TEN THINGS I THINK I THINK

	Despite his injuries, Donovan McNabb threw for 369 yards and three touchdowns on Sunday. AP
	MAILBAG Peter King will answer your questions each week in Monday Morning Quarterback: Tuesday Edition. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

1. I think these are my quick-hit thoughts of week 4:

a. Who said the Patriots are dull? "I love that guy,'' Pats tight end Christian Fauria said last week of Tom Brady. "I wish he didn't have a girlfriend.''

b. Donovan McNabb is amazing, officially. He's thrown for 1,337 yards in four weeks. He's on pace for a 5,348-yard season. Imagine if he could breathe and move.

c. Ron Jaworski and Merril Hoge, you guys have had a terrific first month. Way to direct traffic, Sal.

d. It's Oct. 3 and the Bears, at 1-2, are in first place in the NFC North. The division's 3-10.

e. Man, those Mexico Citians sure must love their football. American football, that is. For 103,467 to turn out for Cards-Niners, a game that might have drawn 35,000 (might have, I say) in Tempe, I'd say that's a pretty good deal for the NFL.

f. By my ridiculously primitive count, the game took in about $2.7 million more at the gate by being played in Mexico City instead of Tempe.

2. I think the best thing I've heard about the Patriots in a long time comes from Phil Simms. "Maybe it's just a reflection of society, but everyone's looking for a reason why the Patriots won't repeat. Fans want to move on and see what's next. I speak to fans in airports and other places and they have actually expressed to me that they are 'tired' of the Patriots. OK, so you're tired of good sportsmanship? Tired of players who handle themselves well in the press? Tired of a team overcoming injuries and other obstacles? It makes you wonder.'' Amen, brother.

3. I think John York may finally have learned his lesson about running a pro football team. The lesson: You've got to install football people with a healthy respect for the salary cap atop your organization. The hard lesson he learned with Bill Walsh and Terry Donahue running the show is that you can't be seduced to ruin your cap, time after time, by the temptation of signing one or two more guys to big deals to push you over the top. If those contracts screw up the cap, you have to say no. The 49ers kept saying over the past few years, We've learned, we've learned. We won't go millions over the cap again. Then they'd go millions over the cap again. They were still paying for Jeff Garcia and Terrell Owens last year, with those guys three time zones away. Time will tell if Mike Nolan and Scot McCloughan are competent enough to build a winner, but they won't be able to use the cap as an excuse. If the 2006 cap is $90 million -- just a guess -- the 49ers will start the offseason $12 million under the cap, a refreshing change for a team always trying to get out from under the rubble of bad contracts. "We have a structure in place to manage the cap that we're not going to deviate from,'' York told me last week. Stick to that, and the 49ers might be pretty good in a year or two. Might be. Now it'll be up to Nolan and his staff to see that it happens.

4. I think it may not show up for a while, but Mike Nolan's going to be a good head coach in this league.