Eleven touchdowns in the past three games. Faulk's my man. Unless George runs wild Monday night.

I know the Rams just barely made it into the playoffs. But the bad Rams defense isn't Faulk's fault. You should get an MVP, not lose one, because the other side of the ball can't play.

Now for the five random awards I'd like to leave under some NFL trees:

TRADE OF THE YEAR: Green Bay acquires running back Ahman Green plus a fifth-round pick from Seattle for cornerback Fred Vinson and a sixth-round pick on April 14. Ron Wolf, you've had some slumps. You'd be the first to admit that. But this pickup was a thing of beauty. You knew Mike Holmgren had soured on Green. You knew Vincent would be no more than a spare part in your secondary this year. You knew Green had run hard, and productively, in a cold-weather college program, Nebraska. You knew he was still young (23). And with a 25-carry, 161-yard day to win at Minnesota in Week 16, and with 1,175 yards overall, Green has emerged as a clutch back and one of the most productive backs in the league.

TRADE NOT MADE OF THE YEAR: The Cowboys could have had Jacksonville safety/nickel linebacker Mike Logan -- a trained killer in the Darren Woodson mold -- for a second-round pick last summer. What they wouldn't give for a defensive playmaker today. Logan's a big-play man from the word go.

VERSATILE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Pittsburgh WR/Scatback/Special-Teams Ace Hines Ward. Hard to translate a look in a coach's eye. But when I covered the Steelers-Raiders three weeks ago, I spent an hour with Pittsburgh head coach Bill Cowher on Saturday, and his eyes positively sparkled when I brought up Ward. "One of the most coachable, versatile players I've ever seen in this game," Cowher said, smiling ear to ear, eyes dancing. The next day, Ward played three different receiver spots, three special teams, and beat Charles Woodson on a key third-down conversion pass from Kordell Stewart. He's a classic do-what-he-can-to-help-the-team guy.

DISAPPOINTING PLAYER OF THE YEAR: New York Giants running back Ron Dayne. Classic example of what a bust rookie year Dayne's had: Game 16 versus Jacksonville, Giants trying to milk a 14-10 lead, 3:20 to play, fourth quarter, Giants' ball at their 45. The Giants drafted Dayne with the 11th overall pick in April to be 252-pound momentum-dictator, a mindset-setter, a fourth-quarter jumboback clock killer. What they got instead is a namby-pamby hole-picker. And so in this spot tailor-made for Dayne, the Giants inserted Tiki Barber, the 193-pound versatile. On first down, Barber carried the ball for his 24th carry of the day -- a career-high -- and sprained his right foot. Obviously, he never should have been in the game. If Dayne's any good at what he should be good at -- running hard, busting facemasks between the tackles -- instead of trying to make people miss, he'd have been in the game. It's amazing the Giants accomplished their 12-4 record with this player being more dog than great Dayne. "We've just got to keep coaching him,'' head coach Jim Fassel told me Sunday. Nice try, Jim. But you can't keep making excuses for the guy.

MOST INTERESTING LOOMING SALARY-CAP CASUALTY OF THE YEAR: Jacksonville WR Keenan McCardell. He's healthy as a horse, playoff-hardened, 30, and coming off successive seasons of 85, 85, 64, 78 and, this year, 94 catches for 1,207 yards. And the Jags can save $2.1 million on the cap next year by waiving him.

Week 17 Awards

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Buffalo QB Doug Flutie. "Let's go play a couple more," Flutie said after his greatest NFL game -- 20-of-25, 366 yards, three touchdowns and no picks -- as the Bills crushed Seattle 42-23 to finish a disappointing 8-8. The Bills, of course, would be making a fatal mistake by jettisoning Flutie, who could very well have been 6-0 this year instead of 4-2. His two losses: 31-27 at Minnesota, a game blown late by the defense, and the fluky 13-10 overtime loss in Arctic conditions last week in Buffalo, when Steve Christie missed a chip shot late that would have won it. He might be 38, but he's got the body of a 30-year-old and the football brain of Joe Montana.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: New York Giants S Shaun Williams. The Giants are the top seed in the NFC playoffs because they play fundamentally sound defense. Period. Case in point: In the first quarter against Jacksonville, Mark Brunell faded back and spied Jimmy Smith racing up the right seam. Brunell threw. Smith reached to catch his first ball of the day, which would keep his streak of 65 consecutive games with at least one catch alive. He caught the ball, and just as he did, Williams measured him and rocketed into his breastbone, knocking the ball loose and knocking Smith semi-conscious. Not a dirty play, a perfect play. "I was just trying to knock the ball loose," Williams said later. Smith missed all but a couple of plays the rest of the day, ending his streak. And, I would argue, Smith's absence was a big factor in the Giants' 28-25 win, because Brunell had to focus so myopically on Keenan McCardell without a strong second option.

SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK: (tie) New York Giants CB Jason Sehorn. With just under two minutes left Saturday and the Giants nursing a 21-18 lead, the Giants lined up for a Jacksonville kickoff with the "hands" team on the field. In other words, the 11 players with the best hands on the squad. Smack-dab in the middle was Sehorn, though he's not a wide receiver. And when the kick came bounding toward the onside scrum, Sehorn picked it out of the air and ran 38 yards for a touchdown. And then Sehorn recovered another onside kick two minutes later.

Chicago K Paul Edinger. A 54-yard field goal to knock the Lions out of the playoffs! Wow! You deserve this, kid.

Baltimore PR Jermaine Lewis. Two punt returns for touchdown to knock the Jets out of the playoffs! Wow! You deserve this, kid.

GOAT: New York Jets QB Vinny Testaverde. How can there be any question? I don't care if he threw for 481 yards, or threw it 69 times. This is what I care about: Three interceptions. Two dropped interceptions. One interception overturned by a questionable replay reversal by referee Walt Coleman. A lost fumble on the last-ditch drive. From a 14-0 lead to a 27-17 deficit, in the span of two quarters.

COACH OF THE WEEK: Chicago head coach Dick Jauron. After an embarrassment like the the 17-0 shutout suffered by the Bears last week in San Francisco, he had the Bears flying around like it was Opening Day.

Factoid of the Week That May Interest Only Me

New Jersey license plate I saw in the Giants Stadium parking lot Saturday morning: LT4EVR.

The 10 Things I Think I Think

1a. I think, after watching the up-and-down Jet offense march down the field on the first two offensive series of the game at Baltimore, and then seeing them total 521 yards for the day, I don't want to hear a thing about the Ravens being the best defense of all time. That makes a mockery of the 1970s Steelers and '80s Bears.

b. I think if I'm the Jets, I spend the next few weeks wondering if I want Vinny Testaverde, who turns 38 next season, or Chad Pennington to quarterback my team next fall. I mean, Vinny -- the NFL's 2000 interceptions king with 25 -- handed the Ravens that game after building a 14-0 lead. "You might as well have handed Chris McAlister an invitation," CBS' Dan Dierdorf said after Testaverde stared a hole through McAlister, then threw a pick that McAlister returned 98 yards for a touchdown to turn the game from a potential 21-12 Jets halftime lead to a 20-14 Baltimore halftime lead. "Dad,'' my daughter Mary Beth the high school freshman said, in between helping Ann prepare the Christmas Eve feast in the kitchen, "Vinny's done. It's over."

c. I think that's exactly what the Jets are thinking.

d. I think, speaking of TV talent, Bonnie Bernstein did one heck of a job at the Jets-Ravens game. Exiting halftime, she got a tremendous nugget out of Jets head coach Al Groh, reporting that Groh told Testaverde: "You got us into this mess. You get us out of it.''

e. I think he didn't.

2. I think what is wrong with America is Temptation Island. Please put soft porn on cable at 1 a.m., FOX.

3. I think it's sad that Jerry Rice will finish his career with someone other than the 49ers (final San Francisco career numbers, by the way: 1,281 catches, 19,247 receiving yards, 176 touchdowns), but the NFL shouldn't amend the cap rules to keep long-term stars with their original team. The NBA fools with its cap with things like the veteran exemption to keep a guy on his own team, but all that does is jack the economic picture out of whack. If Rice plays with the Raiders or Eagles next year, life will go on. It's like what Bill Parcells told Drew Bledsoe once. "Don't be fooled," Parcells said. "These fans root for the uniform, not the player. Once you leave this game, they won't care about you."

4. I think Brett Favre and Ahman Green give Packer fans hope that the playoffs are on the horizon next year.

5. I think, apropos of nothing, I like the Memphis Maniax to win the first (only?) XFL title, behind bright NFL coaching prospect Kippy Brown.

6. I think, at some point in the playoffs, Gus Frerotte will fatally injure the Broncos.

7. I think one big problem with football on TV is the inability of network teams to change on the fly. On the Broncos' first offensive series Saturday, Brian Griese -- playing his first game since a severe shoulder injury sidelined him Nov. 13 -- got driven into the ground by 49er defensive tackle Brentson Buckner, right on his rehabbed shoulder. Analyst Bill Maas, just as the guys in the truck put the 49er defensive-starters graphic on the screen, said: "Griese not feeling well at all. He's hurting." Instead of showing the most important Denver story line of the game unfolding in disaster, and as all of America screams, "SHOW US GRIESE!" FOX continues to tell us who's starting for San Francisco on defense. When they finally switch to Griese, he's down on the field. He had to leave the game. Think, FOX, think. Why so scripted, even at the expense of major news?

8. I think Maas made one of the silliest comments of the TV season in that game. Speaking about 49er passer Jeff Garcia, he said: "His story is as amazing as Kurt Warner's last year in St. Louis." You've got to be kidding. Garcia, a Canadian import, finished last season as the 49ers' starter, throwing for 2,500 yards, and this year quarterbacked a team that looked like it'd be awful to a 6-10 year, throwing for more than 4,000 yards in the process. Great job by Garcia. Warner, thrust into the starting role on the worst team in the NFC over the previous 10 seasons, had never started an NFL game. He fought his way into the NFL after going to Europe and Arena ball, working at a grocery store at one point to support his family. All he did was become the NFL MVP and the Super Bowl MVP. Bill, let's get real here. The Garcia story is a good one. The Warner story is the greatest underdog story in the history of the NFL. That's the thing about even good announcers sometimes. They make such absurd statements that you wonder about their other pronouncements.

9. I think, by the way, that Warner post-finger injury is a different player than the one before the injury. Eighteen picks? Eight since the broken pinky? Throwing into quadruple coverage at the end of the Monday night loss at Tampa. Underthrowing the deep ball Sunday. Weird. That's not the Warner that Mike Martz knows.

10. I think, in case you missed it, this is my quote of the year. It comes from Washington interim head coach Terry Robiskie to me this week. We were talking about the Redskins' nightmare season, particularly since he took over, when he told me: "I took over the Titanic -- after it hit the iceberg."

And one more thing I think: I think I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL and appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN's NFL Preview. Click here to send a question to his NFL Mailbag.

 

Related information
Stories
SI's King: Martz likely to fire entire defensive staff Roundup: St. Louis RB Faulk sets single-season TD mark
Multimedia
Visit Multimedia Central for the latest audio and video
Search our site	Watch CNN/SI 24 hours a day
	Sports Illustrated and CNN have combined to form a 24 hour sports news and information channel. To receive CNN/SI at your home call your cable operator or DirecTV.

Copyright © 2001 CNN/Sports Illustrated An AOL Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines.