Peter King > MONDAY MORNING QB

[DaDitka]

Teams unafraid to play for future are finding immediate success

Look at Sunday's big winners and tell me what they have in common.

Baltimore, Tennessee, Arizona, the New York Giants, Atlanta, Indianapolis and New England. Yes, New England, even after an 18-15 loss to the Colts in Indianapolis.

I'll give you a clue. It's a quote, actually, from Baltimore rookie running back Ray Rice, after he ran for 154 yards in the Ravens' 37-27 win at Cleveland. I asked him why he was able to have such a big day against a run defense that had been playing significantly better in the last couple of weeks.

"I have to make plays,'' Rice said. "It's what's expected of me. Me and Joe [Flacco] are two rookies out there, growing every week. I think we're going to be pretty good players here.''

"When they get drafted by the Baltimore Ravens,'' coach John Harbaugh said, "we expect them to play like that.''

My take on this week, and the first half of this NFL season, is this: The good teams, and the pleasant surprises, are the teams that plan for the future while trying to win championships today. The teams I worry about -- Oakland (with a willy-nilly, wasteful-spending approach to free-agency), Dallas (which has gone seven years without drafting a quarterback to develop), Detroit (a constant disconnect between the drafters and the coaches) -- don't have the same sort of profitable farm system developing players teams are going to need over the course of an injury-filled NFL season.

Take 5-3 Baltimore's personnel staff, led by GM Ozzie Newsome, director of college scouting Eric DeCosta and director of pro scouting George Kokinis. Only two of their 22 starters Sunday in Cleveland (Trevor Pryce, Derrick Mason) are monied free-agents from the big-money winter market. The totally rebuilt offensive line that cleared the way for 191 rushing yards to wear down the Browns has four draftees and a plug-the-gap old warhorse, Willie Anderson, starting. You shouldn't start a rookie quarterback, particularly one who was playing at Delaware a year ago. But Flacco is a precocious, unafraid kid completing 62 percent of his throws and, as Rice says, is growing into the job. The Ravens now have three backs -- Rice, Willis McGahee and La'Ron McClain -- with at least 330 rushing yards, and the kid of the group, Rice, is the explosive one, running for 4.8 yards a carry.

You can't be afraid to play kids, and to play them in important situations. We've killed the Cards over the years for poor drafting, but give GM Rod Graves and his play-the-kids coach, Ken Whisenhunt, credit. Arizona has supplanted veteran Edgerrin James with a pile-driving rookie, Tim Hightower, from Richmond, and invented a third option in the passing game, Steve Breaston. Hightower and Breaston came from the fifth round of the last two drafts.

Tennessee has made a couple of major drafting gaffes -- Adam Jones and Vince Young -- but the Titans hit a home run with 2008 first-rounder Chris Johnson. And look at the no-names past the first round who've made it big for them: starting tackles Michael Roos and David Stewart and soon-to-be Pro Bowl corner Cortland Finnegan.

The Giants won the Super Bowl last year with every 2007 draftee playing in the postseason; their pass-rush is so deep with youth that they could afford to lose Michael Strahan and Osi Umenyiora this year and still lead the league in sacks.

New GM Thomas Dimitroff in Atlanta gambled on draft day -- quarterback Matt Ryan over franchise defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey, and he reached for tackle Sam Baker -- but now both picks look like gold. You'd have to go back to Peyton Manning to find a rookie quarterback as poised and full of promise as Ryan.

The Colts are battered, and Manning isn't the same after his two summer knee procedures. They've started two rookies at guard for much of the first half of the season and been without reigning defensive player of the year Bob Sanders for half of the first half. They are waaaaay too light at defensive tackle and won't be able to fix that until 2009; they will most likely play with a patchwork secondary for the rest of the year. But the Bill Polian administration finds the kind of fast-twitch linebackers Tony Dungy wants to play with -- Gary Brackett and Tyjuan Hagler combined for 20 stops of the Patriots on Sunday night -- and the Colts are 4-4 and breathing.

I include New England in this group for a simple reason: Tom Brady has played for eight minutes in 2008, and the Patriots are 5-3. There are lots of good stories in the first half of the season, but none are as surprising as New England sharing the AFC East lead with Matt Cassel playing quarterback for 31 of the team's 32 quarters. The Cassel story illustrates why the Bill Belichick/Scott Pioli way is so effective. Remember the hue and cry to go get Chris Simms, Daunte Culpepper or Tim Rattay when Brady went down? The Patriots said: No, we'll stay in-house for our quarterback, because how can a Simms or a Rattay learn the offense as much as Matt Cassel, who's been here four years? If we've trusted Cassel to back up Brady, why don't we trust him to play?

And I believe this: If Cassel gets hurt at some point down the stretch, or when he leaves in free-agency after the season, the Patriots will put 2008 third-round pick Kevin O'Connell under center, or use him to back up Brady. The quarterback is develop-able. That's the New England mantra. Brady got developed. Cassel got developed. And O'Connell will too.

The Patriots, uncharacteristically, played a stupid fourth quarter last night. Belichick left his team without a timeout for the last 11 minutes, which haunted the team late. Jabar Gaffney dropped a potential winning touchdown pass. David Thomas had a dumb unnecessary-roughness penalty that cost New England three points. Reverse any of those, and New England might be 6-2 this morning. But that's not the issue here. My point is, the way the Patriots have been formed, and the team-first mentality at the heart of everything they do, are the reasons we're so attracted to football. When you send your kid to play high school football, you just hope he gets those unselfish team values drilled into him.

Look at the NFL in the first half of 2008. Those are the values we're seeing come home to roost.

The Fine Fifteen

1. New York Giants (7-1). A tour de force performance against Dallas by a team that looks hungry -- no, famished -- to win another Super Bowl. Eli Manning threw only five passes in the second half ... and the Giants lost nothing from their 14-point halftime lead.

2. Tennessee (8-0). You want depth? With the Titans clinging to a 13-10 lead and Green Bay trying to get a drive going, no-name defensive end Jacob Ford burst through the line to sack Aaron Rodgers and strip the ball from him. And no-name linebacker Stephen Tulloch picked it up. Did you notice, also, that Albert Haynesworth was dropped into pass coverage on at least two zone-blitz occasions against the Packers?

3. Pittsburgh (5-2). Troy Polamalu's wife gave birth Friday. The timing of that birth scared the tar out of Steelers fans around the country, most of whom rooted for a C-section last Tuesday or Wednesday. Because the long-haired one made it clear he would not miss the birth of his son, Paisos Polamalu, in order to play against the Redskins tonight at FedEx.

4. Carolina (6-2). Quietly, in the middle of the Panthers' bye week, Carolina signed kicker John Kasay to a four-year extension. Kasay is an original Panther, having kicked in the first game in franchise history in 1995. If he finishes out the contract, he'll have played for the Panthers two years longer than Brett Favre played for the Packers.

5. Washington (6-2). So Dan Snyder had this idea to promote his players for the Pro Bowl. Yards signs, like the ones politicians use, pubbing the Redskins Ticket for Honolulu. I got one in the mail the other day. It's rather snazzy. And I wondered, "What am I going to do with a Redskins Pro Bowl sign in Montclair, N.J.?'' Anyone have any ideas? Anyone in my neighborhood want to put it in their front yard?

6. Philadelphia (5-3). Todd Herremans with a touchdown catch. Brent Celek with a 100-yard receiving day. That's some wacky stuff Andy Reid did with his tight ends Sunday in Seattle.

7. (tie) New England (5-3). Stunning loss. Not a killer, though. At the midpoint of the season, New England, injuries and all, looks like the best team in the AFC East.

On another subject: I said on NBC last night that Matt Cassel will be in a unique position after the season. In this day and age, it's highly rare that a young starting quarterback, playing well, would hit the open market. But Cassel, 26, will almost certainly not be tagged by the Patriots after the season, and the team will risk losing him unless Tom Brady looks like he'll have problems returning from his knee surgery for the start of the 2009 season.

Why? Because the Patriots have a system in place, a system that calls for them to draft players to replace those who leave as rich free-agents. In this case, they'll simply train 2008 third-round pick Kevin O'Connell to replace Cassel and some team out there will pay Cassel $7 million or $8 million a year to be their quarterback of the future.

Will he be worth it? Maybe not, but when a young quarterback with some position experience is on the street, teams drool. The Texans dealt for Matt Schaub and then paid him $8 million a year -- after he'd started all of two NFL games.

7. (tie) Indianapolis (4-4). Why tie the two teams? Gallant win by the Colts on Sunday night. Playoff-saving win. Not a lot of differentiation between the teams, I didn't think ... and the Patriots had the dropped sure touchdown pass by Jabar Gaffney and the 15-yard deadball-foul penalty on David Thomas on third-and-short, in field-goal range in a three-point game. Having said that, the Colts did a terrific job moving the ball when they had to, and it's good to have Peyton Manning on your side when you've got to win a game.

9. Tampa Bay (6-3). Of the Bucs' seven remaining foes, only two (Carolina, Atlanta, both on the road) are over .500.

10. Baltimore (5-3). Uh-Oh Dept.: Between Weeks 11 and 16, the Ravens play every team in the NFC East.

11. Chicago (5-3). I'd have them higher, except the Bears had to expend every drop of energy to beat the Lions, and we won't know how long they'll lose Kyle Orton (high ankle sprain) until later today.

12. Green Bay (4-4). How do you drop a team in the Fine 15 for losing an overtime game, gallantly, to an unbeaten team?

13. Arizona (5-3). Great point by Anquan Boldin to me after the 34-13 win over the Rams: "Our team is different this year. We're tougher mentally than our teams of the last couple of years. In the past, adversity would really bother us, but not now.''

14. Atlanta (5-3). Three straight games at home now --New Orleans, Denver and Carolina. At some point soon, we're going to realistically consider the Falcons as a playoff contender.

15. (tie) New York Jets (5-3). Three-hundredth career pick by Favre, and from the looks of him after the game, he didn't much care.

15. (tie) Buffalo (5-3). Bills are 0-for-2 on their midseason tour of the AFC East, with the toughest of three games coming Sunday in Foxboro

The Award Section
Offensive Players of the Week

Matt Ryan, QB, Atlanta. Ryan won the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award in Oakland Sunday. That or he took a very comfortable lead over Chris Johnson of the Titans. Both are deserving; in fact, Johnson may well be the Titans' offensive most valuable player.

In Oakland Sunday, the highest-drafted quarterback in 2007, JaMarcus Russell, met the highest-drafted quarterback in 2008, Ryan, and it was one of the biggest mismatches of the season. By halftime, Atlanta led 24-0 and Ryan was nearly perfect: 13 of 16 for 184 yards with two touchdowns and no picks. Russell was mired in the Black Hole that the Raider franchise is in -- two of seven for nine yards, with three sacks.

Ryan's mastery of the Atlanta offense is Year 2 Peyton Manning-like. That's no exaggeration. He's comfortable with everything offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey calls, and his only weakness through the first half of the season is accuracy. He's completed 58 percent of his throws, and Mularkey, obviously, would like to get that in the mid-60s. Otherwise, Ryan's been so far better than Mike Smith or anyone else with the Falcons ever could have hoped.

Ryan finished 17 of 22 for 220 yards against the Raiders, who looked very much like a team ready to go home for the year -- and it's not yet Thanksgiving.

LenDale White and Chris Johnson, running backs, Tennessee. Midway through the second quarter at Tennessee, Green Bay took control on an Aaron Rodgers-to-Donald Driver touchdown pass. The Pack led 10-6. On the ensuing drive, Tennessee showed why it might be more than just a hold-the-fort offense, using the NFL's best 1-2 running back combo platter -- White, who leads the NFL in touchdown runs with 10, and Johnson, who leads the AFC with 715 rushing yards. On second-and-10 from the Tennessee 26 with 4:13 left in the half, here were the next three plays:

1. White off left guard for 54 yards.

2. First and 10 at the Packer 20: Kerry Collins passes to Johnson for 17.

3. First and goal from the Packer 3: Johnson off right guard for a touchdown.

For the game, Johnson had 30 touches for 161 yards and that touchdown, and White had eight carries for 77 yards. Total yards in the 19-16 Titan overtime win: 238.

"They are an awesome duo,'' Collins said over the cell afterward. "Their presence makes it impossible for a defense to concentrate too much on the pass, because on any down, they know we could get it to one of them.''

Defensive Player of the Week

John Abraham, DE, Atlanta. I don't care that Atlanta played the god-awful Raiders. When you hold an offense to three first downs, as the Falcons did in Oakland, it's a tremendous achievement. And Abraham was the leader of the Pack in Atlanta's shutout of the Raiders, sacking JaMarcus Russell three times (giving Abraham 10 sacks for the years), and adding five tackles and a forced fumble. The Falcons are handling Abraham superbly, playing him approximately 60 percent of the time and keeping him healthy -- they hope -- for the full season.

Special Teams Player of the Week

Joshua Cribbs, WR/KR, Cleveland. There were other big kicking-game plays Sunday, but few with the significance of Cribbs' 92-yard kickoff return for touchdown. Ten minutes into Ravens-Browns, Baltimore led 10-0, and to think Cleveland could come back with its struggling offense against the league's number two defense ... well, that probably wasn't going to happen. Unless the Browns made a big play on special teams. And Cribbs did. He took the kickoff after the Browns went down by 10 and zig-zagged through coverage for that 92-yard score. That made it 10-7. The Browns eventually came back to lead 27-13, but they gave it away in a 37-27 loss. For the game, Cribbs had 10 returns for 278 yards and a touchdown.

Coach of the Week

Jon Gruden, coach, Tampa Bay. After the 30-27 overtime win in Kansas City, which made Gruden the winningest coach in Bucs history (Gruden 57 wins, Tony Dungy 56), Ronde Barber hugged Gruden at midfield and congratulated him for surpassing the coach Barber loves. Later, from the team bus, Barber said: "I told my wife before the season, 'I've now played for coach Gruden longer than I played for coach Dungy,' and we were both amazed. He told us at halftime we'd have to do something special in the second half to win.''

They did, rebounding from the biggest deficit (21 points) to win a game in club history. Gruden has the Bucs at 6-3 at the bye, and he knows what his team of veterans and young players needs. He gave them seven days off, a rarity for a team when it has a bye. Did you hear the hoarse Gruden after the game? His larynx needs a bye.

Goat of the Week

The Cowboy Hierarchy. The Cowboys had no chance in this game because the Cowboys had no competent backup plan in the offseason for Tony Romo getting hurt. Brad Johnson (5 of 11, two interceptions and down 21-7 when yanked) had no business trying to win a big game at Giants Stadium, and Brooks Bollinger is nothing more than a marginal third-stringer.

Look around the league. Very few quarterbacks consistently play all 16 games of the season, and the Cowboys should have either drafted a decent one in the last couple of years and developed him under an excellent QB coach in Jason Garrett, or acquired a younger one than Johnson, who's 40. This fact absolutely amazes me: The Cowboys have not drafted a quarterback in seven years.



Chad Johnson doubled his touchdown output on the season with two more TD grabs to help the Bengals (1-8) secure their first win.
Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
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Quote of the Week I
"Hey, let's go 7-0. Let's see if we can go 7-0 ... We're playing for ourselves. We're playing for our professional livelihood.''
--Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis, in his postgame speech to his team after the Bengals won their first game of the season, 21-19, over the Jags.

The Bengals have seven games left, and Chad Johnson says he thinks the team could finish 8-8. Well, in two weeks the Bengals start a rather interesting five-game stretch -- Eagles, at Steelers, Ravens, at Colts, Redskins -- and I'll just say this: If they sweep those five, I'm changing my name to Peter Ocho Cinco.

Quote of the Week II
"Fourteen down in the second half, in a hostile environment, on the road and you came back! On the road! Character overcomes adversity! Was it perfect? Was it pretty? No! But you came back!''
--Baltimore coach John Harbaugh, to his team in the locker room, after his Ravens scored the last 24 points to beat the Browns 37-27 in Cleveland.

Quote of the Week III
"I don't know. But I'm not going to be breaking down films another 25 years, I'll tell you that.''
--New England coach Bill Belichick, asked about his future in coaching by friend and Indianapolis radio host Eddie White of "WNFI 1070 The Fan'' in a quirky, wide-ranging interview Friday. Belichick also revealed that his favorite Halloween get-up growing up was Roger Staubach, his idol during his youth in Annapolis.

Quote of the Week IV
"He blew it! When I get the apology letter I'm not gonna feel any ------- better! I'm not gonna feel any better!''
--Atlanta coach Mike Smith, caught by NFL Films for Showtime's "Inside the NFL'' show last week, after getting jobbed on an official's call at the end of the Philadelphia-Atlanta game. The official called a muffed punt by a Falcon return man, recovered by Philadelphia, and replays showed the Falcons clearly did not touch the ball.

Stat of the Week
Detroit defensive coordinator Joe Barry, under attack for having the worst statistical defense in the league this season, told Lions beat writers the other day that Detroit's 35 worst defensive snaps in their first seven games this year had yielded 1,202 total yards -- 41 percent of the yardage allowed by the defense. "So when you hear the head coach talk about 'we're this close ... it's the little things,' it is,'' Barry told reporters.

Well, if I were nine inches taller, much thinner and could drain 22-footers with a hand in my face, I'd have been Larry Bird.

Anybody coaching defense in the NFL would be Belichick-like if he could call "Mulligan'' on his worst five plays each week. To illustrate, let's look at the worst two defenses in the NFL through eight weeks in yards per game, Detroit (32) and Kansas City (31), and see what would happen to each if their most generous 35 defensive snaps were removed from their total yards allowed.

I've taken Barry's worst-35 and the 35 biggest gains Kansas City allowed through seven games.


Team Opp. Ave.Yds/Game Yards On Worst 35 Plays Worst 35 Ave.Yds/Game Adjusted Ave.Yds/Game
Detroit 421.6 1,202 171.7 249.9
Kansas City 404.7 1,175 167.9 236.8


But it's not really accurate to simply eliminate the worst 35 plays by each defense; you've got to replace those plays with what the teams would have allowed under "normal'' circumstance. The average yards per play in NFL games this year is 5.28. So let's multiply that times 35 plays -- the result is 185 yards, or 26.4 yards per game -- and add it to each team's adjusted total from above.

Detroit, with the ugly plays replaced by average ones, would average 276.3 yards allowed per game. That would put the Lions fifth in the league, a scant .9 yards per game behind undefeated Tennessee.

Kansas City, with its worst 35 plays sanitized, would average 263.2 yards allowed per game. That'd be good for third in the NFL, eight yards better per game than the ransacking New York Giants.

Now, you could be a Martian watching football for the first time this fall and know the Lions and the Chiefs aren't in the same defensive league with the Giants and the Titans. It's not close. And the Lions -- allowing an outrageous opposing quarterback rating this year of 118.0 through their 1-6 start -- aren't close to being a good defensive team.

Barry is a good defensive coach. Rod Marinelli is a good defensive coach. They might be able to figure out what ails their defenses before the end of the season, and if they do, they might save their jobs. To say the defense isthisclose to being good might be good inspiration for downtrodden players. It is, however, not very sale-able to anyone who actually watches the games.

I remember Bruce Armstrong, the former Patriots tackle, saying he could play 64 snaps well in a game but if he allowed one sack, he wouldn't think he had a very good game. If he allowed five? Well, that'd be his last game at left tackle for the Patriots. Or probably for anyone. Same thing here. If you go through half a season allowing five explosive plays a game, you're going to be on the firing line, not on the verge of getting the defense turned around.

Stat of the Week II
The Bills ran 27 straight plays from scrimmage against the Jets in the first half, covering 15 minutes and eight seconds ... and scored no points. The 14- and 13- play drives were interrupted by a 92-yard Abram Elam interception return for touchdown for the Jets.

Aggravating/Enjoyable Travel Note of the Week
I had neither an enjoyable or aggravating story this week, which must disappoint you. No aggressive drivers sneaking up to rattle me on the Garden State Parkway, no pleasant flight attendant surprising me with courtesy (probably because I have not flown in the past seven days), no strange occurrences at stoplights in Manhattan. I'll try to do better next week.

Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me
Derek Stanley, the first-year wide receiver for St. Louis, scored the first touchdown of the day at the Jones Dome Sunday against Arizona. Stanley attended Wisconsin-Whitewater, but he certainly is not the most notable student to have attended that august branch campus of the University of Wisconsin.

That would be John Belushi.

What I Learned About Football This Week That I Didn't Know Last Week
Unless we're inside a team, we can't have any idea how much digital video has revolutionized the game.

I wrote a short piece in Sports Illustrated (in your mailboxes Wednesday, if you're among the chosen ones) on the spate of imaginative play-calling on offense this year, and one of the points I used as a reason was technology. That's right -- modernization of digital-video, and what it means to the research every team puts in during the week to prepare for games.

As in this: "Two mouse clicks,'' said Tennessee defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz during a break in preparing to face Green Bay the other day, "and I have every two-point-conversion play the Packers have run since 2006, and I can watch them, one after the other. That's how advanced our video systems are now. You'd be a fool not to use it for research.''

Schwartz prepped for Indianapolis two weeks ago by watching every red-zone snap of the Colts since the start of 2007 -- 234 plays. He watched them in succession, without a break, just to see what habits the Colts had inside the 20. And last week, he looked at all 182 red-zone snaps of the Packers since the start of last season.

Some 25 years ago, teams would have had to splice film together to show that. Even 10 years ago, the computerization of video wasn't the same as it is now. In the last four or five years, every team has been outfitted with similar video systems, which enables them to look at every commonality on tape within minutes -- every third-and-8-or-longer, for instance, that the opponent has run since the start of the 2006 season.

"What I like to see are plays that become a play-caller's favorites, and whether those plays would give us trouble, and how we'd defend them,'' Schwartz said. "You can get a sense if you watch play after play of one type, and it gives me a chance to start thinking what the best way is to handle it. You never want to be caught by surprise.''

I wanted to know what jumped out at him about the Packers. "Other than the numbers on their backs, what I noticed is how similar Aaron Rodgers is to Favre,'' he said. "They throw the same kind of routes. You know, that crazy handoff and then fake throw that Favre used to do? Rodgers does that. He sure doesn't play like a first-year starter.''

One other thing about SI this week: There's a good block of an NFL Midseason Report, including a profile of Albert Haynesworth by the talented Damon Hack, that I'd strongly recommend.

Good Guy of the Week
Jim Kelly, retired quarterback, Buffalo.

Kelly, who never could get the Bills over the Super Bowl hump in his Hall of Fame career, has a new mission these days -- to get every state to test for 54 potentially fatal diseases that could be diagnosed at birth. Only one state, Minnesota, tests for that many today.

He's on this mission because of the death of his son, Hunter, in 2005, from a rare brain disease called Krabbe Leukodystrophy. The disease (leukodystrophies afflict one of every 100,000 American births) could have been diagnosed at birth, but New York State did not test for the illness when Hunter was born in 1997.

"The tragedy for Hunter, and for so many children born with fatal illnesses, is that they're simply born in the wrong state,'' Kelly said the other night. "If you don't think that's something that just tears at your heart every day ...''

I've known Kelly for a long time, and I've always found him to be one of the biggest life-of-the-party guys I've covered. He was a prolific pre-curfew beer man in his Bills training-camp years, when the Buffalo players were as tight as a team could be. But when I saw him the other day, I saw he'd changed. There was a grimness to a once-carefree guy, with more lines on his face than I remembered. The grimness is not from giving up; it's a grim determination.

He's already seen governors of three states -- New York, Pennsylvania and Kansas -- and gotten each to increase dramatically the number of diseases tested for at birth. When babies are born, their heels are pricked and a blood sample taken to test for diseases. With Kelly's lobbying, New York has increased from 11 to 44 diseases tested for, Pennsylvania from 11 to 29, and Kansas from four to 29.

Parents can buy a kit to screen their children for the maximum number of diseases for less than $100, but Kelly, and his foundation, want the tests to be done for every child as a matter of course. Considering that the costs of caring for children with one of many known leukodystrophies can run from between $500,000 and $1 million per year, it seems like early-testing money would be well spent.

"I never won a Super Bowl,'' said Kelly, "and for a long time that really bothered me, obviously. But this is real. This is life. My Super Bowl victory will be to get every state to adopt universal newborn screening so we can save lives that are now being lost needlessly. When that day comes, that victory will be 10 times better than any Super Bowl.''

Because New York now tests for Krabbe, Kelly met a perfectly healthy boy, now a year and half old, who was diagnosed at birth and successfully treated. "Little Elmer,'' he said with a grin. Now his goal is to meet a lot more Elmers. If you'd like to help, or learn more about Kelly's mission, you can go to www.huntershope.org.

The Way We Were
Jeff Garcia vs. Fran Tarkenton.

No one would think of Garcia as the heir to Tarkenton, who retired in 1978 as the NFL's all-time passing yardage leader with 47,003. Garcia will never have his those numbers or Tarkenton's resume. While Tarkenton played right away in the NFL after getting drafted by the Vikings in 1961, Garcia had to travel an arduous path to the NFL. But lately, when I watch Garcia, I see Tarkenton.

When I saw Garcia in Dallas nine days ago, I thought: That's one of the wiriest football players -- almost gaunt -- I've ever seen. I asked him what he weighed, and he said he was "barely tipping the scales at 190.'' Which means he's not 190. "Well, I'm between 185 and 190," he said. "One of the trainers said something to me about it recently, that I looked a little bit light, and I mentioned it to my wife, and she said, 'I was going to say something about that.' There's no more weight for me to lose.''

Tarkenton was listed at 6-0 and 190, Garcia at 6-1 and 190. Both are probably an inch and a few pounds less. In 246 career games, Tarkenton averaged 14.9 rushing yards per game. In 116 NFL games, Garcia has averaged 17.4. Average touchdown passes per game: Tarkenton 1.39, Garcia 1.32. Average passing yards per game: Tarkenton 191.1 (obviously in an era when teams ran more), Garcia 205.6.

The idea for Garcia is to avoid the rush as much as possible so he can live to play another day; he got whacked 13 times by the Cowboys in Week 8 despite slithering in and out of trouble much of the afternoon. It was the same with the whippet-like Tarkenton in the '60s and '70s.

"The thing I admired about Fran is how he kept plays alive,'' Garcia said. "I've seen highlights where he ran around so much to avoid the rush that he'd end up 20 yards behind the line of scrimmage. I'm a little different. I run around, but I try to stay closer to the line. Sometimes I'm right on the verge of being over the line when I throw, but when I'm forced into running, I always try to make a play with my arm when I can. So I keep it 'til the last minute.''

That was a Tarkenton trait too.

The biggest difference is probably the eras in which they played. Tarkenton was accepted as an NFLer right out of college, because scouts and GMs weren't as manic about size 45 years ago; Eddie LeBaron, at 5-9, had been a highly effective quarterback for Washington and Dallas, for instance, making the Pro Bowl four times as the shortest quarterback in football. Not so in the last 15 or 20 years. Garcia had to ride the bench in Canada (behind, coincidentally, Doug Flutie in Calgary of the CFL). Bill Walsh became Garcia's champion, telling anyone who'd listen to give the slight Garcia a shot. The 49ers finally did, and the rest is itinerant history.

Tarkenton would identify with Garcia. They both learned to make plays out of nothing. "It's how I learned to play the game,'' Garcia said. "It's always been a game of survival for me, at all levels. It's organized chaos.'' I bet Tarkenton's teammates in Minnesota and New York said that more than once about playing with Fran

Ten Things I Think I Think
1. I think these are my quick-hit thoughts of Week 9:

a. Sean Payton, the New Orleans coach, told me the other day on Sirius NFL Radio he thought his three players -- Deuce McAllister, Will Smith, Charles Grant -- accused of using a substance on the NFL's banned list would have a good chance to win their appeal. I told him I thought he'd lose all three for four weeks because the NFL has been no-exceptions strict on this issue, believing that players, and no one else, are responsible for whatever they ingest. If the league allows any of the Saints to skate, what will they say to the players who came before them who lost their appeals?

The good news for the Saints may be that the players won't have their appeals heard 'til later in November -- something I heard this week -- meaning New Orleans could have them available for much of the rest of their regular season.

b. This Week's Statistical Sign That The Apocalypse is Upon Us: USA Today, on its Thursday NFL statistics page, is ranking quarterbacks, running backs and receivers not by passer rating, rushing yards or receptions, but rather by fantasy points.

c. Howard Stern, on Sirius Radio the other day, asked Lawrence Taylor whether he ever wanted to coach football. "I'd rather watch two chickens [have conjugal relations] than coach football,'' Taylor said. Uh, I take that as a no.

d. The smartest pro football player about college football players is St. Louis strong safety Corey Chavous, who is Kiperish in his study of the college game. After watching Florida's 49-10 wipeout of Georgia Saturday, he said of the Bulldog quarterback who threw three interceptions: "I'm still convinced Matthew Stafford is a number-one-overall-type pick -- Jeff George with a team-first attitude. He is going to be a good pro.''

e. I don't watch much college football, but that was one riveting game Saturday between Texas and Texas Tech. And as my favorite college scout Chavous said after watching 6-2, 205-pound Graham Harrell's typically ridiculous 35-of-52, 476-yard performance to shock top-ranked Texas: "He's a lot more polished than [former Tech spread QBs] B.J. Symons, Kliff Kingsbury, Sonny Cumbie or Cody Hodges. He's poised. I think he'll play on Sundays. He'll probably be a mid-round pick with a solid postseason.''

I don't know. He looked better than that to me, and if his size is legit and he throws the 15-yard out with zip, he's certainly got an NFL future.

f. I really admire the Chargers for making the change at defensive coordinator. Obviously Ted Cottrell was not bringing enough heat on the passer -- San Diego was dead last in passing yards allowed per game -- and he had to go. But Cottrell was a personal favorite of GM A.J. Smith, who brought him to the Chargers. Smith showed the only thing that mattered was the bottom line, which stunk, not personal feelings.

g. Good point by Alex Marvez on Foxsports.com, by the way, relating to the Chargers: He made a cogent argument that the loss of Shawne Merriman to San Diego was more hurtful than the loss of Tom Brady to New England. I'd couple the loss of Merriman with the hamstring injury suffered by his heir, Jyles Tucker, who missed three games and just came back, tentatively, from it against the Saints. Maybe the bye will get Tucker right. He and Shaun Phillips and Luis Castillo need to get turned loose on the passer by new coordinator Ron Rivera.

h. Steve Heiden's a better all-around football player right now than Kellen Winslow Jr.

2. I think if I were an NFL owner looking for a new coach in January, I'd want to interview Texas Tech coach Mike Leach. Every NFL team is using a version of the spread offense already, and this guy's got his doctorate in it. His football brain is obviously way ahead of its time, and he might be the next big thing in coaching. What would San Francisco, St. Louis, Cincinnati or Detroit -- or any number of other teams who might make a change -- have to lose?

3. I think I don't mean to harp on ESPN for burying the "State Farm NFL Matchup'' show, but here's an example of what I'm talking about when I say it's the one pregame show that should be essential viewing for the real fan, and how ESPN is foolish for putting it on TV when no one's watching (it airs at 3 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. Eastern).

The best thing that any pregame show had Sunday was aired at 3:10 a.m. (and again at 7:40 a.m.) on the Matchup show (which airs at 3 and 7:30 a.m. Eastern), when Ron Jaworski critiqued Favre's arm strength intelligently and harshly -- and fairly. The show pulled out coaches' video of a play from the Oct. 12 Bengals-Jets game, showing a Cincinnati defender plowing into Favre with Favre's right arm fully extended in a passing motion, delivering the ball. The defender flew into Favre and drove him down, and when Favre got up, he was wincing and rubbing the front of his shoulder. Then Jaworski showed a throw that he short-armed on a deep post to tight end Dustin Keller. "Favre is clearly laboring to throw the ball down the field,'' Jaworski said. Is that the kind of important analysis you want on TV when your core football audience is asleep?

4. I think you must be getting the hint by now, Edgerrin James. You're getting the bum's rush from Tim Hightower, the fifth-round pick from Richmond. The rest of the season is not going to be pretty for James.

5. I think this is the biggest mystery of the first half of the NFL season: Why can't the Jaguars run the ball? Certainly the porous guard play -- green backups Tutan Reyes and Uche Nwaneri started at guard Sunday in Cincinnati -- is killing the Jags, but there's no excuse for rushing for 68 yards against the Bengals.

6. I think this is what I liked about Week 9:

a. Nice job by Pam Oliver grilling Plaxico Burress on FOX.

b. Beautiful throw, Joe Flacco, the touchdown bomb to Mark Clayton.

c. The amazing thing -- absolutely amazing -- about the flea flicker by Kansas City is how beautiful a throw Mark Bradley, a career wide receiver, made. It was the play of the day. The Chiefs direct-snapped to Jamaal Charles, who handed it on a reverse to Bradley, who ran right and threw a pass 47 yards in the air, caught by Tyler Thigpen four yards deep in the end zone. Perfect, perfect spiral -- and it was thrown on the dead run, and Thigpen caught it right in stride.

d. Can't argue with the cutting of Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila (one-half sack in his last 12 regular-season games) by Green Bay.

e. Great simultaneous--possession touchdown reception by Braylon Edwards against the Ravens, and a good call by the officials. Edwards had two hands on the ball, and cornerback Frank Walker had one hand in the middle of it as they fell to the ground in the end zone. Edwards definitely had more of a rightful possession of the ball than Walker did.

f. Montel Owens. Remember that name, AFC voters. He's got to be your Pro Bowl special-teamer after another huge kicking-game play in Cincinnati. He returned a fumbled Bengal kickoff return 18 yards for a touchdown to keep the Jags, barely, in the game.

g. Jeff Garcia was masterful in the second half at Kansas City -- and called the tying touchdown pass to Antonio Bryant himself.

h. Nice hands, Will Allen.

i. Donovan McNabb just had the quietest 349-yard passing day of his career. That's what happens when you win in Seattle over an irrelevant Seahawks team.

7. I think this is what I didn't like about Week 9:

a. I don't care if the first-quarter Buffalo touchdown pass to neophyte tight end Derek Fine was the first catch of his career. I don't care if you've got other priorities on the play, Jets. But to leave a receiver standing in the end zone for three full seconds, waving his hands and uncovered, has to be one of the most bizarre, neglectful plays I've seen this year.

b. Fourth-and-one, Green Bay at the Tennessee 45, first quarter, Pack goes for it, Aaron Rodgers tries to sneak one over the shoulder of safety Chris Hope to tight end Jermichael Finley.

c. Oakland: five total yards on offense in the first quarter against the mighty Falcons. At home. That's an offense in a true black hole.

d. What in the world was Brad Johnson STILL doing in the game at the Meadowlands, down 21-7 late in the first half? Ridiculous patience by Wade Phillips and his staff.

e. I guess we anointed Jay Cutler too soon.

f. While we're on the subject of the comatose Bronco offense, how about running for 14 yards against the Dolphins?

g. High ankle sprain for Kyle Orton. Bears have Titans at home, then at Green Bay. Dangerous times to throw Rex Grossman back in there, but don't count Orton out yet. Offensive coordinator Ron Turner told me after the game Orton said he felt "pretty good,'' and Orton told a friend last night he felt better than he thought he would. We'll find out more this noon after the Bears do an MRI on the ankle, but initial X-rays were negative. If it's a legit high ankle sprain, I'd expect Orton to miss two games. But since he's not known for his mobility anyway, maybe he'd come back for the Green Bay game as a statue in the pocket.

h. Rookie quarterbacks Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan just beat JaMarcus Russell 53-10 in an eight-day period. Not to pile on Russell or anything.

8. I think I can't believe that, week after week, Al Davis can sit upstairs every week and watch the carnage that passes for his football team. How can he take it without saying, "Let's get some help in here. Obviously I can't do this myself anymore.''

9. I think it amazes me, watching the best size-speed back in football, Brandon Jacobs, that he's getting only 16 rushes a game for the best team in football, the Giants. Imagine what he'd do with 25 carries. But then I see what Derrick Ward is doing with Jacobs collectively, and I understand. Through eight games, they've combined for 203 carries for 1,117 yards for 5.5 yards a pop. That's a winning formula.

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

a. I was in the upper deck, down the left-field line, for Game 5 of the World Series at Citizen Bank Park, and I'd say the same thing to Bud Selig about making us sit in a driving rainstorm with strong gusting winds for an hour before calling the game as I'd say to every airline CEO about making us sit in center seats in coach for five-hour flights: You have totally lost touch with the common customer, because you'd never do yourself what you forced us to do. One other thing: As I watched the game, I found it incredulous that Major League Baseball would allow the championship game of an incredibly interesting season to be contested -- at least two innings of it, anyway -- in a Nor'easter.

b. Joe Maddon, a very good manager, is going to have to live with quite a few decisions from this World Series over the cold winter. The biggest, I would think, is keeping the most formidable man in his bullpen in this postseason, David Price, warming up while he threw Grant Balfour, J.P. Howell and Chad Bradford for two innings, even using one of his precious last nine outs for Howell to hit.

The trio gave up four hits and two earned runs, and the game was lost. Maddon's defense might be that the pitcher was due up fourth in the next inning of suspended Game 5. My comeback: That's why they invented the double-switch in the National League park in the World Series.

c. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy than Brad Lidge, getting his 48th save in 48 opportunities this year to clinch Philly's first baseball title since 1980. I interviewed him twice for Sports Illustrated in the last three years in spring training, on my quasi-regular trips down to March baseball, and he never shied away from the nightmarish mark Albert Pujols put on his career in the playoffs three years ago.

d. New York Post quiz: Guess the headline for the following story in last Wednesday's Post (answer below): "Hundreds of thousands of people would be unable to find a toilet if a major earthquake were to hit Tokyo on a weekday, Japan's disaster-prevention panel said yesterday.''

e. Tremendous job Saturday by John Branch in the New York Times capturing the civic spirit and importance of football to the community in Parkersburg, Iowa, following the severe May tornado that leveled much of the town. Amazingly, the football team has rebounded to be 10-0 with a state playoff game today on its home field. Good luck, Falcons.

f. Coffeenerdness: Read somewhere the other day Starbucks is trying to figure out why they're struggling in a lot of stores, and why Dunkin Donuts and other coffee places are making inroads on the big boys. I don't think it's the cost of a $3.70 latte. I really don't. I think it's trying to do too much in the sandwich/music/oatmeal area. Though I must admit I like the oatmeal.

g. Maybe I've got too much time on my hands, but I love Hockey Night in Canada on CBC.

h. Don't be hurt, Martin Brodeur. It's not allowed.

i. Watching hockey or baseball NOT in high-def is like watching it through a foggy window.

j. The 2009 baseball season could end a year from Wednesday. Imagine a Cubs-Red Sox World Series ending with Game 7 in one of the venues on Nov. 5. That's right. The seventh game of the World Series would be precisely three weeks from Thanksgiving Day.

k. Three Halloween notes: Patriots PR man Stacey James' 7-year-old son Jonathan dressed as Bill Belichick -- and the best part of it was Jonathon stuffing the red replay flag in his sock ... We had a Sarah Palin and a Carson Palmer and a bottle of mustard among the 240 door-knocking guests at the King house in New Jersey -- but no McCain, Obama, Favre or Eli Manning ... Kids are coming later and later. We had our last at 9:42 p.m. That's 18 minutes shy of my bedtime, kids -- and it's an unwanted interruption of "Family Guy'' on the DVR.

l. Answer to New York Post quiz: "Urine Trouble.''

m. Vote, vote, vote. Please vote. If you love this country, vote. If you have some problems with this country, vote. If you want to read an interesting and compelling reason why you should vote, log on and read the lead to my Tuesday column. You'll love what Scott Fujita of the Saints says about voting.

Who I Like Tonight, and I Mean Tony Kornheiser
Washington 23, Pittsburgh 16. Jason Campbell's last interception was 11 months ago. He threw a pick Dec. 2 against Buffalo in the infamous double-timeout-by-Joe-Gibbs game, then was interception-free against Chicago, then missed the final four games of the season with an injury. And in the first eight games of 2008, he hasn't thrown an interception, and he's lost one fumble. Eight games, one turnover ... while completing 66.1 percent of his throws and leading Washington to a 6-2 record in a new offense. I said before the season this would be Campbell's breakthrough year, and without question it is.

It doesn't hurt that Clinton Portis has had the best five weeks a running back will have this season -- and I don't care how hot any back gets. He's rushed for 121, 145, 129, 175 and 126 yards in the 'Skins' 4-1 run since their upset of Dallas (would we really call that an upset now?), averaging a Jim Brownesque 5.7 yards a clip. This matchup is going to be interesting because the Steelers are allowing only 71.6 rushing yards per game, 2.8 per carry. Solid wall, meet jackhammer. The nation might be watching for the halftime interviews of Berman with Obama and McCain. I'll be watching for Portis with Hampton and Polamalu.

[Boris13c]

so, ol' Norm is writing novels now?

he's STILL a fatheaded goob as far as I'm concerned ... every now and then he pulls something out of the ether that has entertainment and informational value ... but not often and not regularly

f*ck yourSELF Norm

just because


(edited for clarity)

[DaDitka]

f*ck you Norm

If someone were to join the site and simply scan your posts from toady, they'd think you wanted a Norm(King)/Boris/Palin sandwich.

[Boris13c]

If someone were to join the site and simply scan your posts from toady, they'd think you wanted a Norm(King)/Boris/Palin sandwich.

I have since edited that for clarity