Clinton Portis and the Redskins have reeled off four-straight wins since a Week 1 loss. Paul Spinelli/Getty Images

NEW YORK -- A really interesting Sunday. What do you want to hear about first? The origins of the Wildcat play, which has carried the woebegone Dolphins to wins over the two AFC Championship Game teams from last year? The future of Kerry Collins, who, in a month, has gone from a washed-up backup to one of the NFL's 20 most important players? The incredible case of Matty Ice? Plaxico Burress' future with the Giants?

None of the above, though I'll get to them all. My choice: The first play-call of Clinton Portis' life.

The Redskins are turning into one of the great stories of the year. They looked inept in a flaccid opener against the Giants. They've looked like the '67 Packers since. They won their fourth straight, 23-17, at Philadelphia on Sunday, and afterward, I couldn't quite believe what Jim Zorn told me.

"Clinton called that fourth-down play,'' Zorn said.

Clinton Portis what?

Fourth-and-one at the Eagles' 38, 2:48 left, Washington up 23-17, Philly out of timeouts. Tricky call here. If Washington gets stopped, the Eagles take over with about 2:40 left and 62 yards to travel for the winning score. If Washington makes it on a running play and stays inbounds and plays its time-strategy cards right, the 'Skins should be able to run out the clock by kneeling three times and going home with a dramatic win.

Zorn had his thinking cap on, with Jason Campbell and Portis and a couple of the coaches on the sidelines. "I called the formation first,'' he said, "and then he called the play. He thought we should run a draw. I didn't say anything, and I looked at my plan. It was going to be very hard to run. But I thought about the play, and it was a good call. And he's a veteran. If a rookie had said anything, I'd have told him to shut up. But the call made sense. We ran it. He had to really hammer it out.''

The draw's a great call there, with the expectation that a strong back would either wham into the line, or the quarterback would throw a sure thing to either the back or tight end. The momentary element of surprise may have given Portis the sliver he needed to plow for three yards. Ball game.

Portis was a monster in this game -- 29 carries, 145 yards -- against a D that had allowed 54 yards rushing per game in the first month of the season. Imagine how he felt, calling the last meaningful play of the game. Imagine the respect he felt from his coach. Imagine the ownership he feels in his team this morning, knowing the new coach, an offensive maven, thought enough of his brain and gut feeling that he could get the yard he needed.

There's a lot to like about these Redskins and their coach right now.

The other angles of the day I really liked:

• The Miami Wildcats. The Chargers came to Miami confident the four-touchdowns-in-six-plays experiment by the Dolphins against New England wouldn't work against them. The Wildcat is Miami's formation that calls for a direct snap to running back Ronnie Brown, who then picks a hole and runs, or hands off to Ricky Williams, or throws a pass, or ... who knows? "There's quite a bit more coming off it that we haven't shown yet,'' coach Tony Sparano told me after the game. "Stay tuned.''

Miami ran the formation 12 times against San Diego, and Brown's winning five-yard touchdown run (Miami's final points in a 17-10 victory) came off it. The formation didn't produce the explosive plays Miami got in New England, but Sparano will take 4.3 yards a clip, which is the per-rush average the Wildcat produced, on runs from Brown or Williams.

With the Wildcat in Miami, necessity was the mother of invention. The Dolphins had practiced the play but hadn't used it in the first two debacles of the season. Flying home from Arizona following a 31-10 loss, Sparano called quarterbacks coach David Lee to the front of the plane to talk. Seems Lee had used the formation last year as the play-caller at Arkansas, with Darren McFadden taking direct snaps in the backfield and Felix Jones on the field. "For us,'' Sparano said, "it was all about getting two of our best players on the field, Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams. This was a way to do it. After the Arizona game, I was looking for answers offensively, and we decided to give this a try.''

The best thing for Miami is how adept Brown is at taking snaps and using play-fakes and even throwing the ball. What could be next? My guess is something involving a lateral throwback to Chad Pennington on the right flank, followed by a Pennington pass. As Sparano said, stay tuned.

•Ice Ice Baby. "You don't realize the stadium's right in the middle of a neighborhood,'' Matt Ryan said over the cell phone with a bit of impressed wonder Sunday. He'd just walked into Lambeau Field on his fifth professional start and stunned the Packers 27-24. He was 16-of-26 for 194 yards, with two TDs, one pick and no sacks, and he finished the game with two kneeldowns. We're now going to have to take this kid, and this team, seriously.

Ryan plays the part of an NFL quarterback perfectly. He says all the right things. He looks like a bank vice president 25 minutes after the game, in a neatly pressed suit with not a hair out of place. If Peyton Manning had a second younger brother playing this game, Ryan would be him.

There's been much debate over the years about the wisdom of a first-round pick starting at quarterback from opening day on, and Ryan is defying every bad thing we think should happen to a kid in his position. "There's no right or wrong way to break in a quarterback,'' he said. "I'm convinced of that. When you're in the middle of the situation, you can't worry about it or wonder if it's right or wrong. You just have to go out there and play the best you can.''

The best has been good enough for a 3-2 start.

•Kerry Collins is back, and he's not going anywhere. I don't know how many quarterbacks in the NFL today can go on the road, play the most fearsome defense in football, take a mugging for three-and-a-half quarters, then drive his team 80 yards in 11 plays to win the game. How many, really? Four? Five? I don't know. I do know Kerry Collins did it Sunday, driving the Titans to a 5-0 start, and we now must re-think what Collins, at 35, is.

He knows what he isn't -- a No. 2 quarterback. He took great pains with me to say all the right things after the game, and he meant every one of them -- about how he loves this team in Tennessee, fits so well with Mike Heimerdinger's offense, and how this was the biggest win he'd been a part of in years. But he also said, "I just don't feel I can go back and accept being a backup anymore.''

Collins will be a free-agent after the year. Vince Young, the troubled one, has three years left on his contract. Next year, Young makes $2.16 million. In 2010 and 2011, Young will make a combined $24.5 million, if the Titans choose to keep him. They can cut him after 2009 and owe him nothing. Interesting dilemma. Collins has lost 20 pounds and is now a relatively lithe 229. He's sober. He's a little more athletic than he looked playing for the Giants near the beginning of the decade. Even though he'll be 36 at the end of the year, if he continues to play this efficiently, it'll be extremely hard for the Titans to let him go.

I figure the Titans will try to re-sign Collins, bring him to camp next year and let the best man win the job. Will he go for that? Depends what other options he has. For now, sit back and enjoy the resuscitation of a compelling player's career. "I'm so excited to be here,'' he said on a noisy Titans' bus to the airport after the game. "I still have a lot of confidence in myself as a player, and I've got the kind of opportunity that I've been waiting for.'' He's not blowing it either.

•The Giants are a pretty deep team. What must Plaxico Burress have been thinking in Miami or New Jersey, if he had his TV on Sunday? There was his sub, Domenik Hixon, rushing and receiving for more than 100 yards in the first half against Seattle before going out with a slight concussion, and there were the Giants, crushing the Seahawks 44-6, with their best receiver serving a one-game suspension.

"Today showed one person doesn't make the Giants,'' center Shaun O'Hara said afterward. Football's that kind of game. Even the loss of a premier player can be compensated for, if a team is deep enough. The Giants clearly are. When Hixon went down, here came Mario Manningham and Sinorice Moss to add a combined five catches. Those three receivers, previously in mothballs, combined for nine catches for 153 yards. So will all be forgiven when Burress, habitually late and and a no-show for a day two weeks ago, comes back? Yes, O'Hara said. "There won't be a hangover. We won't hold a grudge. But it's all up to him.''

The Giants hardly needed him against Seattle because of Eli Manning's flawless play and Brandon Jacobs running like an in-his-prime Jerome Bettis. O'Hara couldn't say enough good things about Manning, and anyone's who watched much of the Giants this year sees what O'Hara sees -- the maturation of a kid who doesn't get flustered by anything. "Sometimes," O'Hara said, "Eli calls three plays in the huddle, and he'll read the defense at the line and, depending on what he sees, he calls one.''

Five weeks into the season, the stories are so much different than we thought they'd be.

With 102 yards, Domenik Hixon had the first 100-yard receiving day of his career Sunday. Jarrett Baker/Getty Images

The Fine Fifteen

1. New York Giants (4-0). This is not only a defensively intimidating team and offensively efficient team, but also a very deep team. Tom Coughlin suspends his best receiver for a game, and his plug-in guy, Domenik Hixon, probably the fifth receiver coming out of training camp, outgains Seattle 117-115 and out-touchdowns the Seahawks 1-0 in the first half.

2. Tennessee (5-0). Best game by a quarterback with a 52.0 passer rating in a long, long time. When's the last time a backup quarterback went into Baltimore and drove 80 yards to win the game in the fourth quarter? Notice I keep calling Kerry Collins a backup quarterback. He's not anymore.

3. Dallas (4-1).Jerry Jones Sunday afternoon: "We have no plans to trade for a receiver before the trading deadline.'' No plans? So it's not going to happen? "No,'' he said. "No trade for a receiver.'' The deadline is a week from tomorrow. Detroit, looks like you're going to have to swallow Roy Williams in this lost season, or find someone else from which to get a low first-rounder or high two.

4. Pittsburgh (4-1). No team in the history of NFL byes needs a bye like the Steelers right now.

5. Washington (4-1). And the Redskins have this incredible scheduling advantage: They've finished all road games in the NFC East. They'll host Dallas (Nov. 16), the Giants (Nov. 30) and Philadelphia (Dec. 21) at FedEx.

6. New England (3-1). The hounds have been released. Matt Cassel has been allowed to throw it way far downfield. See that smile on the sidelines from Randy Moss?

7. Carolina (4-1). This is exactly the type of football John Fox loves to play -- mash it running, and keep mashing it. The DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart combo platter in this game: 39 carries, 195 yards, two touchdowns. By the way, Larry Johnson's stat line: seven carries, two yards.

8. Chicago (3-2). The Bears really missed Tommie Harris Sunday in Detroit. Yeah, right. Detroit's seven first-half possessions ended in a punt, punt, punt, fumble, punt, punt and punt -- and none lasted longer than 99 seconds.

9. Baltimore (2-2).Joe Flacco's quite a bright prospect. Joe Flacco worries the heck out of me.

10. Denver (4-1). Finally, the defense does not rest.

11. Buffalo (4-1). Bills surrendered five sacks. Bills turned it over four times. Bills got their terrific young quarterback concussed. Storm clouds form over Orchard Park. Bet they're glad to have the bye this week.

12. Philadelphia (2-3). Watching the first quarter of Philly-Washington -- and the Eagles' 119-23 edge in yards, and Jason Campbell being 0-for-5, and Donovan McNabb leading three solid drives and throwing as well as a quarterback can throw -- I wondered, "How does this team have two losses?'' Watching the rest of the game, I wondered, "How does this team have two wins?''

13. Jacksonville (2-3). The Jags' reward for losing such an emotional game Sunday night against Pittsburgh: a trip to Denver, to play Jay Cutler this week.

14. Indianapolis (2-2). "We played Colts football for five minutes today,'' coach Tony Dungy told his team in a raucous locker room at Houston. "Good thing it was the last five.''

15. (tie) Tampa Bay (3-2). I like the Bucs' defense, obviously. Who wouldn't? But at some point, this bizarre quarterback situation is going to rise up and bite them.

15. (tie) Atlanta (3-2). I cannot believe I am putting the Atlanta Falcons on this list of good teams. But they've earned it.

Quote of the Week I

"I've never seen something like that before in that situation, with the game on the line, guys pulling him to the ground and he throws it 20 yards downfield, on the money.''
--Jacksonville quarterback David Garrard, on counterpart Ben Roethlisberger's amazing performance in Pittsburgh's 26-21 victory at the Jags on Sunday night.

Quote of the Week II

"I took Martz's chair and threw it away. We got a new one.''
-- Interim St. Louis coach Jim Haslett, on Sirius NFL Radio's Opening Drive show last week. I had asked him about the man-bites-dog irony of Jim Haslett becoming the new Rams coach, considering he had been public enemy No. 1 in St. Louis as the coach of the hated Saints when Mike Martz ran the Greatest Show on Turf with the Rams.

Quote of the Week III

"I'm healthy. You're going to have to have me around for a while. I'm fine, really. I take all the tests four times a year. I get a checkup on everything, echo and all those things. All the blood work, I do that four times a year. My mother, you know, she lived a long time, 103. I hope nothing happens. Because disease is the one thing, boy, I tell you, it's tough to lick. It's tough to lick those diseases. I don't know why they can't. It bothers me they won't let us use -- and it doesn't mean that I'm Republican or Democrat -- the stem-cell. I think it could help.''
--Raiders general partner Al Davis, 79, in a sidebar discussion with reporters after his classic news conference last Tuesday.

Quote of the Week IV

"I saw -- what do they call it? -- the circus of the NFL, you know. I actually sent Lane [Kiffin] a text message and told him, 'Thank you for letting me out of there like you said you would if things went down the way they did in the draft.' My mom always said, 'Don't just look at how pretty that girl is. You've got to find out how she is on the inside.' ''
-- Indianapolis running back Dominic Rhodes, who played for the Raiders in 2007, as told to the Indianapolis Star.

Sign of the Week

"Just Stupid, Baby.''
-- Sign at an office building overlooking the Raiders training complex and offices in Alameda, Calif., seen on the day the Raiders announced the firing of Lane Kiffin and hiring of interim coach Tom Cable.

What could that sign-poster mean? See "Stat of the Week.''

Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers return from the bye in Week 7 to face the Bengals. Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

The Award Section

Offensive Players of the Week

Ben Roethlisberger, QB, Pittsburgh. What a man. My favorite mod football historian, Brian Hyland, my old boss at HBO and now at the NFL Network, texted me at 11:27 Sunday night thusly: "The dude is playing QB tonight like Winslow played in that playoff game at Miami.''

Couldn't have said it better. Playing with a separated shoulder after taking 31 significant hits the previous two weeks, Roethlisberger dodged Jags rushers all night and managed 26 completions in 41 throws for 309 yards with three touchdowns and a pick. He didn't practice all week because of his shoulder pain. Roethlisberger will go down in Steelers lore for his last six days, the improbable comeback Monday against Baltimore, then the deft, soft, arcing touchdown pass to Hines Ward with two minutes left that won this game.

Eli Manning, QB, New York Giants. Is there a quarterback in recent history who's undergone so thorough a transformation in the last half-season? Think back to last December, and the final Saturday night game of the year, when Manning played superbly in defeat against New England. Since then, he's got a 16-to-3 touchdown-to-interception differential and the steadiest hand leading this team on and off the field.

Tony Gonzalez, TE, Kansas City. It's a token award, but a deserving one for a great player who will toil in obscurity all season. His three catches for 17 yards gave him 841 receptions for an NFL tight end record 10,075 yards, passing Shannon Sharpe. Amazing thing is, he's as healthy as a horse, is only 32, and could surely get to 1,000 catches, which I'm certain no forefather of this great game ever conceived a tight end would reach.

Defensive Players of the Week

Ray Lewis, MLB, Baltimore. I know, I know. The Ravens lost Sunday, a painful defeat at the hands of the Titans in which they let Tennessee drive the length of the field in the fourth quarter to win. But the play of Lewis over the last eight quarters simply must be recognized. In the narrow losses to Pittsburgh and Tennessee, Lewis has 20 tackles, two sacks, two passes deflected, one tackle for loss and two quarterback hits. He still hits like Mike Tyson. The other night, he broke Rashard Mendenhall's shoulders, knocking him out for the year, on a simple tackle up the gut. These two great games have come in his 165th and 166th pro contests.

Travis LaBoy, DE, Arizona. Facing the previously unbeaten Bills, LaBoy led a parade of pass-rushers to the Buffalo backfield and finished with seven tackles, two sacks, two quarterback pressures and two tackles for loss. Arizona won 41-17 -- a week after getting scorched for six touchdown passes and 56 points by the Jets.

Special Teams Player of the Week

Stephen Gostkowski, K, New England. I'm long overdue in recognizing this rising-star kicker. At Candlestick/Monster/3Com/Whatever Park Sunday, he kicked field goals of 35, 40 and 49 yards, and put four of seven kickoffs in the end zone; three were downed as touchbacks. For the year, he's hit on all 10 field goals he's tried.

Coach of the Week

David Lee, quarterbacks coach, Miami. The Wildcat formation is his, and you could argue that the person most responsible for the Dolphins wins over the Patriots and Chargers is Lee. What I like about his impact on the Miami game plan is that coach Tony Sparano is willing to fold it into what the team had planned to do from the start of the season. Some coaches, particularly those getting their first chance to pilot a team in the big leagues, would be headstrong and do what they'd planned to do throughout the offseason. Lee's wrinkle has made the Dolphins a tough out.

Goat of the Week

Sage Rosenfels, QB, Houston. Houston 27, Indy 17. Four minutes left. Texans trying to run the clock out. In their next 10 plays, Rosenfels fumbled twice, one of which was returned for a touchdown, and threw an interception. Colts 31, Texans 27. Final. "My mistakes made it much easier for them to win that game,'' Rosenfels said. "I let all 53 guys and 15-whatever coaches down.'' Duhhh!

Stat of the Week

The worst records of NFL teams over the past five-and-a-third seasons, prior to Sunday, since opening day 2003:

Six comments:

1. Detroit has been one-victory-per-season better than the Raiders in these past six seasons, including 2008, and the locals just ran Matt Millen out of town with pitchforks and torches. Where is the outrage and indignation in Oakland over the six coaches since New Year's Day 2002, over the miserable record and over the most dysfunctional team in football and perhaps in all of sports?

2. Not sure I've ever seen a news conference where one man lays waste to another the way Davis did to Kiffin. Clearly, Davis thought Kiffin was in this to make a quick buck, not to build a winning team with the Raiders. "He had you conned the way he conned me,'' he said to some writers after his briefing the other day.

One of my favorite passages from the news conference was Davis repeating a conversation he and Kiffin had: "[Lane] said, 'We can't win with this.' So I said to him, 'What do you mean you can't win?' And he said, 'Well, we can't win.' And I said, 'Then do the honorable thing. If you don't think you can win, resign. If you don't think you can win, resign. I don't know what you're talking about.' "

3. I have no idea what good it did to let JaMarcus Russell know Kiffin didn't want to draft him. How can that help your team?

4. Thought I'd check in with a man who had the most success with Davis, John Madden, who had a 112-39-7 record from 1969-78 with the Raiders. I asked him what the next coach of the Raiders should know and what the key was to a coach working well with Davis.

"He's got to form a partnership with Al,'' Madden said. "Don't put people between yourself and Al. That's the key. You know, it's no accident that maybe the best two coaches of all time are Paul Brown and George Halas, and look at how many people were between them and the owner. No one! They owned and coached! You communicate directly with Al. Once a decision is made, it doesn't always go your way, but you go forward as a team.''

Madden wanted to build his team with the offensive line first. Davis wanted to build with speed, particularly in the defensive backfield. "We used to argue all the time,'' Madden said. "Al doesn't always think he's right. We argued for years about Jack Tatum and Jack Youngblood.''

In 1971, the Raiders chose 19th and the Rams 20th. Tatum, the safety from Ohio State, and Youngblood, the defensive end from Florida, were on the board. Though Davis has always been a DB fan, he favored Youngblood here, and Madden wanted Tatum. Madden won, but took no victorious pride in it. He just thought Tatum fit the Raiders' defense better.

The point is, Madden and Davis sparred verbally all the time, and neither took it personally. "That's what the next coach has to do,'' said Madden.

5. As I said on NBC on Saturday, the next coach could be Jim Fassel, who gets along swimmingly with Al. Fassel ran an offense that ranked in the top five in scoring for three straight years (479, 399 and 450 points from 2000 to 2002, respectively), would have no ego about keeping Al informed about everything he's doing, and would walk to Oakland for the job.

6. Last thing: I do not like that Kiffin flirted with Arkansas last December, with three games left in the 2007 season, the same way it's detestable that Bobby Petrino walked out on Atlanta and Nick Saban jilted Miami. When you take a coaching job, there's no defense for actively trying to find an escape hatch during the season.

And you can be sure when an Arkansas booster called Al Davis in early December last year, trying to get him to let Kiffin out of his contract to coach the Razorbacks, that Kiffin was a dead man walking. Why Al didn't fire him in the offseason, I have no idea.

One of my theories on the ill-fated Kiffin Era is this: He entered the job knowing if it didn't work out, he'd collect $6 million and still be young enough and highly regarded enough to get a primo college job. Except for the money part of it, he's got all that going for him.

Back in the day, when you took a job, you didn't take it with a golden parachute attached. "You didn't even think of a college job, or any other job, in those days,'' Madden said. "But I think the difference is there was no agents or lawyers in those days looking for the next job for coaches.''

Shawn Springs and Terrell Owens will meet again Nov. 16 in Washington. Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

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

Two things: You have to play variable forms of bump coverage to have a chance to stop Terrell Owens. Forget giving him a free release off the line. And second, Shawn Springs and T.O. must have the strangest relationship of two quasi-arch-rivals in the NFL.

Second point first: After Springs blanketed Owens throughout the first half of Washington's 26-24 upset of the Cowboys on Sept. 28 (holding Owens to two catches for 11 inconsequential yards; he finished with seven receptions for 71 yards), Springs showed up at Owens' condo in a tony Dallas neighborhood. There was a small gathering of friends.

"Would you like a bottle of water?'' Owens asked.

Sure, Springs said, and they spent a chunk of time together, watching the Chicago-Philly game, and never mentioning the three hours they'd spent in battle that afternoon at Texas Stadium. Then Springs said he was headed out, over to Nobu, a sushi place not far from Owens' home.

"See you in a couple of weeks,'' Springs said to Owens. Actually Nov. 16, which is when they meet at FedEx Field.

How strange is that? Two guys jousting, determining the outcome of this big upset, and the subject of the game never comes up. "My driver thought it was crazy,'' Springs said the other day.

It is crazy.

So how did Springs drive Owens mad in Dallas? His view: "When I got drafted by Seattle, they picked me because I was a big corner, and the game was evolving to the point where teams wanted big corners to be physical with the big receivers.

"I've checked T.O. so many times over the years, and I've learned a lot. Once he gets his speed up, he's very hard to stop. But he's not as explosive coming off the line as some other guys are. He doesn't think anyone can cover him one-on-one, but in our game-planning last week, [defensive coordinator Greg] Blache said, 'We ain't gonna double T.O.' He was giving him to me, one-on-one. He told me, 'I need you this week. We're gonna load up the box [to stop the run], and you got T.O.'

"I loved it. The little waterbug receivers, I can't stay with them. My game is the bigger guys. With T.O., you cannot let him free-release off the line. He will kill you if he gets off the line. Another thing is, you can't play a guy the same way every time. I might stab him one-handed with my inside hand, maybe come back with my other hand [in the five-yard bump zone]. I just try to jam him the first two or three yards. Sometimes he'll bull-rush me. Sometimes he'll try to get away from me. Whatever I do, I try to make some contact with him. That's important. Then I just run with him downfield. There's contact, but it's not interference, it's just two guys going to make a play. And the officials usually let us play.

"Most teams usually come into the game and say, 'We're not gonna let T.O. beat us,' and they do whatever they have to do to try to stop him. But Dallas has so many other ways to beat you. The way to play them is to try to put one guy on T.O., be a little physical, and try to neutralize him.''

And then go to his condo afterward and act like nothing happened.

Good Guy of the Week

Philadelphia safety Brian Dawkins.

Dawkins picks a high school football player from a Philadelphia-area school each week who is a smart player, a good student, has high character, and might not be able to attend a game otherwise. He buys the student and a parent or chaperone lower-bowl tickets at Lincoln Financial Field to an Eagles home game.

Dawkins meets each player and his parent or chaperone after the game, and he'll host a lunch including all his guests after the season to get to know the students better. Last week he chose Jerry Boyer, a running back/linebacker from Penncrest High, a suburb of Philadelphia, and Boyer saw the Washington-Philly game Sunday. Boyer is the only surviving child of four born to his mother, and weighed 2 pounds when he was born prematurely. His father died of pneumonia two years ago. Dawkins had a bond with Boyer, in part, because he and his wife had premature twins, Chonni and Cionni, in 2007.

"I want these young men and their parents to see something completely different from what they see around their neighborhood every day of their lives and think, 'That's all there is in life,'" Dawkins said Sunday night. "There's more to life, and I want them to see the possibilities of what happens if you work hard. Jerry is a very, very humble kid. He's the only living sibling in his family, and he's been through so much already. I told him today, 'You are God's gift to your mom and your family.' ''

Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me

Between 1973 and 1985, head coaches Mike Shanahan, Brad Childress and Sean Payton played quarterback at that football mecca, Eastern Illinois University.

Payton coached against Shanahan two weeks ago in Denver. He coaches against Childress tonight in New Orleans.

Enjoyable/Aggravating Travel Note of the Week

I'm surprised I'm not sitting in a Jersey jail today. Last Wednesday, just after 6 a.m., still dark outside, I drove along Grove Street toward Route 3, the main route to get from my house to Manhattan. (I've got a 7-10 a.m. Sirius NFL Radio shift in midtown Manhattan each Wednesday.) As I drove, suddenly -- like when a deer darts in the road and you've got to swerve to avoid it --I saw a man in a dark suit in the road with his eyes focused on something in his hands.

As quick as I could, I hard-tapped the brakes and veered to the left. The man never budged, never looked up, never acted like there was a car or another being in his planet. I missed him by 20 feet, maybe.

With my heart racing, I was fuming at the idiot and relieved I hadn't killed him ... and then I realized: This jerk was crossing a busy thoroughfare, sending a text message or reading his Blackberry, totally oblivious. And even when a car clearly came close to him, he was so mesmerized by the idiot-box in his hands that he paid it no heed. This is the third or fourth time some fool has been crossing the street without looking up as I've driven by, but the first time it's happened in the dark.

Can we please wait 'til we get to a sidewalk or a bus stop before texting or locking onto the crackberries?

The Way We Were

Muhsin Muhammad vs. Art Monk.

Muhammad is 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds. Monk (1980-1995, mostly with the Redskins) played at 6-3 and 215. Monk, with 940 catches in his career, averaged 4.2 receptions a game. Muhammad, with 764 receptions, averages 4.3 catches a game. Muhammad, 13.4 yards per catch. Monk, 13.5 yards per catch.

Each surpassed 100 catches in one season -- Monk with 106 in 1984, Muhammad with 102 in 2000. Monk was a supremely good blocker downfield, one of the best of his day, a guy Joe Gibbs often used as a tight end blocking on intermediate and deep routes. Muhammad is a very good blocker, not the best in the game, but willing.

When I think of both, I don't think of numbers. I think of unselfishness. Receivers in Monk's day weren't divas, the way some of them are now, and Monk led the way in doing what was best for the team, not his stat line. Muhammad goes against today's grain in the same way.

After Monk got in the Hall of Fame, I asked him about something Gibbs once said -- that never once in the decade he coached him did Monk ever ask for more balls, or say he was open, or ask why sometimes he was being used in the offense more as a tight end than wide receiver.

"This was a team sport for me,'' Monk said. "If it meant blocking, I blocked. If it meant catching the ball in traffic, I did that. I was just happy to be out there, contributing to a team.''

When's the last time you heard a star receiver say that? I'm not saying I can hear those precise words coming out of Muhammad's mouth (Muhammad used to gravitate toward the spotlight), but it's close. Two weekends ago, when he had a big day against Atlanta, he refused to say he's "the guy'' in the Carolina passing game, with Steve Smith on the other side. Rightfully so. "I'm the other guy,'' he said.

Joe Flacco threw for 157 yards and two interceptions against the Titans on Sunday. Nick Laham/Getty Images

Ten Things I Think I Think

1. I think these are my quick-hit thoughts of Week 5:

a. Tony Mandarich admits to steroid use at Michigan State and using performance enhancers and abusing alcohol as a pro in an interview with Armen Keteyian. Rick, I'm shocked to see gambling going on in this establishment. Absolutely shocked!

b. Welcome to the world, Dylan Madeline Schefter. I think your dad stopped working the phones long enough Friday to soak in what being a dad means. "At 11 pounds, 10 ounces, she stands a chance at becoming the first woman defensive tackle in NFL history,'' reports NFL Network correspondent Adam Schefter. That's one heck of a delivery, Sharri.

c. I've nailed you a few times, Warren Sapp, so it's only right you get a pat on the back for saying so forcefully on Inside the NFL Wednesday night that the Raiders will be in trash until Al Davis gets out of the way and gives the Raiders reins to someone else.

d. Jets safety Eric Smith's weekly salary: $26,180. So he's fined $50,000, essentially two weeks salary, plus he gets whacked for a week. I'm in favor of the NFL policing brutal hits, but I've watched Smith crashing into Anquan Boldin six times now, and I don't know how a Jets defensive coach can coach him to play that play differently.

e. Roger Goodell said Sunday it was "highly unlikely'' the schedule will be adjusted for 2009 to add more regular-season games while subtracting preseason games. Good. I hope it's "highly unlikely'' for the next 30 years that the league would play more than 16 regular-season games.

f. If I'm Rod Marinelli, all I want to do this morning is pull the covers over my head and call in sick. Very sick.

g. Still trying to figure out what Jerry Jones means when he says the Cowboys are going to "overly try'' to get Terrell Owens the ball.

h. The Packers would not give Aaron Rodgers a pain-killing injection to play Sunday. "We don't do that,'' Mike McCarthy told me Saturday afternoon. Other teams do. Who's right? Who's wrong? I don't know. But it's an interesting observation.

2. I think it's hard for me to imagine how defensive coordinators Jim Schwartz of the Titans and Rex Ryan of the Ravens don't get head coaching jobs after the constructions job they've done with their teams.

3. I think this is what I liked about Week 5:

a. Eli and Peyton Manning were 14-of-15 at 1:32 p.m. Sunday.

b. The day Donald Driver retires, the networks need to dig up his first-half touchdown bomb from Aaron Rodgers. I still don't know how he caught it, sandwiched tightly between two Falcons before getting slammed to the ground in the end zone.

c. Sav Rocca just buried a punt at the Washington 2. A beautifully placed punt, which he is majoring in this season.

d. Catch of the Year? Chicago wideout Marty Booker's one-hander at Detroit, one of the best catches of this, or any, NFL season.

e. This is getting eerie. Washington has played 20 quarters in 2008 and hasn't turned it over yet.

f. Kurt Warner doesn't stay down for long.

g. Nor do the Patriots. That was an old-school defensive game, with lots of confusion for young quarterback J.T. O'Sullivan to try to comprehend.

h. Kyle Orton looks more and more like the answer for Chicago, at least temporarily.

i. Tom Coughlin and Lovie Smith suspended top players for the game Sunday, then went out and won by a combined 78-13. Message there? Could be.

j. Patrick Willis was all over the field in an 18-tackle effort for San Francisco, though it did help that the Patriots ran 85 plays.

4. I think this is what I didn't like about Week 5:

a. Joe Flacco's kryptonite: throwing while rolling right. Twice in the first half against Tennessee, the Baltimore rookie rolled right, threw downfield and had the ball picked. One was negated because Tennessee linebacker David Thornton juggled the ball going out of bounds. But the second one stood, and the carelessness led to Tennessee tying the score at 3.

b. In Wisconsin, at 1:05 p.m. local time Sunday afternoon, the Brewers were down 5-0 and the Packers down 17-7.

c. The Lions have sprinted off to some interesting starts this fall. In their four games, they've fallen behind 21-0, 21-0, 21-3, 31-0.

d. Millen's fault, obviously.

e. If I'm Mike Holmgren, I'm asking my front seven this morning: Could you guys explain to me why you didn't try to tackle Brandon Jacobs much? That was an embarrassing effort by the Seahawks on defense. Putrid.

f. This isn't Delaware, Joe Flacco. The strength of your arm won't get the ball through defenders. They'll catch it here.

h. If I'm Marvin Lewis, I'd puke at the next mention of a "moral victory.''

5. I think the Cowboys will never, ever employ Chad Ocho Cinco/Johnson.

6. I think this is what the first month of the season has taught Eric Mangini about Brett Favre: "The biggest thing he brings to the team is he's exactly the same the next play whether the play's a big success or a failure. You try to teach your players that the only thing that matters is the next play, and to have such a great example of that on your team has been fantastic. With Brett, there's never a sense the game is over. He'd never act like it was anyway.''

7. I think those of us who spent much time around Lawrence Phillips figured that one day his life would crumble the way it did in a Los Angeles Superior Court room Friday. Phillips got 10 years in jail for assault with a deadly weapon, stemming from a 2005 incident in which he drove his car onto a field in L.A. and purposely struck four men (ages 14 to 19) after losing a pickup football game. In 1997, when Phillips was in his second season in the NFL, I followed the Rams for Dick Vermeil's first year back in the game. Two passages I'll never forget from the diary of Vermeil's season:

a. Early in training camp:All season long, Vermeil will make little concessions to the '90s. In Philadelphia he never had to excuse a player for 28 hours so he could finish his community service in order to avoid going to jail. But late yesterday, hours before veterans were to report to camp, [vice president of player programs Kevin] Warren spirited Phillips out of his dorm and drove him to St. Louis. Today the player will complete the 80 hours of off-season service he was ordered to perform after his probation violation.

He presents himself at the city morgue to do manual labor. He and Warren are ushered into a room where the coroner unzips a body bag. Inside it lies the corpse of a woman riddled with 16 bullet holes, most around the groin. She was shot outside a riverboat casino, reportedly by an angry boyfriend. Phillips has never seen anything so gruesome. "Her poor family," he says. He and Warren see other bodies -- one of a man who overdosed on heroin and another, badly decomposed, of a man found in the woods. Warren and Phillips skip lunch. On the way back to camp in the afternoon, Warren pulls into a McDonald's drive-thru. Phillips orders nothing. Still too shaken.

b. In November, when Vermeil is on the verge of cutting Phillips for repeated insubordination:The coach sees no difference in Phillips's demeanor. He doesn't get the apology he wanted. Finally, he says, "Lawrence, tell me something. What would you do if you were me?" Phillips thinks for a moment. "Coach," he says, "I'd cut me."

That's right. Vermeil, in effect, asked Phillips if he thought he should cut him -- and the player fired himself!

c. One final note from that season: Vermeil was such a Mother Teresa with his players that he called other coaches he respected in the league, trying to get Phillips a job. But Phillips was a train wreck. He had chances with the Dolphins and Niners and couldn't hack it.

8. I think the worst media thing about this football season is ESPN moving State Farm NFL Matchup to an hour earlier on Sunday morning. If you want to want the best (the ONLY, really) true Xs-and-Os football show on television now, you've got to have the TV on Sunday at 3 a.m. or 7:30 a.m., unless you TiVo or DVR it.

Madness. How many of you, intent on watching a pregame show, plus two afternoon NFL games, plus our NBC Football Night in America show, plus the Sunday night game, want to get up at 7:30 a.m. Eastern to watch the matchup show? If you're sane, you do not.

The value of this show in incalculable for getting to know what really happens in a football game, unless you've got coaches' tape in your house. I got up stupidly early Sunday to see it for the first time this year, and I got these nuggets I never would have known from Ron Jaworski, Merril Hoge and Sal Paolantonio:

Jacksonville's offense plays Pittsburgh so well because the Jags know how to plug the gaps the Steelers linebackers are so effective at bursting through ... Washington's pass defense is superb at disguising coverage, making safeties secret weapons ... Sean Payton's scheme is very good at natural pick plays, often leaving what appeared to be a well-covered receiver a moment earlier wide open ... Tampa Bay's disciplined, physical defense always seems to leave a hole for a blitzer, which last week against Green Bay was middle linebacker Barrett Ruud.

The biggest problem with this show, other than the time it's on, is that it's not 30 minutes longer.

9. I think we need to get one thing straight about the future of the Cleveland Browns (and I know they're on their bye week, but this just has to be clarified because people keep getting it wrong), and that's the contract impact of quarterback Derek Anderson. You'll recall Anderson signed a three-year, $23.85-million contract. The report is true, but the way the contract was structured makes it much less onerous than the money figure seems -- and much less dangerous if the Browns decide to part ways with the struggling Anderson after this year.

The Browns gave Anderson a $7 million signing bonus this year, plus a salary of $950,000 in 2008. In 2009, he's due a roster bonus of $5 million if he makes the team, with a salary of $1.45 million. In 2010, he's due a roster bonus of $2 million if he makes the team, plus $7.45 million in salary. So Anderson makes $7.95 million this year, and if the Browns cut him after the season, the contract will be null and void and the team won't owe him anything. The only remnant of the deal with be a $4.67-million salary-cap charge on the Browns' 2009 cap, the amount of the pro-rated signing bonus assigned to the last two years of the contract for accounting purposes.

I understand there's great excitement about Brady Quinn in Cleveland, but he's totally unproven, and the washout factor for first-round quarterbacks is in the 50-percent range. So here's my question: If I told you that you'd have to re-sign a quarterback who threw for 3,787 yards and 29 touchdowns in 15 games last year and whose contract had expired, and I told you that you could lock up him up for three years, with only one of the years guaranteed at $7.95 million, and you could cut him after a year and owe him nothing more, wouldn't you have thought that a good deal? I would.

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

a. Advice to the TBS graphics department: Just a small thing here, but a big thing to baseball fans. First pitch of the Red Sox-Angels series was at 10:07 p.m. ET. At 9:59 p.m., as had happened through the Cubs-Dodgers game, the crawl at the bottom of the screen informed us that Mike Lowell and J.D. Drew were expected to be in the starting lineup. Considering the starting lineups are posted at least a couple of hours before the game (the New York Times baseball blog had the lineups posted at 6:58 p.m.), the graphic lied. How difficult would it have been to update the information?

b. One other dumb playoff baseball thing: During the White Sox-Rays opening game, TBS showed 2008 fights between the Rays and Yanks, then the Rays and Red Sox, and Harold Reynolds said this sent a signal that the Rays wouldn't be pushed around by the power teams of their division anymore. Presto! Division title. What crappola. The Rays have been fighting for years. They brawled with the Sox in 2000 and finished 69-92. They brawled with the Sox in 2004 and finished 70-91. They brawled with the Sox in 2005 and finished 67-95. If you're going to use clich�s, at least make them true.

c. Use Tom Verducci more, TBS. And not just because he's my SI pal. He's good, smart and inquisitive.

d. Does every Cubs fan dissolve into an emotionless blob at the first sign of adversity? Talk about a couple of woe-is-me crowds at Wrigley. And six runs in 27 innings is not going to win an April series in Pittsburgh or an October series in the playoffs.

e. Overmanaging of the Week:Charlie Manuel pulled Cole Hamels after eight innings in Game 1 of the Philly-Milwaukee series. Hamels had a two-hitter, with one walk and nine strikeouts. He'd retired eight batters in a row. He'd thrown 101 pitches. Over the past 10 games, he'd averaged 107 pitches a game; 20 times this year he'd exceeded 101 pitches.

There was no need to yank Hamels, but Manuel did, in favor of his ace closer, Brad Lidge, who hadn't blown a save all season, but who struggled the last week of the season. You can make the argument Manuel wanted Lidge to get a dose of confidence, but if a veteran closer needs confidence at this point of his career, maybe he shouldn't be a closer in a playoff game. Lidge went strikeout, single, double (run), strikeout, walk, wild pitch (tying runner in scoring position), strikeout in a 35-pitch tightrope walk. Why?

f. C.B. Bucknor, I've got a good class for you to take this offseason: Strike Zone 101.

g. First two games of the BoSox-Angels series ended at 1:25 and 1:29 a.m., respectively. There's some East Coast love.

h. All those last March who picked a Rays-Dodgers World Series, raise your hands.

i. You're the smart one, Bill Plaschke. You recognize Manny Ramirez quit on a great team once, and he'll do it again. In the first three innings Saturday night, Ramirez scored from first on a hard double to right, then tagged up at first base and went to second on a medium-deep fly to center field. I can guarantee you that in eight years in Boston he didn't do those two things in one season, never mind twice in one three-inning stretch.

j. Coffeenerdness: I've got to put in a plug for Bigelow green tea with pomegranate. Rather than the second latte of the day, it's a nice, tasty substitute, at about 245 fewer calories. Smart idea to make green tea tasty.

k. You hit a triple with The Miracle at St. Anna, Spike Lee. Liked it quite a bit. Very good war scenes, and a good, inspiring war story. It meandered, though, and could have been a half-hour shorter than the 2-hour 40-minutes it was.

l. Finally got to see the premiere of Family Guy, and if I had to pick, I'm not sure which TV character I'd chose as the best in history -- George Costanza, Barney Fife, James West or Brian the dog. Brian's quite a maverick.

m. Best pizza in New York, if you like thin crust similar to the best pizza in Italy: Fiorello's, on Broadway, between 63rd and 64th.

Who I Like Tonight, and I Mean Tony Kornheiser

New Orleans 27, Minnesota 17. I made that pick thinking Marques Colston and Jeremy Shockey would be the only vital Saints not to go marching into the Superdome in full uniform tonight. Wrong. Rookie Sedrick Ellis, the 307-pound run-plugger who'd started all four games for the Saints despite a late start at training camp, is out for two to four weeks after a knee scope the other day.

The offensive line is in major limbo, with guard Jamar Nesbit out for three more games after violating the league's substance-abuse policy. Furthermore, the Saints will have trouble with the hard-charging Viking defensive line; center Jonathan Goodwin, tight end Mark Campbell and fullback Mike Karney all showed up on the late-week injury report.

Drew Brees will need a fortified flak jacket tonight. It helps, of course, when you have a quarterback completing 72 percent and on pace to set the NFL record for yards in a season. The dude's averaging 336 passing yards a game. The game's going to be on his shoulders. There's no way the Saints are running on these Vikings, so I expect Brees to put it up 45 times.