Ten Things I Think I Think

	Marc Bulger's Rams have lost six of seven and the well-respected quarterback has spoken out about his teammates' lack of effort. US Presswire
	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 13:

a. The Giants are such big news -- maybe even bigger when they're losing -- that Wednesday afternoon ESPN's NFL Live program spent the first 12 minutes on nothing but the Giants, their problems and the looming matchup with the Cowboys.

b. Sign of the Week, in the crowd behind the FOX pregame show set at Giants Stadium: "It's All A-Rod's Fault.''

c. Great note by Jay Glazer on FOX, re Chad Johnson owing Sean Payton $1,600 for 10 tickets to the Bengals-Saints game two weeks ago.

d. Howie, Howie, Howie: LaDainian Tomlinson's greatest quality is his character? We all know he's a swell guy. But there are 900 guys in the NFL we'd all say are strong character guys. Tomlinson's greatest quality is his ability to run and catch and throw better than any other running back in football.

2. I think the Rams' situation had to be especially awful for Marc Bulger to speak up like he did after the loss to Arizona. Bulger is one of those conscience-of-the-team types, respected in every corner of the locker room. "I care,'' he said Sunday, "but I know there are some guys in this locker room who don't care. It's more than one guy.'' I hear two of the non-carers are center Richie Incognito and laissez-faire tackle Alex Barron. Talk about a free-fall. The Rams have lost six of seven.

3. I think Mike Shanahan has to be second-guessing himself this morning, though I don't think the Broncos would have beaten Seattle with Jake Plummer. "Even though at times, especially tonight, it may not appear to be the right decision, I believe it is,'' Shanahan said of starting Cutler, the rookie, for the last month of the season. The damage: Cutler went 10 of 21 for 143 yards (71 of those yards on a run-after-the-catch job by Brandon Marshall in the fourth quarter), threw a really stupid interception, turned it over twice more, and just never looked comfortable. Shanahan's got to find a way this week to get into Cutler's head and say, "Kid, just do what you did at Vandy. Air it out.''

4. I think Rob Bironas' 60-yard field goal would have been good from 65. "I had the wind at my back, and I needed it,'' Bironas said after his kick beat the Colts. "It also helped me that I changed cleats. I went to a longer cleat, the screw-in cleat, because I didn't want to slip on the turf.'' As I said on NBC last night, what really freaked out Bironas was the fact that the ball that had been softened up and kicked and punted a few times during the game had just gotten kicked into the crowd when Adam Vinatieri booted his 20-yard tying field goal over the net. So Bironas thinks he was kicking a nearly virgin ball, on a cold afternoon in Nashville. One heck of an accomplishment.

5. I think the best recent example of how the league bends over backward to coddle quarterbacks is what happened to Jason Taylor last week. Taylor picked up a 15-yard penalty for a facemask violation on Jon Kitna in the Thanksgiving game. Later in the game, Detroit tackle Rex Tucker got a facemask on Taylor, the same 15-yard violation, for, according to Taylor, "pulling the helmet around so far I was seeing out of the earhole.'' Last Thursday, when Taylor came into work, he found a FedEx letter from the NFL. He'd been fined $7,500 for the facemask of Kitna. Tucker was not fined for his facemask penalty. "Outrageous,'' Taylor told me. "Once I knew I had his facemask, I let go. I'm not a dirty player. I went up to him after the game and said, 'Hey, sorry. You OK?' And he was fine. This is a savage game. We all know what we signed up for. Everybody's career is in danger on every play -- except the quarterback. It's gotten to the point in this league where there's one set of rules for 50 guys on the roster and another set for the three quarterbacks. The NFL's ruining the game. They have to stop babying these guys and treat 'em like football players.''

I appreciate the NFL's efforts to keep the quarterbacks upright these days, but the run of ticky-tack, overprotective penalties is over the top.