$.01--It was the ugliest game of the afternoon, perhaps the ugliest offensive game since Trent Dilfer and Spurgeon Wynn faced off back in 1999. But the Chicago/Washington debacle gets the lead treatment here for what it was: an absolutely stunning repudiation of the Mike Martz offense as directed by Jay Cutler. The party is over, Chicago. This post-game quote from a clearly delusional Jay Cutler just about says it all: When asked if he thought about avoiding DeAngelo Hall after the Skins DB had already picked him 3 times, Cutler replied, ?No. Not at all. I?ve played against him before. There?s no reason to shy away from him. I mean that?s hard for me to say throwing four picks to the guy, but I still think if we had to play him tomorrow, I?d go after him every time.? If you know anything about DeAngelo Hall, you know he?s among the streakiest players in NFL history. When he?s hot, he?s a Pro Bowl-worthy cover man that can swallow a receiver and make lots of plays on the ball. When he?s off, he barely looks like a D-I college player. Today he was clearly on fire from the first snap of the game, yet Cutler (and Martz) kept attacking him like the fat woman at the beach washing down her barrage of turkey drumsticks with a Diet Coke, thinking that a small victory in the end makes up for all the ridiculous earlier self-flagellation. That sort of guiltless gumption might earn some respect with the ?confidence above all? mouth-breathers, but it gets coaches fired and loses games. Remember Buddy Ryan punching Kevin Gilbride? It is asinine play calling like this that turns defense versus offense and kills a locker room. It?s getting real ugly with Chicago now. The Bears have converted just five of their last 45 3rd down chances. Cutler has been sacked, hit, or hurried on nearly 75% of his attempts this season while the league average hovers between 33-40%. They had six possessions in a row end in a turnover, something that?s hard to accomplish at the middle school level. Matt Forte was running the ball reasonably well before losing a fumble, and then he never saw the ball again. $.02--The Cleveland Browns stunned everyone by manhandling the host Saints. It took a couple of gadget special teams plays (a cross-field throw on a punt return, a delayed draw play/fake punt 67-yard run by punter Reggie Hodges) and some hard running by Peyton Hillis, but what I took from this one is how Browns DC Rob Ryan handled the Saints high-octane offense. New Orleans thrives by giving Drew Brees clean throwing lanes and multiple options between the hash marks, which holds safeties and opens up the vertical passing game. Ryan correctly gambled that he could create pressure up the gut with a barrage of zone blitzes, and Brees struggled all day at recognizing the coverage drops and identifying the open receiver. That resulted in veteran defensive lineman David Bowens picking off two passes and running them back for touchdowns on plays where Brees clearly never considered Bowens would be anywhere near the target. Cleveland attacked the Saints OL and covered inside out, which is often counter to what teams try; Ryan essentially dared Brees to beat them deep and chose to shut off the bread and butter stick movers across the middle and underneath, trusting his pressure would force Brees away from the longer routes. It worked perfectly almost the entire game. Not every team has the defensive personnel and creativity the Browns have (seriously!) to pull it off, but Ryan and Mangini laid out the blueprint for the way to contain a Bush-less Saints offense. $.03--The conspiracy theorists are out in full force with the disputed ending to the Pittsburgh/Miami game. Here?s my take: -- Whenever an official raises his arms with the ?touchdown? signal, the play is dead. I?ve watched the video and couldn?t tell exactly when the first whistle blew, but it sounded well before the ball entered the scrum in the end zone. That means ?play is over?, even if the refs were wrong, and that is something that cannot be overturned. A mistaken whistle is still treated as a whistle. -- Referee Gene Steratore couldn?t have handled it on the field any worse. His ham-handed explanation served no purpose other than to propagate anger from Dolphins fans. Had he just said what I laid out in the above paragraph, he would have silenced a lot of criticism...and he would have been right. Instead he tried to weasel out of mismanaging a bad call and chummed the water for the sharks. -- It?s been my own personal experience that the person who exits the pile with the ball isn?t necessarily the person, or a teammate of the person, that actually recovered the ball. -- Miami lost this game when they couldn?t convert two possessions starting in the Pittsburgh red zone into touchdowns. This play wouldn?t have mattered if Miami took care of their own business earlier. $.04--New England held on for a skin-of-its-teeth victory in San Diego in yet another game where special teams and stupid mistakes scuttled any chance for the Chargers to emerge victorious. You are probably thinking, ?Hasn?t he written that a few times already this season?? Yes I have, but this one probably hurts a little more. San Diego, by and large, dominated the game in every aspect but the scoreboard. That also includes mental errors and turnovers, like rookie wideout Richard Goodman leaving the ball on the ground--before he was tackled--in celebration of his first NFL catch. Like Jacob Hester not realizing a pass that bounced off him was a backwards pass and therefore a fumble. Like Louis Vasquez getting a false start penalty that pushed the potential game-tying FG from 45 to 50 yards, a kick that replacement kicker Kris Brown doinked off the upright. Good teams simply don?t make boneheaded errors like those. Fans in Washington can empathize, because when Chargers coach Norv Turner held the helm in Washington his Skins teams often led the league in baffling mental errors and agonizing, inexplicable losses. There is a large cadre of men who were exceptional coordinators but lousy head coaches, and Norv Turner is their poster child. For whatever reason, Turner?s teams just aren?t inspired to victory or focused on the minute details. Whether it?s a lack of respect because Norv is a mild-mannered, bookish sort, or an unfortunate coincidence of Turner working beneath lousy GMs and laughingstock owners, it doesn?t really matter. I don?t see any way Turner can keep his job while the Chargers woefully underachieve once again. $.05--I spend my Sundays watching the NFL mix channel on DirecTV, where eight games are on the screen simultaneously. It requires some adjustment to get accustomed to splitting the attention focus, but I?m getting pretty adept at it. One of the byproducts of that approach is that I sometimes lose track of one of the games when there?s spicy action in the other ones. That happened to the Tennessee/Philadelphia game on Sunday afternoon. At the end of the third quarter it was a 16-10 yawner in favor of the Eagles. With all the stimulation and excitement in the other games (Cleveland picked off Brees again! Did Big Ben just fumble? Did Deangelo Hall really catch another one?! Is that really Ryan Fitzpatrick carving apart the Ravens defense?) I unwittingly tuned that game out. By the time I caught my breath and looked back the Titans had exploded to a 30-19 lead, which they finished off by running back an INT for a TD on the final play of the game to make it 37-19. That is one impressive 4th quarter by the Titans and WR Kenny Britt, and with the sudden loss of Dallas Clark in Indy it makes the Titans the clear favorites the rest of the way in the AFC South. $.06--Kansas City and Tampa Bay are both 4-2 and would be playoff teams if the season ended today. They took vastly divergent routes to getting from 3-2 to 4-2, but it?s hard to argue with the unbelievable turnarounds going on with these recent doormats. If I had to pick which one is more legit, my nod goes to the Chiefs. Coach Todd Haley has a better grasp on how to run a team, but the biggest changes came from the last draft and from Haley swallowing some pride and hiring Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel--both of whom he worked under in the past--as his coordinators. Weis demanded more speed and reliability at the playmaking positions, and GM Scott Pioli drafted WR/RB Dexter McCluster and TE Tony Moeaki while signing Thomas Jones at RB and sturdy upgrade Ryan Lilja to play RG. That gave Weis and the Chiefs some legit weapons and more of an identity. Crennel tinkered with the defense just enough to unchain Glenn Dorsey and Brandon Flowers, and Pioli gave him the impressive Eric Berry to shore up the safety spot. I?m not sure the Chiefs will hold onto first place in the AFC West all season (though honestly who is going to catch them?), but what should scare the rest of the AFC is that this team is still at least a year away from reaching its potential. Maybe they sort out the QB issue, where Matt Cassel is underwhelmingly adequate, and add some depth in the defensive back 8 (they play a 3-4), and there is no doubt in my mind this team could contend for an AFC title after the 2011 season. If they had Bucs QB Josh Freeman instead of Cassel, they just might have a shot this year. $.07--Life of a rookie: Panthers wideout David Gettis ran a picture-perfect red zone route to snare his first career touchdown early in Carolina?s game vs. the 49ers. He sold the stop perfectly, watched CB Nate Clements bite hard and fall down, and immediately darted straight to the end zone for a wide open catch. But late in the game, QB Matt Moore rifled a ball his way that was an easy TD. Gettis couldn?t handle the fastball and it bounced harmlessly away on 4th and goal. It sure seemed like that drop was going to cost Carolina the game. Then Gettis snags the game-tying TD on a great catch late, leading to Carolina?s first (and perhaps only) win of the season. Quite a day! $.08--5 NFL quickies: 1. There is simply no chance I will ever watch a game featuring Brett Favre with the sound on ever again. 1a. Clay Matthews didn?t get a sack but absolutely controlled the action with his pass rush all night long. Stats don?t mean much sometimes. 2. There is no better C-LG-LT package in the league than Alex Mack, Eric Steinbach, and Joe Thomas in Cleveland. They consistently handled the proverbial kitchen sink thrown at them by Saints DC Gregg Williams, and they continue to pave huge running lanes for Peyton Hillis. 3. Admit it 49ers fans, you got your hopes up a little when Alex Smith got hurt. But the play of David Carr left you bitterly disappointed too. That is precisely how to not seize the opportunity, Mr. Carr. 4. I would NEVER accuse a player of throwing a game, but after watching Chad Ochocinco?s performance in the Bengals? loss to Atlanta... You might find that statement insane in light of the raw numbers: 10 catches for 108 yards and a TD. But he just stopped on routes several times, dropped a key pass that damn near stuck to him, and didn?t even try to block on several run plays. The seedier gamblers all know it?s always easier to hide an ?on the take? game when you put up big numbers. 5. I?m writing this one at 4:30 PM CDT: Oakland 38, Denver 0 in the middle of the second quarter. Are you freaking kidding me?!? $.09--5 college/draft quickies: 1. The only game that I really watched on Saturday was Auburn/LSU. Came away very impressed with Auburn DT Nick Fairly, who looked quicker and nastier that I have seen him before. Mixed bag on Cam Newtown; incredible runner with unbelievable size, but he missed a lot of opportunities to throw and needs lots of work as an all-around QB. He throws well when he sees it, but his field vision is poor and he often tries to do too much with every play. Some of that is by design however. LSU CB Patrick Peterson shined again, both in coverage and as a return man. He steers WRs without needing to be overly physical by great instinctive body position. LSU WR Terrance Tolliver hurt his dropping stock with an ugly drop and another matador block that got his RB lit up. 2. Third week in a row the #1 team goes down, this time Oklahoma. The new #1 is vastly overconfident Oregon, which draws USC next week. Boise State and TCU couldn?t ask for more. 3. This is for all my fellow Ohio Bobcats: Muck Fiami! Frank Solich can stay in Athens as long as he wants if he keeps thumping the hated Red Hawks. 4. Broke down film of several likely late-round players last week and found two guys that I really like as sleepers in the next draft process: Hawaii WR Greg Salas and Texas Tech DT Colby Whitlock. Both look like functional NFL players that can positively contribute in the right places but lack the dynamic upside to merit early-round consideration. 5. There is always some debate about whether teams should allow the opponent to just go ahead and score to get the ball back faster late in games when behind. Northwestern appeared to do just that after Michigan State got the ball back late with a 1-point lead. MSU scored quickly and the Wildcats took over with a minute left and a chance. Then the laws of karma kicked in. MSU intercepts a bad throw and seals the stunning come-from-way-behind victory. Never test the laws of karma, folks! $.10--I got a chance this past week to talk to a Cincinnati Bengals team member and our conversation turned to Adam ?Pacman? Jones. I am very happy to report that this Bengal had nothing but positives to say about the man a judge once called a ?one man crime wave?. It appears that Mr. Jones has finally advanced beyond acting like he?s a 14-year old millionaire. He has earned the respect of his teammates and coaches by working hard, keeping his mouth shut, and handling himself like a hungry young professional. He has found much-needed stability and an emphasis on being held responsible to his teammates, something this person said Pacman has neither encountered nor embraced before.