/AFL Merger Transformed Pro Football, by Larry Felser (Lyons Press, $14.95).

"By the end of the 1962 season, it appeared the Raiders would either relocate, probably to New Orleans, or close down operations. Instead, Wayne Valley, the managing partner, convinced his board of directors to give it another year, mainly because the team had received a $400,000 infusion of cash from Ralph Wilson, owner of the Bills, in exchange for 25 percent of the team. Wilson later said, "I knew it was against the constitution, but the league would have folded. I did it for the sake of the league."

"The Raiders then got an infusion of professionalism by hiring [Al] Davis as head coach and general manager. He had been recommended by [Sid] Gillman. One of the first moves Davis made was to trade for Art Powell of the New York Titans, a big, fast enormously talented receiver who had previously worn out his welcome in one year as a Philadelphia Eagle. It took him three years in New York to become a dispensable asset. The trade with the Titans came about because Davis was not afraid to take big risks. ... Davis made other risky moves, and they were what made the 1-13 Raiders of 1962 into the 10-4 Raiders in his first season as a head coach."

The Genius: How Bill Walsh Reinvented Football and Created an NFL Dynasty, by David Harris (Random House, $26).

"Walsh's decision to use four of his first five draft picks [in 1981] on defensive backs was well off the NFL's beaten path and by itself would have secured his reputation as 'different.' Most teams would have picked one or two and gone on to other positions. But the move that proved truly remarkable was what Walsh then did with his draft picks when they got to training camp. [Ronnie] Lott, [Eric] Wright, and [Carlton] Williamson were almost immediately installed as starters alongside Dwight Hicks. 'All these players had been in successful college programs,' he later explained. 'They were accustomed to playing pressure games before huge crowds, so they would have a better chance of adapting to NFL football.' Still, the move was nothing if not audacious. The San Francisco Forty-Niners would start the season with a defensive backfield composed of one two-year veteran and three rookies, two of whom were playing positions they had never played in college. It was an arrangement that conventional football wisdom considered a recipe for short-term disaster at the very least.

"And pulling off a miracle under those circumstances would make the miracle even more so."

The Best Game Ever: Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL, by Mark Bowden (Atlantic Monthly Press, $23).

"The Colts' head coach, Weeb Ewbank, loosened his vocal chords and gave the motivational speech of his life. 'Nobody knows you guys, and we're in a good place to get known, New York City, so we're going to have to win this game,' he told his players. He pulled out some handwritten notes from his pocket. 'Nobody wanted you guys,' he said. Then he went around the locker room, singling out most of the starting players.

"To John Unitas: 'Pittsburgh didn't want you but we picked you off the sandlots.' To Milt Davis, 'Detroit didn't want you, but I'm glad we got you.' Most of his players had been cut or rejected somewhere along the line, and Weeb cited every slight. To Big Daddy Lipscomb: 'The Rams didn't want you. We picked you up for the one hundred dollar waiver price. You have come a long way. When you start rushing the passer more you will become one of the greatest tackles the game has ever seen.'

"To Raymond Berry: 'Nobody wanted you in the draft. You are a self-made end.' To Lenny Moore: 'You can be as good as you want to be. That's what they said when we drafted you, but the idea was presented we might have a hard time getting you to practice.' To Gino Marchetti: 'In ten years of pro coaching, you are the finest end I have ever seen. They said you are the greatest end in the league and that you just couldn't get any better, but you continue to get better every week and you will today.'

"The coach also talked about himself. He noted that he had not been the Colts' first choice for the head coaching job when they had gone looking in 1954, and they all knew how close he and his staff had come to being fired after the 1955 season. The message was, they were a team of self-made men, playing against the glamour boys of the NFL, the only team that had beaten them in a game that mattered that season."

A Few Seconds of Panic: A 5-Foot-8, 170-Pound, 43-Year-Old Sportswriter Plays in the NFL, by Stefan Fatsis (Penguin Press, $25.95).

"In Mike Shanahan's finely calibrated world, every second of every day has a purpose. During training camp, he arrives at 5 a.m., exercises, watches film, and leads an 8 a.m. meeting of the coaching staff. Shanahan knows that the succession of two-a-days is brutal. It is intended to be. But after thirty years as a coach, he has a sixth sense for when to pull back, when to toss a bone. 'When you're younger, you're so into wanting to have a good practice that you forget you're getting ready for the games,' he tells me in his office.

"One of those bones is a bit of levity at the end of almost every day. The team meeting begins with players drumming on the desktops until Shanahan calls a rookie to the front, where he has to answer questions, tell a joke, or 'suffer the consequences.' Where fight-song singing was once instigated by players in the locker room or cafeteria, today even the standard rookie hazing ritual has been co-opted by management. It's a departure from the usual church-service reverence of the team meeting, but it's also controlled, like everything else, by Shanahan.

"'Who are you?' the players scream one night after Shanahan orders a rookie to the podium.

"'Greg Eslinger.'

"'No! Who are you?' The pack wants the red-cheeked, peach-fuzzed Eslinger to say his nickname, and he knows it, and eventually capitulates.

"'Wee-Man,' he says into the microphone. The room explodes. Eslinger is a six-foot-three, 290-pound center who won the 2005 Outland Trophy as the nation's best interior linemen. But he also looks a bit like a four-foot-seven actor on the MTV show Jackass."

The Glory Game: How the 1958 NFL Championship Changed Football Forever, by Frank Gifford, with Peter Richmond (Harper Collins, $25.95).

"[Referee Ron] Gibbs had picked the ball up at the end of my run. He held on to it, and didn't put it back down until all the chaos had subsided and Gino [Marchetti] had been removed from the field [after breaking his leg]. Then they brought out the chains. And it was a couple of inches short.

"I wasn't happy about the spot. And I told Gibbs about it. As Artie [Donovan] recalls it now, 'You were shouting, 'I made it, I made it!' I told you, 'Shut up and get back to the huddle.'' I don't remember even shouting in any game, but I do recall being dead certain I'd made the first down.

"Decades later, soon after Ron Gibbs passed away, I would get a letter from his son, which included this passage: 'Dad told me a few days before he died, 'You know, Joe, maybe Frank was right ... maybe he did make that first down ... We shouldn't have ever picked up that ball before the measurement.'"

Rough & Tumble, by Mark Bavaro (St. Martin's Press, $24.95). (Fiction)

"Offensively, we were in for a slugfest against Chicago's ferocious defense. They prided themselves on winning through physical beatings. I was going to need all the strength just to survive. As we touched down at O'Hare, my heartburn, among other things, was pushed aside by the pain in my leg. My knee hurt like hell. The missed Mass of last week and the nap and protection couldn't have felt further away. In fact, His wrath felt closer. I was surprised the plane landed without mishap.

"Walking into the lobby of the downtown Sheraton, my roommate, Jeb Watkins, was greeted by the outstretched arms of a slinky brunette. I picked up our room key and grabbed a snack box the team provided for us on a folding table by the elevators. I grabbed our punt returner's box as well. Jeb wouldn't want his. A ham-and-cheese sub, chocolate-chip cookies, and an apple were the last things on his mind at the moment. I wouldn't see him again until tomorrow's game. Every road trip was the same. Jeb would disappear with a different girl, and I'd take a long, restful nap alone, half-eaten candy bars and apple cores littering his empty bed. He was the perfect roommate."

*****************

One last point: I have a lot of admiration for Bavaro. He tells a fictionalized story of what pro football is really like, and does a good job with the kind of descriptive passages I never, ever expected to hear from a man I covered as an NFL rookie with the Giants. You'll like the Lawrence Taylor character. You'll recognize him in the first three sentences.

Ten Things I Think I Think

1. I think these are my quick-hit thoughts of Week 14:

a. Let's hear it for Je'Rod Cherry. You may recall I wrote about Cherry raffling off chances (five for $10) for his 2001 Super Bowl ring with the Patriots. The ring was raffled on Thanksgiving Day, and Cherry raised $170,000 for four children's charities. The winner: a high school football referee from Anaheim. "I spoke with him on the phone,'' Cherry said, "and he could not believe that he won.''

b. Alabama-Florida. What a great football game. That was a good test for Tim Tebow and what he'll face one day in the NFL, the kind of smash-mouth game that shows it won't be easy for him to run at the next level.

c. Did you see Alabama running back Mark Ingram -- yes, the son of the former Giant and Dolphin, now imprisoned for writing bad checks -- score the tying touchdown in the third quarter? Did you see the way the 5-10, 215-pound Ingram sledgehammered into the line so hard that he knocked down the 6-5, 340-pound left tackle, Andre Smith?

d. Keith Olbermann on the happenings in the Motor City: "The Lions haven't won since the presidency of James K. Polk.''

e. Coach Herman Edwards seems pretty solid for 2009 in Kansas City, president Carl Peterson less so. Both have one contractual season remaining.

f. I could still see the Chiefs drafting a quarterback in the first three rounds and having him challenge Tyler Thigpen and Brodie Croyle for quarterback-of-the-future in Chiefland.

g. The Saints started something cool (for these economic times, anyway) last week. They partnered with a company called eLayawaySPORTS to allow season-ticket-holders the option of paying for their seats by making automated withdrawals from their bank accounts each week. Say a Saints fan has four season tickets, for a total of $1,200. For the first 32 weeks of the year, the fan could have $37.50 debited from his checking or savings account by eLayawaySPORTS, and by making these consistent payments, the tickets would be paid for by mid-August -- in time for the first preseason game. I like the idea. Reminds me of the old Christmas Club my mother would finance at the bank every year, putting $20 a week away and having enough money to buy all her gifts come Dec. 1.

h. I simply do not understand why the Bills scheduled the Miami game in December as their indoor game in Toronto. What a huge competitive edge for the Dolphins.

i. I'd worry about that Marion Barber dislocated toe if I were the Cowboys.

j. Marvelous Millen Legacy Dept.: Detroit drafted wide receivers Charles Rogers, Roy Williams,Mike Williams and Calvin Johnson in the top 10 of the draft between 2003 and 2007. Rogers is out of football, and in an Oakland County (Mich.) jail for probation violation. Roy Williams has been traded to Dallas. Mike Williams is out of football. Calvin Johnson looks like he'll be a good NFL receiver. On Sunday, against Minnesota, the following were Detroit's first three receivers: Johnson, John Standeford (up and down from the practice squad much of the year) and Keary Colbert (signed last Monday). What a debacle.

k. With the Cardinals clinching the NFC West, the franchise also clinched its first home-playoff game since 1947. Sixty-one years ago, at a half-full Comiskey Park in Chicago, the Chicago Cardinals beat the Eagles 28-21 for the NFL Championship. In those days, the only playoff game in the NFL was the championship game. Interesting note about that game: The Cardinals scored single touchdowns in each quarter. The Eagles scored single touchdown in every quarter but the first.

2. I think the NFL has to take Pro Bowl voting away from fans. It's silly, it's pointless, and it makes a mockery of the game. How can Joe from Klamath Falls vote for three guards in the NFC? I don't even like players voting. The vote should go to 96 people: two coordinators per team one pro scout per team. Then it would really mean something.

3. I think O.J. Simpson should not be removed from the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Here's why:

a. Thirty-five years ago he became the first man in the NFL to rush for 2,000 yards in a season.

b. Twenty-nine years ago his NFL career ended, and to this day he's certainly one of the top 10 running backs of all time. (He's behind only Jim Brown and Walter Payton -- and, perhaps, Barry Sanders, though that's a close one -- on my list.)

c. Twenty-three years ago he was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

d. Three days ago he was sentenced to at least nine years in prison for his part in an armed robbery and kidnapping of two men who had in their possession memorabilia Simpson accused them of stealing. A decade earlier he was found liable in a $33.2-million civil suit that implicated him in the deaths of his wife and a friend.

The bylaws of the Hall of Fame mandate that players be considered for enshrinement based on on-field accomplishments only. I'm opposed to rewriting the rules and including some sort of morals clause. What happens if we find out a borderline guy for the hall had a DWI in his second year in the league, or didn't pay child support for two years after his career ended, or got in a bar fight that left a victim badly injured? Would we then say, "Well, I was on the fence, probably leaning toward supporting him, but this DWI from 23 years ago makes me think no now.''

Murder or participation in an armed heist is certainly more serious, obviously. But it is not our job as a Hall of Famer board of selectors to sit in moral judgment of a man. If it is, then 44 members of the football news media should not be the only arbiters for entry to the Hall. We'd need a couple of moral compasses in the room. Is that how we want to elect Hall of Famers? It's not how I think we should do it.

4. I think this is what I know about the plans for the new United Football League, scheduled to begin play in September on Thursday and Friday nights in, most likely, six markets:

� Two of the possible six franchises still need owners, and in these tough times, that has to be worrisome.

� If Jim Fassel doesn't have an NFL job by February, the UFL wants to hire him to coach the New York franchise. At $1.5 million or $2 million for the season, Fassel could do worse.

� The week after the NFL season ends in February, the league will hold an online poll of fans, asking if they think the league should pursue Michael Vick to play for one of its teams in 2009. If the vote is yes, the UFL will try to sign Vick to play -- presumably while he is under suspension for a year by the NFL after leaving prison on his dogfighting conviction.

� Field goals of 50 yards and longer will count for four points.

� There will be XFL-like locker-room and on-field cameras.

� There will be a female referee.

5. I think the 49ers are going to have to think very seriously of giving their head-coaching job, full time, to Mike Singletary. The 49er defense hasn't let the Bills and Jets breathe in the last eight quarters, and the units on both sides of the ball are playing very hard for a team that's out of the playoff race. That's a head coach's job -- getting his team to play hard at all times.

6. I think this is what I liked about Week 14:

a. Roddy White is making a believer out of me. He's a different player under this coaching staff and with a quarterback he believes in.

b. The Lions had two interceptions in their first 48 quarters this year. They had two in the first two quarters Sunday.

c. Every time I watch Lance Moore play I think he can be Wes Welker. Gutsy, tough, sure-handed.

d. There aren't many bright spots in any Lions season in our lifetime, but this was one Sunday: Nick Harris kicked a punt from five yards deep in his end zone that traveled to the Minnesota 34. A huge play in a game the Lions led 7-3.

e. Kevin Walter has 10 more receiving yards than Randy Moss, three more than Terrell Owens. Ever hear of him? Matt Schaub has.

f. The Ravens, even by Rex Ryan's lofty standards, are setting a new record for defensive relentlessness.

g. The Steelers used up one of their nine lives yesterday.

h. I know they lost. But the Seahawks -- Deion Branch, Seneca Wallace and a battered offensive line, especially, should take a bow for showing up against New England.

i. The more I see of Shaun Hill, the more I think he's going to be a starting quarterback in the NFL for a few years.

j. Like my good pal Donnie "Brasco" Bankswrote yesterday, Gary Kubiak is very much off the hot seat in Houston.

7. I think this is what I didn't like about Week 14:

a. No quarterback in the wind is very good. Double the wind trouble for Eli Manning.

b. The Lions' players have absolutely no faith in offensive coordinator Jim Colletto.

c. Can you believe the Lions' fourth-and-a-foot call right before halftime by Colletto? Sending Daunte Culpepper behind right guard, into the teeth of the marauding Williams brothers, the best run-stuffing combination at defensive tackle in football? Terrible call, and Culpepper didn't get an inch. What possible logic is there to that call? It's almost a fireable call.

d. Was every Tony Romo throw sailing five feet high in Pittsburgh? That's how it looked to me.

e. Jack Del Rio has looked disinterested two games in a row.

f. Are you kidding me, Terrell Owens? The Cowboys' biggest game of the year to this point, and on the first series of the game, on Tony Romo's first pass to him, Owens gave up on the route? A shameful, pathetic display.

g. The Bills fell out of contention around the same time Trent Edwards fell to earth.

8. I think my coach of the year vote is going to come down to five men: Mike Smith, Tom Coughlin, Jeff Fisher, Tony Sparano and Bill Belichick. I welcome your comments. The last three weeks will weigh heavily, because this is close.

9. I think the Rams are for sale and they're not getting the kind of offer the owners there want.

10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:

a. You know why I like hockey so much? Because of the effort players give in the 24th of 80 regular-season games -- the effort I saw Saturday night in Devils-Canadiens. Zach Parise diving to keep the puck in the offensive end, PaulMartin and Patrick Elias playing so aggressively smart in overtime.

b. Only one show in history can make me howl out loud over the pronunciation of "Cool Whip.'' You guessed it. Family Guy. I am dying to meet Brian the dog.

c. I wonder what sportswriting will be like in five years. We all better get used to writing for the web. I fear the increasing irrelevance of newspapers and magazines that you can actually hold in your hands.

d. Coffeenerdness: Don't remember ever waiting 18 minutes in Starbucks before, but I did Saturday afternoon in Montclair. Isn't there a recession going on?

e. Why does Rutgers end up in these Single-A bowls every year? There can't be 15 teams in America playing better over the last five or six weeks.

Who I Like Tonight, and I Mean Tony Kornheiser

Tampa Bay 20, Carolina 13. The hardest thing about predicting games is trying to figure out which team will show up on a given night. Not Tampa. Maybe the Bucs offense. But the defense -- that's about as regular as Aunt Mildred on six fiber caplets a day.

There's a sign in one of the Bucs' team meetings room at their spiffy new complex in Tampa defining what a "loaf'' is. That's when players don't hustle from the start of a play to the end. When the Bucs played Minnesota three weeks ago, the three starting linebackers -- Derrick Brooks, Cato June, Barrett Ruud-- were on the field for most of the Vikings' 53 offensive snaps. All three of them did not get a "loaf'' all day, meaning they went all-out on every snap, without taking a play or three off. That's what you'll see tonight, sprinting to the ball ad nauseam. It's the way the game should be played.

Now, for the game: I say the Bucs will slow down (I didn't say "shut down'') sudden ace back DeAngelo Williams, which is how you shut down the Panthers.