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If you decide to allow all "Wildcat" touchdowns, it definitely will create some extra work. You'll have to double-check some touchdowns to make sure which ones count (or don't count) based on formations. How many, for example, of Ronnie Brown's 4 TDs at New England came with him taking the snap from center? What if the quarterback is lined up in the shotgun, but the ball is direct-snapped to a back -- are you counting those? And, using the same logic, I suppose you would NOT count Chad Pennington's long touchdown pass at Houston. He began that play as a wide receiver, and received the ball on a lateral, so that play would be no different than a halfback option pass. The more reasonable approach, in my opinion, is to take a step back and remember why you went with the Team Quarterback rule in the first place. It was designed to avoid penalizing teams when their quarterbacks got hurt or benched early in games -- or maybe a guy is hurt and it's unclear which guy will start. The better approach, in my eyes, is to just allow the production of the guys who are considered the team's "quarterbacks" -- guys who are listed as quarterbacks on the roster. That would reduce your number of headaches, but not totally eliminate them. You might have some problems with a slash-type player like Kordell Stewart. If you had a mobile backup quarterback coming in as a change-of-pace guy, how would that be any different than players like Michael Robinson and Joshua Cribbs, who played quarterback in college? If you definitely want to avoid the problems of defining and analyzing plays and positions, maybe the best solution is to give points to Team Quarterbacks only for touchdown passes -- doesn't matter who throws it, they all count. Halfback option passes, laterals -- all of them. It's a good question. I'll post a poll on the website to see how the readers feel.

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That is an aggressive pick. And if Brees throws more touchdowns than Manning, I'm sure I'll get a few complaints about it. But I don't see there being much difference between those quarterbacks this week -- at least when it comes to touchdown passes. Baltimore has a very good defense, but it's much better against the run. Of the 12 TDs that defense has allowed, all but one have come on passes. Baltimore, in fact, has allowed the same number of touchdown passes as Kansas City -- 11. So for this game, if the Giants score two offensive touchdowns (and I think it's safe to say they'll score at least that many), there's a good chance both will come on passes. With the Saints, on the other hand, they're going into Arrowhead, where Kansas City has allowed over 300 rushing yards in two games this year. So I think there's a chance New Orleans will run the ball more than usual in that game. Plus I've got a funny feeling about that game. Kansas City actually has been playing better in recent weeks; I think they might pull the upset of the week in that one. Bottom line: I don't see there being much difference between Manning and Brees, but I'm giving the slight edge to the Giants quarterback this week (at least in a TD-only format). For both of these guys, check the weather report on Sunday morning -- that might swing your decision.

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The game against Kansas City on Sunday was the final straw. I've given up on Tomlinson. For him, coming off a bye, to average only 3.5 yards per carry in a home game against the worst run defense in the league (a group that was allowing 5.4 yards per carry coming in), shows how far he's slipped. I don't buy the excuses about the playcalling, the toe or the offensive line. To me, a great back is a player who thrives regardless of the cast around him. Put him behind a lousy offensive line, and he's still a threat and a difference maker -- like we saw in the past with Walter Payton and Barry Sanders. Look at the great running backs -- Payton, Sanders, O.J. Simpson, Eric Dickerson, Earl Campbell, Ottis Anderson, Billy Sims. You take any of those guys and stick them on any team in the league, and it would still be apparent that they were great running backs. They'd make any team better. Tomlinson used to be that kind of player, but he's not anymore. He's 29. Maybe the 3000-plus career touches have caught up with him. Maybe he's spending too much time working on commercials. Regardless, he's not getting done on the field anymore. He's not winning those one-on-one battles anymore. He's not making anyone miss or running away from anyone. Even with a lot of soft defenses left on his schedule, I don't expect him to make much of an impact in the final games of the season. At this point, it will be interesting to see how the Chargers handle the exit strategy with him. His base salary for next year is $6.7 million; he's not worth that kind of money.

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Check and make sure Derrick Ward is on a roster. He'll be a free agent at the end of the year, and he'll be signing with some other team. The Giants won't be able to afford to re-sign him. I expect Ward to sign with some team as a co-starter. Continuing in the same vein, Ahmad Bradshaw will move up into that No. 2 tailback role with the Giants next year. As often and as effectively as New York runs the ball, he'll have some value. He'll run for 800-plus yards. And with Brandon Jacobs playing with a trainwreck running style, I imagine Bradshaw will have to start some games as well. Also run a check on Steve Smith of the Giants. He should catch a lot of passes for them, and there are issues with both Amani Toomer (age) and Plaxico Burress (Practice? We don't need no stinkin' practice). Also run a check on Chris Henry of the Bengals. He's a pinhead with an attitude problem, but he's also got talent. Maybe Chad Johnson or T.J. Houshmandzadeh isn't back there, and Henry is a starter. Mark Bradley should be on a roster; he's played well for Kansas City recently, and I think he's for real -- I think he'll start there next year. I don't think he'll be a top-40 receiver, but he probably should be on a roster. Best underused receiver right now? Probably Malcom Floyd of the Chargers; he can't spell his own name, but he produces every time they put him on the field. Jordy Nelson of Green Bay should be on a team. Youngsters with talent who haven't played much: Devin Thomas, Limas Sweed, Craig Davis (in that order). And maybe Robert Meachem will finally put it all together in Year No. 3, becoming a viable receiver.

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There were no problems with how the game was handled by the officials at the end of the Arizona-San Francisco game. All that talk from Mike Singletary and Mike Martz about the ball being spotted at the three-and-half yard line is garbage. I just watched it. On second and goal, the ball was just inside the 2. So for the purposes of the official statkeeper, the ball was on the 1 -- they go by the nose of the football (otherwise a run from your own half-foot line would be a 100-yard touchdown run). Any run from between 1 inch and 1.9 yards is potentially a 1-yard touchdown run. In this case, the ball was just inside the 2. Gore carried the ball and was knocked down as he tried to get outside. When his knee first touched, the ball was behind the 2, before he scampered along the ground to the goal line. The referee correctly spotted the ball halfway between the 2 and the 3, announced that the game would resume with the ball on the two and half yard line. Then San Francisco tried the fullback dive play, thinking, apparently, that it was going to be placed inside the 1. In hindsight, what the 49ers should have done is spiked the ball on that third-down play, giving themselves one final play to get in the appropriate personnel. Gore definitely wasn't cheated out of a yard on that play. So put him on the list of players who've reached the 100-yard mark, only to then lose yards and finish under that plateau. Dave Hampton of the Falcons is the all-time king of that arena. He did it not with a game, but with a season. In the early '70s, he reached 1,000 yards late in Atlanta's last game, then lost 6 yards (after a fumbled exchange) on his next carry. Finished that season at 995 yards.

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I think you'll want to tend to ride things out with Moss. He may be having an off year, but he's still caught over half of that team's touchdown passes. With Edwards, however, I'd sit him down for now. In Brady Quinn's first game, he spent a lot more time throwing short passes underneath to Kellen Winslow; Winslow caught 10 passes and 2 TDs, while Edwards caught only 1 ball. Edwards did a lot better when the Browns were using Derek Anderson, who likes to try to get the ball downfield. For now, I think you'd be better off using one of your other guys. Breaston has gone over 90 receiving yards in three of his last four games. Driver matches up this week against a Chicago defense that ranks next-to-last against the pass.

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I know there have never been three consecutive kickoff-return touchdowns. In only one game in history have three touchdowns been scored on kickoff returns. That was 10 years ago -- an ESPN Sunday-Night game between the Ravens and Minnesota. Consecutive touchdowns on kickoffs does happen from time to time. I remember seeing it occur when Atlanta played at San Francisco in the '80s. Most famously, it occurred in the Super Bowl between the Giants and Ravens (hey, those teams play this weekend -- this could have been a trivia question). Ron Dixon (not Dom Hixon) scored on a kickoff return for the Giants in the third quarter, and Jermaine Lewis answered for the Ravens. Including the interception return by Chris McAlister, that was three touchdowns in a row -- boom, boom, boom.

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We publish a playoff-oriented draft list each year. It generally is completed on the Monday or Tuesday after the final regular-season game. There are generally two different products released that week -- one that lists guys by overall expected value in the playoffs, and one that looks at just the players competing that week (a mini-edition of the Weekly).

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