NFL Quick Hits

- An Alex Smith sighting in San Francisco? A competent Alex Smith sighting in San Francisco??? I'm shocked. You mean it's better for the head coach to not snipe at the #1 overall draft pick QB and to actively undermine his confidence in every way possible? That's an interesting theory. Oh, and to all those who kept asking why Shaun Hill never seemed to get the opportunities to start before? That's why. He's just not that good.

- Oh, and Houston, you're allowed to play well for 60 minutes, instead of 30.

- There were 5 games in which one team scored at least 30 points, and the other team socred less than 10. Perhaps a few teams need a refresher on the definition of parity. Even better, one of these 5 games was the showcase game to the English public. I understand the desire to not take away a home game from an NFL team that will actually put that home game to good use (though by that measure, Oakland should play one of their home games in England every year), but if you're actually serious about trying to expand to London, using crap teams for these showcase games is probably a bad idea. Tampa Bay? Really? That seemed like a good idea at any point this offseason?

- Thank you, Pittsburgh (I will never utter these words again). For one week, the Brett Favre hype machine can take the week off, now that Minnesota is no longer undefeated and 2 Brett Favre turnovers became 2 Steeler defensive touchdowns. Now we can focus on...what's that you say? Minnesota's next game is where??? %$#@!!!!!!
(If you can't guess where the game is, you haven't watched ESPN yet this year)

- You had to see this Jets-Raiders game coming. Angry defensive-minded genius coming off 3 straight losses versus terrible QB in a dysfunctional organization. Just makes Philly's loss last week all the more mindboggling. And Mark Sanchez makes waves again, as he's caught eating a hot dog on the sidelines towards the end of the game. I believe this means he has brought the curse of Rick Mirer upon himself, which means he either is going to regress into a skittish QB who refuses to go through his progressions by year 2, or he's going to ruin a Chicago Bears draft at some point in his career. I'm not sure which one.

- Okay, I give you a box-score. Team A outgains Team B 425-167. Team B gets only 9 first downs all game, gives up a safety, and loses the time of possession battle by about 10 minutes. Then I tell you that Team B won by 11 and never trailed in the game. You'd be confused. Befuddled, even. Then I'd tell you Team A's quarterback is Jake Delhomme. And suddenly it would all make sense. And Carolina signed him to an extension this offseason. John Fox has just joined Jim Zorn in the dead man walking zone.

And will someone please explain to me what it is about Buffalo that forces both them and their opponents to turn their games into poop-slinging contests? These last 3 Bills games have been some of the ugliest football games I've seen, though the Bills are 2-1 in them, go figure.

- Cutler throws 3 picks. Bears lose big. Broncos fans laugh.

- Miami shocks everyone by going up 24-3 on the Saints, but can't hold on. The first crack came with 5 seconds left in the first half. New Orleans had just scored a touchdown that was reviewed. The review showed that the Saints player was actually down inside the 1 yard line. This meant the officials would spot the ball, and then start the clock, and the Saints had no timeouts left. Saints coach Sean Payton left his kicking unit on the field (they were already there to kick the extra point before the review), content to get 3 points before halftime. Then Miami coach Tony Sparano made the boneheaded decision to call timeout. This gave Drew Brees the chance to get in his coach's ear to make his case to go for the touchdown instead and get within 2 scores. Payton was convinced, and Brees snuck the ball over the line for the touchdown. And instead of going into halftime up 18, the Dolphins instead went in to the locker room up 14, which became 7 less than 1 minute into the thrid quarter.

Would New Orleans still have been able to come back from an 18-point halftime defecit (instead of the 14 point one they actually faced)? They certainly had the offesne for it. But Coach Sparano needlessly gave away 4 points of their lead. Thos 4 points could have come in very handy late in the game. Bad bad decision that really had no upside. Are the Saints really going to set up a fake in the 15 seconds between getting the word back from the officials and when the clock starts? Especially with their extra-point kicking unit on the field? I highly doubt it.