Ten Things I Think I Think

Just 5-8, Colts safety Bob Sanders has been the NFL's best defensive player in the first half. Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images

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 8:

a. There is no question in my mind that Bob Sanders is the NFL's best defensive player of the first half of 2007.

b. If a team can have less than no faith in a player, that's what the Panthers have for David Carr. Just look at the play-calling when he came into the game against Indy in the third quarter. They're down 10 and running draws on third-and-10.

c. Nice job by the Spanos family on Saturday, contributing $1 million to aid victims of San Diego County's wildfires, the single-biggest non-corporate donation to fire relief. The Charger owners made a similar donation for 2003 wildfire relief.

d. I wonder what Wayne Weaver, the Jags owner, thinks when he sees the Super Bowl champs come into town on a Monday night and the game draws 67,164, with tarped sections of seats that go unsold, and six days later Florida-Georgia draws 84,481. And I know those seats are tarped for all games, and the Jags could have sold more tickets for that game than they did, but the contrast is striking. It's the one market in the league that takes a back seat, with an exclamation point, to the college game.

e. Mike Ditka said on ESPN's pregame show Sunday that he was against regular-season games overseas because, as he said, "It puts the team in dishevel.'' I wasn't hearing things there, was I?

f. Lost season for Rudi Johnson.

g. Lost season for the Bengals' D, too.

h. I'm almost ready to say the same thing for the Bears. Almost.

i. Sloppy, sloppy game by the Colts in Carolina. Sometimes when you play a John Fox team you're going to look ugly, but that doesn't account for all the drops and the fumbles. In a three-play, third-quarter stretch, tight end Utecht converted a third down reception into a first down and fumbled the ball out of bounds, then backup back Kenton Keith fumbled an easy catch. Luckily for him, Dungy challenged the play and ref Ed Hochuli, questionably, overturned it. Boy, Keith looks very shaky for a guy who might have to play a big role on a Super Bowl team.

j. I'm pretty sure I know what Joe Gibbs was thinking with 12 minutes left in the fourth quarter and the Patriots up 38-0 driving aggressively for another touchdown. And he wasn't very happy about it. If Fox was doing its job at the end of this game, some guy in the truck would have had all cameras focus on the interaction between Belichick and Gibbs at midfield. But we never saw it.

2. I think what cornerback DeAngelo Hall -- who must think he's some sort of respected team leader -- is doing in Atlanta is immature and reprehensible. After the inconsistent Grady Jackson was cut by the my-way-or-the-highway Bobby Petrino last week, Hall told reporters:

"To sit there and single out Grady is just asinine. It's ridiculous ... We've got so many players that ain't made a play around here. We gave a lot of people jobs. Now, to sit around here and single Grady out and say he's the reason why [the team is losing] ... that's just ludicrous. If they've got something better and more concrete to go off of, I'd love to hear it. But I'm not buying that one."

And he rapped Petrino, in the first year of a five-year contract, thusly: "I didn't just sign a lucrative deal where I can sit around and watch this ship sink.''

Grady Jackson is 34, overweight and obviously not a part of the Falcons' future. (Though if I were the Bears, even with their love of lightish run-stuffers, I'd pick him up right now.) The Falcons have two young defensive linemen they want to test to see if they're a part of the long-term future. Jackson has not been an impact player this year, in any way.

It's clear if you're a veteran on the Falcons, you must be thinking Petrino's waving a white flag on this season. You might be right. But the most important thing here is the future. Petrino is trying to put a team in place in the aftermath of the Vick case, and all he gets from Hall is lip. Waaaaay too much lip. And immaturity, going back to the Steve Smith incident in the Carolina game a month ago. If I'm another GM right now, I look at Hall, who think he's twice as good as he really is, and say, "I'm not touching this guy with a 10-foot pole.''

3. I think there's no doubt now. The Jets have to turn to Kellen Clemens. This team is as far down as a 2006 playoff team can be at the season's midpoint, and whether it's fair or unfair, coach Eric Mangini has to do the right thing for the future of this team and give the kid QB a chance.

4. I think you can feel the NFL tightening up over the stalemate with the NFL Network and the big cable companies. That's why owners meeting in Philadelphia last week spent far more time on NFL Network issues than other ones. There are two games in the second half of the season, exactly a month apart, that are very big for a couple of reasons. On Thursday, Nov. 29, Green Bay plays at Dallas. On Saturday, Dec. 29, New England plays at the Giants. Both are NFL Network games.

The Dallas-Green Bay game will be significant for playoff implications, and it will be a political football as well -- neither of the state capitals, Austin or Madison, is serviced by a cable company that gets the NFL Network. The game won't be shown in either place unless viewers go to a sports bar or have satellite TV. As for the Pats-Giants game, if New England enters the game 15-0, how will the 70 percent of the 65 million cable homes in America feel when they can't get a peek at such a historic game?

With no progress in sight, I think the only thing that can bridge the gap is either arbitration between the two sides or some sort of ownership stake in the Network for the cable giants. But it won't happen this year. And fans are going to be ticked off if they can't see those two games. "They'd probably be mad at all of us,'' commissioner Roger Goodell said the other day in Philly.

7 of 8