What about Bob? Glauber's NFL Blog

Check out Terry Pluto's column in today's Cleveland Plain Dealer for his reaction to the Browns' fateful day and night.

By day, the Browns beat the 49ers at home to complete a surprising 10-6 season.

By night, they could only watch helplessly as the Titans beat the Colts' jayvee team to knock the Browns out of playoff contention.

Giant of the week: Eli Manning, QB. He couldn’t have picked a better time to have one of the best games of his career. Four TDs and only one INT against the unbeaten Patriots.

Jet of the week: David Harris, LB. The rookie has been one of the few bright spots all season. He had 11 tackles and a sack in the Jets’ OT win against Chiefs, increasing his season tackles total to 127.

Offensive player of the week: Larry Fitzgerald, WR, Cardinals. He had a whopping 11 catches for 171 yards and two TDs in the Cardinals’ win over the Rams. If and when this Cardinals team ever puts it together, Fitzgerald will be a key contributor.

Defensive player of the week: Jyles Tucker, LB, Chargers. The rookie had three sacks of Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell, including one in the endzone that he recovered for a touchdown. The Chargers’ win moved them into the No. 3 seed.

Special teams player of the week: Andre Davis, KR, Texans. He scored not one, but two touchdowns off kickoff returns in the Texans' win over the Jaguars. Bears return man extraordinaire Devin Hester returned another punt for touchdown yesterday and set the single-season record with six return TDs. But he'll have to settle for our All Pro vote instead of the weekly award. Somehow, we think All Pro is just a tad more valuable than the Monday Memo mention.

Comeback of the week: Patriots 38, Giants 35. One of the best games of the season as Patriots complete unbeaten season. They rallied from 28-16 third-quarter deficit with 21 unanswered points.

Dominating performance award, Part 1: Redskins 27, Cowboys 6. With a playoff berth on the line, Redskins thump their divisional foes at home and cap remarkable late-season surge to get into the tournament. Joe Gibbs has the magic after all.

Off the scrap heap award: Todd Collins, QB, Redskins. Collins fills in for the injured Jason Campbell and leads the Redskins to the playoffs. Not a bad way to finish out a contract. Looks like he'll hit it big in the off-season.

Dominating performance award, Part 2: Cardinals 48, Rams 19. Kurt Warner beats up his old team with three touchdown passes. Not bad for a guy who was ready to hang it up a few years ago but decided to keep playing.

Fade to black award: Vikings. They held their playoff fate in their hands a little more than a week ago, but a huge home loss to Washington last Sunday took that away. They finished it off with a 22-19 loss to the Broncos yesterday.

Rookie fade award: Adrian Peterson, RB, Vikings. Peterson is still our offensive rookie of the year. But he and his team have to be concerned by his fade down the stretch. In his last four games, he had a combined 144 yards.

Red hot award: The Chargers. They won their sixth straight and head into the playoffs on a roll. Their win over Oakland clinched the No. 3 seed. They’ll host the Titans in the wild card round.

Sympathy award: To all Browns fans, who had to watch helplessly as the Colts lost to the Titans and thus ended the Browns’ playoff hopes. Cleveland could have avoided this scenario by beating the Bengals last week, but such is life. It doesn’t help that the Colts pulled Peyton Manning in the first half. Don’t think Tony Dungy will be too well received in Cleveland these days.

Final word: Happy New Year to one and all.

After a 5-11 season, the Ravens have parted ways with Brian Billick. The team will make Billick's firing official at a 3:30 p.m. news conference.

This one is a bit of a surprise, since Billick had been told late in the season that he'd be back, in part because of the rash of injuries that negatively impacted the team this year. But Billick's credibility was questioned inside the locker room, and team owner Steve Bisciotti decided he needed to go in a different direction.

Bisciotti and general manager Ozzie Newsome will immediately begin their search for a new head coach.

One of the coolest things I get to do every year is vote for the Associated Press awards, which includes the All Pro team as well as individual award winners. It's a select group of writers and assorted other media members, so I take this selection process very seriously.

I've got some ideas in mind, but I'll let anyone and everyone weigh in on their choices for the following. I've offered a subtle hint for one of the categories with the picture, but I'll let you see if you can figure out what I've got in mind.

Most Valuable Player.

Coach of the Year.

I will not be selecting a kicker for my "special teams player of the week." It will be Texans return man Andre Davis, who returned two consecutive kickoffs for touchdown in Houston's win over Jacksonville. He's the first NFL player this season to return two for scores in a single game and the seventh player in league history to achieve the feat.

(UPDATE: On second thought, it could be Devin Hester, who set the single-season record for returns. Such decisions!)

It'll be a busy early part of the week, as we'll do our Monday Memo, our final regular season Power Rankings, a little end-of-season awards stuff, and maybe throw in a look-a-like or two if we find some worth mentioning.

Stay tuned.

Honestly, I can't remember anticipating a regular season game more than this. Seeing as I've been covering this sport for 23 years, I'd say that's somewhat noteworthy.

Giants-Patriots. A chance for 16-0. Thirty five years since the last unbeaten season. You don't often get to witness history. And either way, this will be history. Either the Pats make history by becoming the first team in history to win out in a 16-game season. Or the Giants pull off the upset of the year.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why any self-respecting Giants fan would sell his or her tickets to this one. Money's nice. Being an eyewitness to history is priceless.

Prediction: Patriots 28, Giants 10.

Obscure factoid for anyone in the New York area alive and reasonably coherent in the 1970's: Surely you recognize the names Reed and Frazier, the two mainstays of the Knicks who helped them deliver two NBA Championships.

Well, a Reid and a Frazier also play for the same NFL team. Black N Gold, BBiB is back! and Steel Curtain probably know this one. Reed and Frazier are with the Steelers.

Jeff Reed is the kicker, and Andre Frazier is a linebacker. There's also a Reid. A Willie Reid, no less. Both he and Frazier are listed as probable for Sunday's game against the Ravens.

(Again, an obscure factoid that very few people care about, but that I find interesting nonetheless, since I was alive and in the New York area and reasonably coherent in the 1970's.)

Kudos to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for fining referee Jim Quirk one game check for inappropriate contact with Packers linebacker Nick Barnett during last Sunday's game against the Bears.

Quirk grabbed Barnett around the neck and threw him to the ground in trying to head off a scuffle among several players. The fine totals $8,150.

Ray Anderson, NFL executive vice president of football operations, issued the fine to Quirk, who can appeal it to Goodell. It was Goodell who called Barnett and McCarthy on Thursday, and then met Quirk in the league's New York office today.

Quirk was also involved in an altercation with Falcons running back Jason Snelling on a kickoff return in a Dec. 16 game against Tampa Bay.

Goodell needed to take decisive action here, because it would have sent the wrong message by not disciplining Quirk. Players are often fined for abusive language toward officials - Warren Sapp was fined $75,000 yesterday for his berating of an official in last week's game against the Jaguars - so when an official acts inappropriately with players, it needs to be handled in a similar fashion.

The Colts saw star receiver Marvin Harrison return to practice yesterday for the first time in more than two months.

Harrison has been out with what's been called a bruised knee, although chances are it was a bit more serious than that. Either way, if the Colts get Harrison back for the playoffs, it would be huge news for the defending champion Colts, who have done a brilliant job weathering an assortment of injuries during their title defense.

With the 15-0 Patriots dominating the headlines for most of the year, the Colts have flown largely under the radar. But they're peaking at the right time, and if they get their biggest receiving threat back for the postseason, they will be an extraordinarily dangerous team in the tournament.

Work with me on this. We've got the Vikings coach and the character played by Tom Hanks in the animated movie, "Polar Express." He plays the conductor of the train, as well as several other roles.

Also in on this is Giants.com writer Michael Eisen, who has given us the ok to use his likeness in this look-a-like. Mike actually agrees with the look-a-like, and a number of press box wags simply refer to him now as "Coach Childress." Mike does a superb job covering the team on the site, and works tirelessly to bring Giants fans the latest news.

It gets a little tricky posting multiple pictures. Hopefully this will work. Here's Eisen.

giantsfan1 on whether or not Tom Coughlin should rest his players for tomorrow night's game against the Patriots:
"I would rest the guys that are injured or slightly injured such as Burress, Jacobs, Pierce etc.. As far as the healthy starters I would play them for at least the first half, maybe 3 quarters. If they are in the game, finish it out with a chance to break the Pats win streak. If not, put the backups in to get them some experience while resting the main players.
The Pats have a week off, the Giants don't. I don't care if the Giants beat the Pats streak. It would be great if they did but the main thing is to stay healthy and rested for the Bucs the next week on the road."

Black N Gold on the debate over whether the Giants should attempt to derail the Patriots' attempt at "history."
"Let's get one thing straight right here, right now. History is the battle of Gettysburg - not 16-0."

(Editor's note: Black N Gold, you keep this message board grounded. Well said.)

Hookslide on B N G's various playoff predictions:
"Black, we all see through your tactic, falsely predicting your team loses and San Diego wins. This way, you can prepare yourself early for a disappointing weekend...and if you are correct, you can say you brilliantly picked it...in writing no less...I used to do that too...like when the Knicks played the Washington Bullets in the early 70s...when I was ELEVEN.
If your logic is accurate, and Pittsburgh has nothing to play for, then would it really be considered that big of a "huge surprise upset"
A big upset would be if 5,000 people are in the stands at the Meadowlands for the start of the fourth quarter of the Jets-KC game."

There's been a little bit of everything this season for Patriots coach Bill Belichick, so why not a picture of himself as Santa on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Belichick was asked about the cover during his media session earlier today.

"Well, you know, being associated with Santa Claus - there’s a lot worse associations to have," he said. "I’ll take it. When you’re a kid, sometimes you dream about being on the cover of Sports Illustrated. That’s not actually the one I pictured, but it’s pretty funny. Whatever sells."

And what picture did he imagine?

"It wasn’t that one," he cracked. "But, like I said, I’ll take it."

I wrote my column for the newspaper today on Belichick. Talked about the symbolism of starting and ending the season at Giants Stadium, with vastly different scenarios for each visit. I was intrigued by the symbolis. He was not.

... he probably would rest many of his starters or limit their playing time significantly for the final regular season game on Saturday night.

How do I know? Because Belichick has already been in this situation. And that's what he did.

In the 2005 regular season finale against Miami, Belichick knew he had a first-round playoff game to play. Just like the Giants, the Patriots were 10-5 heading into the final week.

So what did Belichick do? He had Tom Brady play a shade over a quarter, and he took him out. Matt Cassel went the rest of the way. Running back Corey Dillon didn't dress. Patrick Pass, a seldom used fullback, was the team's leading rusher that game.

Here's a link to the stat sheet. Take a look.

The Patriots wound up beating Jacksonville at home in the wild card round and lost in Denver the following week. The Steelers went on to win the Super Bowl.

The NFL Network cable wars will continue over the coming months, and possibly years, but the league has called a timeout for the Patriots' historic pursuit of a 16-0 regular season.

It's just been announced that NBC and CBS will carry the NFL Network's broadcast of the Giants-Patriots game Saturday night.

Needless to say, this is a good move by the league with the best public relations department in the history of pro sports. They are entitled to push their network on the cable companies and try to force said companies to put NFL Network on the basic cable package. But until that dispute is resolved, it makes perfect sense for the league not to hold fans hostage to those negotiations when it comes to the Patriots' history-making situation.

Neil Best will give you more details, but I just wanted to let you know it was happening. Here are some details from a press release just sent out from NBC:

NEW YORK – Dec. 26, 2007 – The NFL has arranged with broadcast television partners NBC and CBS for an unprecedented three-way national simulcast of the NFL Network telecast of Saturday night's New England Patriots at New York Giants game when the Patriots will try to become the first NFL team to go 16-0 in a regular season, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced today.

CBS was the network partner of the NFL at that time and NBC televised the AFL. In that first Super Bowl - in which the NFL Green Bay Packers beat the AFL Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on January 15, 1967 - Ray Scott, Jack Whitaker and Frank Gifford called the game for CBS while Curt Gowdy and Paul Christman broadcast the game on NBC."

Tom Coughlin has learned to do a bunch of new things this year, from showing his warm-and-fuzzy side to the players, to getting along with the media, to enjoying his first-ever Gatorade bath.

It looks like the Giants’ coach has added a new talent to his repertoire. He has learned how to dance. Ask him about how he’ll deploy his personnel in Saturday night’s game against the Patriots, and all of a sudden he turns into Fred Astaire.

“It's difficult for me because we want to win every game," Coughlin said. "I'd rather think about how we can play against a very good opponent and have an opportunity to win."

Notice he doesn’t name the opponent in that sentence. Is it undefeated New England on Saturday night in the regular season finale at Giants Stadium? Or is it Tampa Bay a week later in the first round of the NFC playoffs?

One-two-cha-cha-cha.

It is a delicate proposition for Coughlin, at least publicly. He can’t rightly say that he has no interest in winning the game, despite the fact it doesn’t mean a single, solitary thing to his team as far as the playoffs are concerned. The Giants are locked into the fifth seed, so nothing that happens on Saturday night will change who the Giants play or where. At Tampa next weekend. Period.

But Coughlin knows that how he approaches Saturday’s game against the Patriots could make all the difference in the world as far as the playoffs are concerned.

If he treats it like any other regular season game and tries to win at all costs, he runs the obvious risk of having some of his key players injured in advance of the game that really matters – the one next week. Then again, if he publicly states that he will treat this game like the last preseason game – where he gets a little work in for the starters to keep them sharp, and then takes them out to make sure they’re ready for the opener – then he runs the risk of creating a mentality where his players might unconsciously not try quite as hard and run the risk of getting hurt in their limited playing time.

What does Coughlin do?

1. Patriots (15-0) (1): History is upon us. Pats about to become first team to go 16-0 after becoming first team to go 15-0. Beating Giants will be a layup, considering Big Blue will almost surely rest some players.

2. Colts (13-2) (2): Are you betting against the Colts in the playoffs? Don’t. At least not yet. They’re playing well enough that you have to think they’ll give the Pats a run in the AFC Championship Game.

3. Cowboys (13-2) (4): Cowboys have homefield advantage for the playoffs, which could mean all the difference in whether or not they make a Super Bowl run.

4. Jaguars (11-4) (5): This is the last team anyone wants to face in the playoffs. Great running game. Great defense. Mistake-free quarterbacking. A terrific combination in January.

5. Packers (12-3) (3): Brett Favre goes belly-up in Chicago, and the Packers lose out on homefield advantage throughout the conference playoffs.

6. Chargers (10-5) (6): Bolts are hot at the right time. They’re one win away from getting the No. 3 seed.

7. Steelers (10-5) (7): They win the division, but they lose Willie Parker for the playoffs. A terrific season all-in-all, but can’t expect much in the playoffs.

8. Seahawks (10-5) (11): Lay-up win over reeling Ravens expected. Even so, problems with the running game will ultimately cause problems in the playoffs.

9. Buccaneers (9-6) (8): All Jon Gruden is thinking about is how to beat the Giants in the first round of the playoffs.

10. Giants (10-5) (13): Giants face unbeaten Pats, but the bigger issue is how Tom Coughlin uses his starters. Memo to Tom: Hardly use them at all.

11. Redskins (8-7) (17): For the first time since Joe Gibbs returned to the sidelines, the Redskins looked like the well-oiled machine they were when he won three Super Bowls on his first go-round. One more win over the Cowboys, and they’re in the tournament.

12. Titans (9-6) (14): With narrow win over Jets, Titans now control playoff fate. A win over a Colts team likely to rest its key players is all that stands in the way of a postseason berth.

13. Vikings (8-7) (9): Minny chokes at home to Redskins, who take Vikings’ playoff fate out of their hands.

14. Browns (9-6) (10): Derek Anderson has had a spectacular season, but he came up small in a big-game scenario with four picks against Cincy.

15. Eagles (7-8) (16): Eagles thump Saints on the road. Too little, too late.

16. Saints (7-8) (12): All Sean Payton wants for Christmas is a defense.

Sorry for the delay, people. A bit of a rough go getting out of snow-socked Buffalo. Read below to see why being a sportswriter isn't always the glamorous life you might think:

Giant of the week: Ahmad Bradshaw, RB. I don’t know which I like more: his 88-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter that sealed the Giants’ win, or his prediction in the huddle that he would take it to the house. Bradshaw finished with 17 carries for 151 yards and had the longest touchdown run of the season.

Jet of the week: Jerricho Cotchery, WR. With Laveranues Coles no lock to return next season, Cotchery could end up being the go-to guy. He led the Jets with eight catches for 152 yards in an otherwise nondescript loss to the Titans.

Offensive player of the week: Peyton Manning, QB, Colts. Just another day at the office for Manning, who went 28-of-35 for 311 yards and three TDs.

Defensive player of the week: Kawika Mitchell, LB, Giants. With the game still in doubt, Mitchell was all over the Bills’ backfield pressuring Trent Edwards and creating havoc. He finished with two sacks and a 20-yard interception return for touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

Special teams player of the week: Nick Harris, P, Lions. We normally reserve our special teams player of the week for a dynamic returner or kicker. But with no dominant performances in either category (unless our unfortunate experience with the PT Cruiser caused us some short-term memory loss), we will honor the Lions' punter, who had four punts inside the 20 and have a net average of 42.6 yards against the Chiefs. Kansas City's best starting field position for the entire game was their own 30.

Dominating performance award, Part I: Bears 35, Packers 7. Chicago had nothing to play for, other than the fact the Bears despise the Packers, regardless of when they play. The Bears made Brett Favre look awful and ruined the Packers’ hopes of securing homefield advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.

Dominating performance award, Part II: Jaguars 49, Raiders 11. You knew it was going to be a long day for the Raiders when Fred Taylor socred a 62-yard rushing touchdown the first time he touched the ball.

Touching moment of the week: Kevin Everett returning to the Bills for the first time since suffering a temporarily paralyzing injury in the regular season opener. Players were openly weeping while he met with them before the Giants’ game. God bless this man.

We're going to attempt to get out of Buffalo later this morning, although the winds are whipping and the snow is falling.

The Monday Memo might therefore be delayed, although that might not be such a bad thing. Last week, we threw out the question of who was the smartest person in the NFL on Sunday (it was Brian Westbrook and Jon Runyan of the Eagles, who figured out it would be best for Westbrook NOT to score a touchdown because of clock management reasons).

This week, we'll ask another one: Who was the dumbest player in the NFL yesterday and why.

(And don't forget. Any suggestions for special teams player of the week and statistical anomaly of the week are welcome.)

It is either a freakish coincidence, or the Giants truly respond to the presence of Glauber Nation at their games.

The Giants won their 10th game yesterday, downing NKR's beloved Bills with another comeback win, and qualified for the playoffs for the third consecutive year. Their record when we're in the house: 9-2. The Giants record when we're not: 1-3.

It is, of course, a freakish coincidence. How else do you explain the numbers? Then again, there are some Giants officials who cringe at the presence of Neil Best, who occasionally shows up to write a column, research a WatchDog topic, or simply get out of his jammies and leave the basement.

Best's record when writing columns at Giants games over the last three seasons is 0-3. The Giants are 0-2 at the games he has attended this season.

So I'll tell you right here, right now: The Giants will lose on Saturday night to the Patriots. Not because the game means nothing to the Giants because they're in the playoffs and will want to rest players. Not because the Patriots are going for an unbeaten season and Tom Brady is shooting to break Peyton Manning's single-season touchdown pass.

Why will they lose? WatchDog will be in the house.

There's almost no chance Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens plays in next weekend's regular season finale in Washington. Owens suffered what is being termed a high ankle sprain in last night's win over the Panthers, and he walked out of the locker room on crutches.

The Cowboys play the Redskins in a game that could decide homefield advantage in the playoffs, but with Terry Glenn almost ready to make it back from season-long knee problems, the Cowboys are expected to shut Owens down until the playoffs. That would give him three weeks to recover, since they've already clinched a first-round bye.

It is ... uh ... windy up here in Buffalo the morning of Giants-Bills at 1 p.m. at Ralph Wilson Stadium.

Really windy.

Like, "Wizard of Oz" windy.

They're expecting gusts of about 40 miles per hour during the game, and there could be some rain, maybe heavy at times.

If you are a Giants' fan, you'd better hope your team doesn't make the same mistake they did last week in failing to adequately take the winds into account during Sunday night's 22-10 loss to the Redskins.

Lots of Brandon Jacobs today.

I wrote about the Giants in one of my three Sunday columns for the newspaper. I still think they will end up making the playoffs, either by winning today or by backing in as a result of other NFC wild card contenders losing. But still, it's a dicey situation. If they lose today, they face a potentially do-or-die game against the Patriots next Saturday. Not good. (I'd forgotten to use the word "potentially" in the column, so please forgive the omission. Our Internet staff will be on the case shortly to add that potentially significant word.
UPDATE: My man Mike Rose is on the case, and the word is added. So you'll have to find something else to accuse me of being a dunce.)

... growing up, we used to watch the "Wizard of Oz" once a year when one of the television networks would air it, although the Wicked Witch of the West always creeped me out. Kids these days can at least get used to the scary lady. Between Andrea G. and Emily G., we must have watched the movie 50 times on video.

And yes, one of the greatest feelings in the world is protecting your little ones in the cradle of your arm from witches and wizards, and watching them pretend to be Dorothy Gale.

The Rams are 3-12 and going nowhere, and despite team management's recent hints that head coach Scott Linehan will not be fired, you have to wonder after reading Jim Thomas' piece in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about Torry Holt's sideline blowup during a blowout loss to the Steelers Thursday.

Seems it's not the first time one of the team's elite offensive players has disagreed publicly with the coach.

With a defense that has failed to see much progress this year and an offense whose star players are now questioning the direction of the team, it will certainly give the team's front-office decision-makers plenty of reason to seriously consider the immediate future and whether Linehan will be a part of it.

Another fine week of commenting on this board. Well done to one and all, and to all a good night.

NKR on our suggestion in the Power Rankings the Jets scored a "moral victory" over the Patriots by keeping it close:
"Oh stop fawning over the Jets. Moral victory, my ass. The Pats had both the real AND the moral victory."

Richie G on whether Bill Belichick should be Coach of the Year:
"Of course it's Belichick, and I can sum up the reason in two words.
Randy Moss. The guy was a pariah, universally viewed as a highly talented, but ultimately selfish player. Now, he's Mr Team Guy, model citizen, and why is that? Because he drank the Belichick Kool Aid, like everyone else in the locker room. BB created a Robo team in his own image, and oh yeah, they're going 16 and 0. End of story."

Craig on the Roy Williams suspension for a third "horse collar" tackle this season:
"Lost in the Roy Williams debate: no penalty be for Hamlin's vicious helmet-to-helmet hit on the Eagles tight end? It was textbook Chuck Cecil, with the expected result, a knockout. I hate all things Philly, contrary to what they say, it is never sunny there. But Reid was right to fume over the lack of flag, it was Headhunting 101. As far as I can tell the league has said/done nothing. If that's the case I assume Williams suspension vs. another fine was his choice of victum, not the infraction."

Honorable mention:
DuMont Burger on Parcells going to the Dolphins:
"Tuna to the Fish. How nice. Hey doesn't Francesa arch-enemy Sid Rosenberg have a talk show there? Time for Sid to get the exclusive."

(Editor's note: We institute the "honorable mention" category this week to honor Mr. Burger, who we know is a regular poster to our friend Mr. Best's blog. He's certainly come up with better comments than this, but we revel in tweaking Best by siphoning off as many of his readers as possible. In fact, NKR is our pride and joy when it comes to this phenomenon. She was one of the first to come over to the dark side. We anticipate Burger stepping up his comments in the weeks to come.)

I wrote about Bill Parcells taking over in Miami for today's newspaper, so here's a look. I essentially sing his praises as a talent evaluator, despite the fact he's had his share of clunkers over the years.

Bottom line: Every program he's been a part of has improved dramatically during his tenure.

Oh, and check out the headline on this one. It's a clever one from Newsday headline whiz Greg Gutes, who always gets it done in the trenches of the newsroom. Gutes and I go back to our Gannett days - he in Poughkeepsie, me in Westchester - and he once thanked me for getting my copy in early after an Islanders-Canucks playoff game in Vancouver. In 1982. I believe that was the game Mike Bossy scored a goal in mid-air after being tripped by a Canucks' defenseman.

In the wake of the Falcons being rebuffed (code word for "used") by Bill Parcells, the team may be turning its attention to former Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer.

Nothing is imminent, but the fact that Schottenheimer is on their radar is a positive development for a franchise in desperate need of leadership.

We thought Schottenheimer would have been a solid choice in Miami to clean up that mess, but it's unlikely that Parcells will turn to the 64-year-old coach to be the Dolphins' sideline boss. Schottenheimer has shown too often in the past that he wants a strong hand in personnel matters, and it wouldn't be the right fit with Parcells calling the shots.

No, that's not my prediction. It's Big Ben is Back!'s.

Yes, it's confirmed: BBiB! has gone mad and has put it in writing - right here on this blog - that San Diego will pull off a shocker by beating the Patriots in Foxboro in the AFC Championship Game.

BBiB! would love to be telling us that his beloved Steelers will be the ones going to the Super Bowl, but he realizes that his team is still a few players away, especially now that the defense is nicked up and Willie Parker is done for the year. And he does offer some extenuating circumstances behind his reasoning.

Keep in mind, too, that he admitted earlier this morning, while chiding us on our coverage of the Terrell Owens-Jessica Simpson fiasco, that he was overdosing on pistachio nuts at the company party.

Be that as it may, let's all welcome BBiB! into the world of public opinion be weighing in on his prediction, which reads as follows:

"The 2007 season will end with San Diego beating N.E. in a mix-up of coaching genius (Norv over BB? - yep, mark it down).

If I don't believe this (not naive enough to say Pittsburgh but that would obviously be ideal for me) then I simply can't enjoy most of the postseason as N.E. or Dallas winning it all is quite frankly unacceptable and unenjoyable. It would be like Notre Dame winning the Mythical National Championship. It ruins a perfectly fun season for me."

Hate to gum up the works here and take any attention away from the lovely Ms. Simpson (then again, it's yet another excuse to post her pic), but we're using this new security system on the "comments" section and some folks might be having some issues.

Big Ben is Back! is already whining about being unable to post multiple comments - we knew he'd be in a tizzy after we tweaked his beloved Steelers - so here are a few reminders:

1. The new system is being used to prevent spammers from inundating the website and thus slowing things down for you, the people we're serving.

2. Always type in the security code you see at the bottom of the page before posting your comments.

3. If you find that you can't comment multiple times, try hitting F5 to re-set the page, and then try again.

Let us know if you're having any further problems.

Mark La Monica, Newsday blog guru and Publisher's Award winner, tells us that the new system will ultimately make the site more user-friendly for the people who use it most, not the spammers looking for some free publicity.

... if for no other reason than providing an excuse to post yet another picture of the lovely Jessica Simpson.

(Hey, posting pictures of pretty women got Neil Best a Publisher's Award, so I guess he was onto something.)

Anyway, T.O. now says he was joking when he suggested that Simpson was not welcome at Cowboys' games after she was on hand for boyfriend Tony Romo's three interception clunker against the Eagles on Sunday.

"I was just kind of explaining to [Romo] what kind of happened during the course of the [interview] session," Owens said. "I kind of told him what was said, and he kind of expressed what Jessica had told him. I was like, 'Look, dude, it wasn't meant like that. Everybody was having fun, and I was saying what I had to say. There it is, it's a big story."'

Owens said he didn't think there was a problem between he and Romo. Then again, considering T.O.'s track record of controversy and conflict with his quarterbacks, anything's possible.

Yes, the Steelers beat the hapless Rams last night in St. Louis. Yes, they got to 10 wins. Yes, Ben Roethlisberger had another efficient game (3 TDs, 0 INTs).

But they lost Willie Parker for the season with a fractured fibula - the injury du jour this season in the NFL (the Giants have lost 3 players to the same injury this season).

And their defense, once the most feared in the NFL, showed further signs of slippage. Injuries are a problem, to be sure, but this certainly does not bode well moving forward.

Hmmm ... I seem to remember some of our beloved Steelers fans on this blog whining about our characterization of the Steelers' defense during a stirring comeback win over the Browns earlier this season. Maybe it was a sign of things to come?

What say you, BBiB!, Steel Curtain, Black N Gold?

Eagles coach Andy Reid and his wife, Tammy, have finally opened up about their struggles with sons Garrett and Britt, both of whom have battled drug addition and were sentenced to jail terms earlier this year in connection with Britt's road rage incident and Garrett's high-speed crash that was caused in part by heroin use.

"We've dealt with Garrett's situation for a long time, and we've done it through Super Bowls and championships," Andy Reid told Philadephia magazine, which plans to release excerpts from the interview later today. "And it's new to a lot of people, but it's not new to us."

Reid says of speculation he might soon step down as Eagles coach: "As long as I can do my job to the best of my ability, I would love to be an Eagle."

Barring an unexpected change of plans, Bill Parcells is set to join the Dolphins as the team's director of football operations, possibly as soon as tomorrow.

Then again, you could have said the same thing about the Falcons last night and been reasonably accurate.

But Parcells did what he does best; he creates the leverage game and gets a better deal elsewhere. He told the Falcons no thanks and is "expected" to sign on with the Dolphins.

(Thus, the use of the words "unexpected" and "set" and "possibly" in describing the situation. If nothing else, chronicling Parcells' various adventures over the last 23 seasons has taught us to proceed with caution. The Miami Herald is using the word "is" to describe Parcells taking the job, as in he "is" taking the job. Now, of course, this all depends on what your definition of "is" is. I believe a certain President was confused about that definition at one point in time.)

The indications I'm getting tonight are that Parcells used the Falcons to get the same deal he agreed to with the Dolphins, the place he preferred all along.

It's nothing new for Parcells, who had previously left the Falcons hanging in 1987, had twice led the Bucs to believe he would accept their head coaching position, wavered so badly on whether he'd return to the Giants after the 1983 season that former GM George Young had a contingency plan in place, negotiated with the Jets while he was still the Patriots coach in 1996 and sent out signals to the Giants while he was coaching the Cowboys last season that he was interested in New York's general manager job once Ernie Accorsi retired.

By the way, I believe that Parcells will do with the Dolphins what he's done with every other team he's been associated with over the years: Make them better. A lot better. He isn't ready to coach again, but he is an astute personnel man who had more hits than misses over the years, and it's almost impossible not to see the Dolphins benefit from his moves over the coming years.

Agree? Disagree?

Your dime, your dance floor. Fire away.

Terrell Owens has some advice for Tony Romo's new squeeze, Jessica Simpson: Please stay away.

Owens thinks there's a connection to Simpson's appearance at Texas Stadium and one of Romo's worst career efforts in Sunday's loss to the Eagles.

Cause and effect? T.O. thinks so.

"With everything that has happened, obviously with the way Tony played and the comparison between her