7. I think this is what I liked about Week 3:

a. Jason Taylor's versatility and want-to. He played wide receiver, almost catching a key second-half TD from Trent Green, and tight end. The guy aches when he loses.

b. Ken Whisenhunt's smarts. He knew Baltimore was a tough place for Matt Leinart to run the Cardinals' hurry-up offense because of the noise and because Kurt Warner has been around more. So they split time and Warner brought them back from a 17-point deficit to tie it before losing. No biggie. Still Leinart's team.

c. Liked what I saw out of the cool and decisive, though Patriot-terrorized, Trent Edwards in relief of J.P. Losman.

d. Jared Allen made a big difference on the Kansas City front, with two sacks and a forced fumble. It'll be interesting to see if the Chiefs try to sign him, personal warts and all, before he hits free agency next winter.

e. Marion Barber, wisely, is starting to get the ball more than Julius Jones in the Dallas offense. Everybody can see he's the better player.

f. Tampa Bay, 182 rushing yards. Boy, was I wrong about the Rams front.

g. Jeff Garcia may not put up Kitnaesque numbers, but he wins.

h. The focus of Matt Schaub. He may have lost his first duel with Peyton Manning on Sunday, but I like how he's put the past in his rear-view mirror because it can't help him. I asked him if, given the events in Atlanta this preseason, he ever regrets the trade that sent him to Houston, knowing he'd be the man in Atlanta now had he stayed put. "I haven't let it cross my mind,'' he said. "It can't help me, so why think about it?'' Good answer.

i. Chad Pennington. Running and throwing, he silenced the silly fair-weather fans at the Meadowlands.

j. Eli Manning. The other New York QB took some blows and kept ticking. Lucky thing for him that the Yankees and Mets are in the playoff hunt and Bill Belichick is still newsy. All that has allowed Manning to fly under the radar for much of the past month.

8. I think this is what I didn't like about Week 3:

a. The continuing, almost defiant loyalty of Lovie Smith. It's time, coach.

b. Imagine what silly numbers Tony Romo could have put up Sunday night if his receivers had one or two drops instead of seven.

c. The Rams' offense. A disgrace. Marc Bulger looks indecisive and lacks confidence.

d. Put the earplugs in this week, Norv.

e. Kansas City can't run. At all.

f. The 49ers need to get more out of Alex Smith.

9. I think this is my advice to officiating czar Mike Pereira after viewing a day of football Sunday: You have got to talk to your crews this week about some of the biggest phantom calls in recent times. They were all over the place, particularly from Ron Winter's crew Sunday night. A phony interference call on Terrell Owens and a terrible illegal-block-in-the-back call on Jason Witten ... those calls just can't be supported on video. And they weren't the only ones Sunday.

9a. I think the toughest schedule stretch for any team this year, without question, is this: In 28 days, beginning on Monday night, Oct. 22, the Colts play at Jacksonville, at Carolina, New England at home and at San Diego. That could well be what separates home field in the AFC between New England and Indianapolis. Can you imagine how beat up the Colts will be flying back from San Diego in the wee hours of Nov. 12?

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

a. A shame that the Jersey theater where we saw The Hunting Party the other night was nearly empty. A B-plus film deserves better. It's almost like Richard Gere is so far off everyone's radar screen no one thinks he can make a quality movie anymore. But he can, and this story of two journalists and an intern returning to Bosnia five years after the end of civil war, to capture a legendary war criminal, makes for 100 quality film minutes.

b. Easy to see what's wrong with Daisuke Matsuzaka. He's a professional nibbler, afraid of going after hitters. On Saturday night, ahead 5-3 in the bottom of the seventh with two out and a runner on first, Matsuzaka faced Jorge Velandia (who's never had a regular MLB job and has a lifetime .185 average) with the most dangerous hitter on the Rays, Carlos Pena, on deck.

The one thing you don't want to do is have Pena come up with the tying runs on, obviously. Matsuzaka had him 1-2, then threw ball two, two-feet outside, then threw ball three, a foot outside. Then he threw ball four way up and in. This is Jorge Velandia, Dice-K, not Jorge Posada.

And then, of course, lefty Javier Lopez came in to pitch to Pena and gave up a three-run homer. Boston went on to win the game, but had no further runs scored, Pena wouldn't have won the game. Matsuzaka would have lost it -- by pitching like an old lady to a Triple-A lifer.

c. Toronto manager John Gibbons will have a lot of admirers in pennant raceville after using 15 pitchers in two games against the Yanks over the weekend ... when his team has been out of the race for three weeks.

d. When my eyes dried after finishing Scott Price's story in Sports Illustrated this week on the death of former major-leaguer Mike Coolbaugh, the first-base coach killed by a foul ball this summer, all I could think was: One of the best stories I've read in years in any magazine. And Darren Carroll's stunning and captivating photo of his widow and two sons ... breathtaking.

e. Coffeenerdness: I see you haven't taken my hint about the music in your shops, Starbucks. Let me repeat it: Three times in the past seven days, I went into the Upper Montclair (N.J.) Starbucks up the street from me and some song by Minnie Driver was playing. The same song. And the same oldies. The Supremes made a lot of songs. Do we have to hear the same music day after day? Variety, Seattle. Please. Get a playlist.

f. Welcome to the neighborhood, Brent Sutter. (That's the rookie New Jersey Devils coach for those of you who don't know the pucks so well.) Nice to see you've moved right up the street.

g. Good luck in your next life, Rich Fitter. Lots of people at your old job are already missing you ... me most of all.

h. Had a great chat with U.S. Army Sgt. Mike McGuire and his men the other day. McGuire's platoon of Improvised-Explosive-Device-defusers met at a home near McGuire's base just outside the Black Forest in Germany on the one-year anniversary of the death of one of their own, Army Sgt. Allan Bevington, on a dusty road in Iraq. Bevington, of Beaver Falls, Pa., died when an IED exploded five feet from him as McGuire's platoon worked to defuse the bomb and sanitize the area.

I got to talk to a few of the men, who gathered for a barbeque in Bevington's honor. "There hasn't been one day when I wake up and don't think about him,'' said one of the privates McGuire grew so close to, Jeremy Jewell of suburban Chicago. (Remember the guy McGuire called "Jittery Jewell?'' The kid's grown up now.) As the men spoke, it was clear what made them feel so close to each other: days, weeks and month of putting their lives on the line for each other in one of the most dangerous places there ever has been on earth. When you listen to them, it's no wonder McGuire turned down the chance for a safe military gig back in the United States this summer, choosing instead to train another platoon of men for a return trip to sweep Iraqi roads for the killer IEDs.

His platoon is slated to return to the country in February. As one of his men, Sgt. Lawrence Robinson of Olive Branch, Miss., said: "We all come from different places -- north, south, east, west. And you're put into a situation where, even if you might not like a guy at first, you realize you've got to live with him. He's an American, just like you. Day by day, he becomes your brother, he becomes your family. And when I found out that [McGuire] turned down the chance to go home, well, we already had an unbelievably strong connection. But for him to make that decision, I love him even more.''

I told Mike what Sgt. Robinson said. He was touched. And he knew he'd made the right decision to forego a move back to Missouri, where his family and his beloved Cardinals and Rams were in his backyard. "I love my family to death,'' he said. "I want to see my Mom and Dad so bad. I want to watch the Rams with my Dad. But it seemed so wrong to walk away from my men. It doesn't have to do with the war or my opinion of it; I could care less, really. That's not my job. I love these soldiers like brothers and sons.

"We have a guy in our platoon -- you remember [Specialist] Raguski. He extended his stay. He could have gone home. In the blast that killed Bevington, Raguski had the whole side of his face tattooed blue, and a piece of shrapnel stuck in his head. Those things won't go away. He could have gotten out a hero, with a full pension. But no, he came back. That is indescribable to me. Sounds like a movie, right? But it's real life.''

That's what you call a hero right there. A platoon of heroes.

i. And we make a big deal out of football players returning after eight months from knee surgeries.

Who I Like Tonight, and I Mean Tony Kornheiser

By the way, the aforementioned Sgt. Robinson, from just outside Memphis in northern Mississippi, is a big Titans fan. He'll be watching tonight -- or, rather, Tuesday morning about 4 at the base in Germany. "I think this is the year Vince takes us a long way,'' he said. "This is the year we get back to the playoffs.''

I'm feeling like a bit of a heel for picking the Saints, Sgt. Robinson. It's the desperate-team theory. As in: When in doubt, when you've really having trouble picking a winner, ask yourself which team has more to play for. Tonight it's the Saints. It's well-nigh impossible to get out of an 0-3 hole and make the playoffs, and that's what New Orleans is facing at the Superdome tonight.

And remember the emotion of a year ago, when the Saints played their first home game post-Katrina. It's almost like the fans and the place willed them to crush the Falcons. The emotion won't be as edgy tonight, but you've got to figure there will be a wave of noise and feeling that'll help the Saints. I've got one more thing that would help: Reggie Bush running north-south and pounding it up in there, instead of stretching the play out and looking to hit the home run.

Physical game. Very physical. Saints, 16-13.