I don't remember if it was after the third week or the fourth week of the NFL season that I said that the Eagles were in danger of not making the playoffs because Donovan McNabb was obviously playing while injured and not playing the way he has in the past. Now, after last night's ugly loss to the Cowboys and with a severely hobbled McNabb, I think it would be a miracle for them to make the playoffs and they should be happy to finish the season 7-9. Sic transit gloria mundi.

Speaking of teams with seasons that are over, the Cleveland Browns have a young QB on the bench named Charlie Frye. I liked him coming out of college; I think he has a shot to be a decent NFL level QB. But he won't learn by staying on the sidelines and he won't learn nearly as much playing in next year's exhibition games against second stringers and scrubs – or even potential starters who are only in for a series or two and really want only to avoid injuries. Maybe it's too early now, but sometime soon, it will be time for the Browns to play Charlie Frye and see what he can do against NFL defenses that actually care about the outcome of the game.

Last weekend, the Vikings scored on an interception return, a punt return and a kickoff return in the same game. Earlier in this exhibition season, the Steelers did this to the Eagles and I commented at the time that no team in NFL history had ever done that in a game that counted. Well, now one team has.

Against the Falcons, the Packers got a 100-yard game from a running back named Samkon Gado who was last seen toting the pigskin for Liberty University. Yes, that Liberty University; the one never confused with a “football factory” school. I am not part of the inner sanctum of the Green Bay Packers by any means, but I think his presence on the squad might mean that Jim Taylor wasn't home when the Packers' front office called to inquire about his interest in a comeback.

Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times looked at the remaining NFL schedule and saw that great game scheduled for Jan 1 between the Houston Texans and the San Francisco 49ers. Here is his commentary:

“The race for the NFL's No. 1 draft pick could boil down to one season-ending titanic on Jan 1 – the Houston Texans (1-8) at San Francisco (2-7).

“For what it's worth, the oddsmakers have already installed the 49ers as 3 ½ punt favorites.”

Speaking of the 49ers, in their loss last weekend in gale force wind conditions in Chicago, QB, Cody Pickett, was 1-13 passing and had an INT. The fact that Mike Nolan never sent reserve QB, Jesse Palmer, into the game says either that the game conditions were outrageous or that Jesse Palmer is in the twilight of a career that never made it to the level of mediocrity. If a 1-13 performance with an interception by the starter isn't enough to get the back up off the bench and under center, what might it take for him to get into the game short of a compound fracture for the starter or having the guy led away in handcuffs before halftime?

Jim Armstrong had this observation in the Denver Post:

“Just the fax: Before 2003, the two Bay Area [NFL] teams had never endured losing seasons in the same year. Barring your basic miracle, this year will mark the third consecutive losing season for both.”

And before the media goes too far and pencils in the Giants for a trip to the Super Bowl this year, please keep in mind that Eli Manning – for all the improvement he has made this year and for all of the poise and skill he has shown – has won only one game away from Giants Stadium and that game was against the 49ers. Do not be misled by the Giants having won two road games this year; the first of those “road games” was in Giants Stadium against the nomadic New Orleans Saints.

By the way, don't rule the Saints or the Jets out of the race for the overall No. 1 draft pick next April either. The Jets have about three teams' worth of debilitating injuries and the Saints are – well – they're the Saints.

In the world of NCAA football, everyone who has read these rants for any amount of time knows that I have wanted a football playoff for the last 20 years or so. I've sent ideas for how to blend a playoff system into the bowl game structure to the NCAA pooh-bahs as far back as 1992. I am not wavering from that position with what I am about to say. On the assumption that Texas and USC win out – and frankly, Fresno State looks to be the only team left on the two schedules having any real shot at beating either of these teams – then the BCS will have worked better this year than the college system it replaced. There are no playoffs; I have dealt with that and everyone else needs to deal with it too. So the comparison that makes sense is the existing BCS with what it replaced.

In the pre-BCS era, USC would be playing the Big Ten Champion (Ohio State or Penn State) in the Rose Bowl and Texas would probably be heading to the Orange Bowl to play Miami – assuming the Hurricanes also win out. Those two games would make a nice “semi-final round” if there were a playoff system in place, but those two games would not match up the #1 team against the #2 team except possibly in the minds of some rabid Miami/Penn State/Ohio State fans. So, the BCS, with all its warts and with all of the geekiness of its computer rankings, looks as if it will be an improvement over what it replaced. And isn't that what positive change is all about?

The BCS folks do owe a debt of gratitude to LSU for beating Alabama last weekend to quiet down the howls from that part of the country about their “unbeaten team”. And for the rest of the BCS bowl games below the one matching up #1 versus #2, the organizers have to be thankful that Texas Tech seems to have come to earth and won't pollute one of their games. Before the season, I wrote that Texas Tech – and other teams in the Big 12 – were copying Kansas State and padding their schedules with too many cupcakes. I got lots of nasty comments about that view but I haven't heard from any of those folks in the past few days. Texas Tech posted some staggering offensive stats early in the year scoring almost 200 points against Florida International, Sam Houston State and Indiana State. They average 47 points a game but in their two losses (to lofty Texas and then to lowly Oklahoma State), they were held to a total of 34 points.

And according to ESPN reports today, the Big 12 role model for scheduling out of conference patsies, Bill Snyder, will be retiring as the coach of Kansas State at the end of this season. Sadly, whoever goes in there to replace him will be motivated to keep the soft schedule that K-State has maintained over the years so that the new coach can put a few sure wins on his ledger early on in his tenure there.

By the way, does anyone else remember when Don Fehr told the Senate Committee hearings on steroids that he hoped a deal could be struck with MLB on that issue by the end of the World Series? Well, it seems as if nothing can happen until Fehr and the Players Association Executive Committee take up the matter at their meeting in early December. Now, tell me that Don Fehr didn't know that when he told the committee that he thought a deal could be in place by the end of the World Series. Can anyone here spell “lying weasel”?

Finally, relief pitcher Ugueth Urbina is in jail in Venezuela accused of attacking some people with a machete and then dousing them with gasoline and lighting them on fire because they were using a swimming pool on his property without permission. Obviously, he has professed his innocence and awaits trial there. Some might think that this will diminish his value as a baseball commodity but I think it will increase his value. Here is a closer who can really bring the heat.

But don't get me wrong, I love sports...

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