5. I think the Patriots won a road division game without their starting running back, tight end, left tackle, right tackle, strong safety, right corner and one starting receiver. That's pretty good, I would say. Real good.

6. I think Dan Henning is the most underrated offensive coordinator in the game right now. Look at the Panthers and tell me you knew they were the fourth highest-scoring offense in football.

7. I think if Brian Westbrook was ever going to have a big night, tonight's the night.

8. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:

a. I watched an episode of Nip/Tuck the other day. The nicest thing I can say  is that, for a straight cable channel, it was disturbingly vile. My first thought: How on God's green earth can this show be on cable TV and not on, at least, a pay-cable tier? Is anyone at the FCC watching a cable show that has graphic sex scenes? I'll get off my prudish high horse, but that show belongs on TV only after midnight on HBO or Showtime.

b. Did I do the right thing here or not? Last Thursday night, I'm coming out of the Meadowlands Racetrack from one of my annual forays into equine money-losing (though I did hit on a $5 boxed exacta for $52). It's about 11. Drunk guy, maybe 30, bumps into me as I walk to my car. Hard. He's off-balance from the drinking. Never met the guy. Never saw the guy. I turn to look, and this guy gives me a look like I make one move toward him and he will be a-brawlin'. I take half a step toward him, think better of it, and turn to go to my car. "Don't you start with me. We just met!" he slurs in one of the most bizarre post-bump greetings I've ever experienced. I think of saying something, but I keep walking, get into the car  and drive away. Hmm. Pushover? Or Man with Intelligent Sign of Life? I guess it's the latter.

c. And I did pick up a Joe Bravo bobblehead. Local jockey. Good guy. He's right next to the Craig Counsell bobblehead in my ever-expanding (and very- annoying-to-my-family) collection of those weird things. I'm so odd I'm asking for bobbleheads for Christmas, and my kids look at me like I'm a very strange man.

d. Coffeenerdness: Not a whole lot of coffee opportunities in downtown Charlotte on a Sunday night. Blasted 4 o'clock games. My stomach doesn't know the difference between Charlotte and Montclair, where Sunday night coffee places are plentiful. Now it's 1:10, and I'm struggling.

e. Charlotte's a nice, growing, comfortable downtown. Very nice. Good walking city too. Here's what it needs: a downtown Triple A ballpark, not one in South Carolina.

f. Former MHS shortstop Kaitlin Giannetti, who has a Jeter glove and Ichiro speed, just finished a great junior year for the Johns Hopkins women's soccer team, and I had the pleasure of watching her score on a penalty kick in the Blue Jays' big NCAA Division III win over Rowan the other night. Way to go, K-Dog.

g. House withdrawal. Missed it last week. Feel my pain?

9. I think no one's catching the Colts.

10. I think there are three things I'd like to point about the Owens story:

a. Keyshawn Johnson talking about Drew Rosenhaus on SIRIUS radio: "He's a rat that belongs in a gutter. I can smell him a mile away. He doesn't care about Terrell. He's recruiting next year's players."

b. We now know Owens' suspension for the year started after team ambassador Hugh Douglas ran into T.O. in the Eagles' trainers' room and an argument ensued about the legitimacy of the ankle injury Owens suffered in Denver the previous game. It was widely reported that Douglas told Owens there are guys in this room who aren't hurt as bad as they're saying. Faking, in other words. It never happened that way, Douglas told the Eagles when they asked him about the incident. What did happen, Douglas told the team, is that he'd been on Angelo Cataldi's morning-drive radio show on WIP in Philly and Cataldi started it. "That's true," Cataldi told me Tuesday. "I came on and said how this was the sixth week this year that Owens didn't seem hurt coming out of the game, yet it came time to practice and all of a sudden he was hurt." Derek Boyko, Eagle PR chief and Douglas intermediary, asked Douglas about it and the former Eagles defensive end confirmed Caltaldi's story. So this whole story began from a massive misunderstanding. The scuffle never should have happened.

c. Owens signed his seven-year, $48.6 million contract last year and the deal was basically two contracts -- the first for two years and $12.4 million, the second for five years and $36.2 million. The second part would have been activated by the March 2006 bonus, but that's moot now. I would argue that this situation was set to explode the day Owens signed the contract. Here's why: The Eagles should have known that Owens, a highly competitive man, would be pissed if he had a great year and found himself trapped in this contract. The deal was almost TOO good. His teammate Jevon Kearse was due to make $19.4 million in the first two years of his deal. Owens surely was going to lift this team higher than Kearse was. And look at the other receiver deals signed within a year of Owens' and how much they yield in the first two years: Marvin Harrison, $15.3 million, Laveranues Coles $14.1 million, Muhsin Muhammad, $13.6 million, Peerless Price, $12.6 million. With a dingbat like Owens, the Eagles should have known this contract would piss him off mightily.

d. The Case of the Missing Apology. Owens took a white sheet of paper, torn in half, to the podium to issue his lukewarm apology to the Eagles for not recognizing his 100th career touchdown. The other half he left on the stool by his locker. A Comcast SportsNet reporter found it and wrote down what it said. "I apologize to him [McNabb] for any comments that may have been negative. I respect him as a player and am proud of his exemplary performances as my quarterback and the leader of this team. I respect his willingness to play with injury and his goal to take his team back to the Super Bowl." If T.O. had said this when he should have, he'd be suiting up tonight. The mind of T.O., folks, is a very dark place.

Who I Like Tonight, and I Don't Mean Al Michaels

How sad this day and night will be for Bill Parcells. His brother Don will be buried in northern New Jersey earlier in the day, then Bill has to get his game face on to coach a very important game. This is Bill's younger brother, a real shining light in his life, and this game certainly won't be easy for him. "Tough times," he told the Dallas Morning News the other day. We can only imagine.

I wish I could give him a happy ending but I can't. I can give you an old Parcellsism, though: In the NFL, the desperate team usually wins.

Eagles, 17-16.