With a sputerring running game offering little help, Brett Favre's efforts to jump-start the Packers' attack ultimately cost the team. Jed Jacobsohn/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:

So, in inhuman conditions, with nothing else working in the offense, you're telling Favre: Make something happen. As you've seen throughout the years in the playoffs (at St. Louis, at Philadelphia), Favre is going to throw some up when the game is all on him. That's the price you pay with Favre. It's a price that's gotten you lots of heroic moments and some moments as a goat. It's a quarterback's life.

Eli Manning outplayed Favre, in part because Manning had an effective running game (39 rushes, 134 yards, two scores) and a big, physical receiver who played the game of his life in Plaxico Burress.

And the weather. A poor excuse, of course. But anyone who completes 54 percent of his passes for 12.4 yards per completion in that stuff is hard to kill. "A terrible game'' is not what Brett Favre played. "A decent game with one horrendous decision (the McQuarters interception) and one horrible throw (the Webster interception)'' is the game he played.

Re the Sportsman award and being the fifth-best quarterback ... well, that's a different award, based not just on football skill. I know you know your football, Kevin, but I'd disagree he was the fifth-best quarterback in football this year, after taking a team with 12 wins the previous two years combined to 14 this year, breaking every all-time passing record worth anything and having the most accurate year of his career.

On to LaDainian Tomlinson, who ducked out of the AFC title game after only a first-quarter cameo. This from Tricia Heller, of Windsor Colo.: "One sentence about LT missing most all of both playoff games? I won't debate with you his injury status or "toughness" -- for me it was the fact that THE FACE of the franchise and League MVP was SITTING on the bench covered like Darth Vader and not up on the sidelines cheering, coaching and encouraging his TEAM! That to me was the defining point in any of the debates! What are your true thoughts or is your personal relationship and admiration of LT going to keep you out of the discussion?''

My true thoughts, and I have not talked to Tomlinson or Norv Turner: Tomlinson will not be able to live this down for a long time. His toughness and durability will be questioned far and wide. But not by me. The most important thing to realize here is that when a running back has a leg injury that impedes his ability to run at 90 or 95 percent, the team is better off playing his backup most of the time. And with Michael Turner, the best backup runner in football (if you're not counting Marion Barber III) at full speed, that changes the story to me. I'd rather have Turner playing if LT can't go at somewhat close to full speed.

As far as Tomlinson playing a cheerleading role, it's not a very big deal to me. Yes, I could rather have had him on the sidelines, throwing in his two cents when Turner came off the field, but I'm not sure he wasn't doing that. We just didn't see it on camera if he was doing it.

Now for your email:

GEORGIA FRONTIERE'S LEGACY. From Will, of Boston: "What is Georgia Frontiere's legacy, and how does her passing affect the future of the Rams?''

Depends who buys them. Frontiere was an absentee owner who put John Shaw and Jay Zygmunt in charge of the team and enjoyed watching the games. She didn't have much to do at all with the football side of things, other than she liked to meet the new coach before he was hired. My guess is the team will be sold and kept in St. Louis. Unless the NFL changes its ownership practices, minority owner Stan Kroenke would have to sell his hockey and basketball teams in Denver to exercise his ability to purchase the Rams. So I think the franchise will likely go to the highest bidder and ownership will change.

THE GIANTS HAVE A LEGIT CHANCE, DESPITE WHAT VEGAS SAYS. From Al, of Hondo, Texas: "The Giants chances to win are simple -- do what they did against the Pats in the last game of the season with the added element of what the Chargers did. The Giants are playing good football right now and I bet the Pats were hoping to see the Packers. The Chargers did something that not many did. They forced Brady to make mistakes.''

Good points. And the Giants will be able to pressure Brady into making decisions quicker than he'd like to. That, to me, could be the biggest factor for the Giants. Make Brady uncomfortable. Hit him four or five times early.

NOT THE POINTS, GEORGE. From George, in Virginia: "Peter, you wrote, 'How about Miami getting two second-round picks for Wes Welker and Chris Chambers? What a personnel disaster that team in Miami has been. Those are winning players, and the Dolphins get only two picks in the 60 neighborhood.' Um, Welker was a free agent out of college and Chambers was a second round pick, number 52 in the draft. I'm not a Dolphins fan, but those trades are only bad if the Dolphins don't get equivalent talent with those two picks. You're judging it too early. Love ya, anyway.''

So if the Patriots were to trade Tom Brady (a sixth-round pick) for a fourth-round pick this year, that would be okay because they were getting better value than a sixth? Trades work this way: You pay for what the value of a player is right now. And what the value for Welker was last spring was certainly higher than low second- and seventh-round picks. The value for Chambers, as he's showing, is more than a low second-round pick.

JEFF THINKS WE OWE ELI MANNING AN APOLOGY. From Jeff, of Columbia, Mo.: "Do you ever think that we'll see New York City, especially the media, issue a formal apology to Eli Manning for the garbage they put him through? Six weeks ago, after the Redskins game, they were absolutely merciless to him. Now he's their best friend. It's sickening to me.''

I assume you mean the New York media, not Michael Bloomberg. A formal apology. Hmmm. That's not coming. This is a subject worth pages, not a paragraph. Manning is a great study. His story should be held up as a great example of not jumping to conclusions too early about the toughest position to play in sports. I should know. I've alternately praised and buried him. It just goes to show that taking a quarterback's temperature weekly is not a very smart thing to do in the media.

LET'S REMEMBER ERNIE ACCORSI'S ROLE IN THIS TOO. From Steve Margosian, of Madison, N.J.: "Ernie Acorsi is seemingly always measured in the context of the Eli Draft day deal, but let's not forget what his basic philosophy was on Draft Day. The most important thing in the NFL is to have guys to rush the passer and to that point look at his selections of Umenyiora with the 56th overall pick in 2003 draft, then Tuck with the 74th overall in '05 and even more recently his first-round 'reach' with Kiwanuka (No. 32 overall). He preached it and had the courage of his conviction to stick to his adage. All 3 should be game-changing pass rushers for years.''

Excellent point. Couldn't have said it better myself.

TIKI MUST BE BITTER, JOE THINKS. From Joe, of Bridgeport, W. Va.: "Peter, you'll never call him out on it (because you work with him at NBC) and, of course, he will never admit to it, but I guarantee that Tiki Barber is furious that the Giants are going the Super Bowl WITHOUT him. He would have loved for them to 'fall apart' the year after he retired.

I doubt that. But I gave you the space to make your point.

GIVE JOSH MCDANIELS SOME RESPECT. From Vince Chase, of Winchester, N.H. "Giving your 'Coach of the Week' to Kevin Gilbride is lame when Josh McDaniels recognizes that his passing game isn't working so he goes three-tight end power-running and smacks the vaunted and injury-free Chargers defense right in the mouth. Not only did McDaniels have the guts to take the ball out of the hands of the league MVP, but he had his guys prepared to switch up their offensive philosophy to control the clock and pound their opponent into submission. Now THAT'S coaching.

I'm so surprised you're from New England. So that's coaching, and a guy in charge of a mistake-prone quarterback all season, who, against the league's sixth-rated scoring defense, devises a gameplan that puts 380 turnover-free offensive yards and 23 points on the board in minus-24 wind-chill didn't do a good job Sunday? Vince, there's a whole wide world out there. Expand your horizons.