MONDAY MORNING NFL QUARTERBACK

Attention 1972 Dolphins players, fans and coaching staff. Get out that vintage bottle of scotch from the cellar, and raise those shot glasses high. The Indianapolis Colts have been defeated by the San Diego Chargers, 26-17, ending all hopes of the first undefeated season since that Miami squad.

To add insult to injury, Colts’ quarterback Peyton Manning took a number of hard licks from the San Diego defense. Losing the game was bad enough, but if anything really bad had happened to Manning, Coach Tony Dungy would have needed a police escort to get out of the stadium.

With the streak ended, it will be interesting to see how much the Colts play their starters the last two weeks with home field advantage already sewn up. Indianapolis certainly does not want to see any key players hurt, but they do not want to head into the post-season on a losing streak either.

Before we get into the rest of Sundays games, let’s take a look back at three Saturday contests. The Patriots, Giants and Broncos were favored by 4.5, 2.5 and 9 points respectively, and all three covered the spread. Only the Patriots were dominant though, making those who picked the “dogs’ wondering what they need to do to catch a break.

The bonehead move of the week award goes to the Houston Texans. At 1-12, Houston had the inside track at the number one pick in the draft, and USC running back, Reggie Bush. Instead, the Texans beat Arizona, 30-19 showing that coach Dom Capers and company don’t even know how to lose correctly.

In Minnesota, a battle of 8-5 teams fighting for the playoffs ended with the Steelers winning 18-3. The game should have been a lot closer, but Minnesota had four drives inside the Pittsburgh 20 yard line that resulted in only three points. Maybe all the talk about the boat / sex cruise this week was a distraction to the Vikings’ players.

The “oops we almost blew it" award this week goes to the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jags were 14 point home favorites over the 49ers, but just squeaked by with a 10-9 win. This from a San Francisco team that had lost their road games this year by an average of 24.7 points.

In Dallas, Coach Bill Parcells managed to avoid a heart attack on the sidelines, but that is the best thing you can say about the outcome. Drew Bledsoe threw an interception to start the game, and Dallas was manhandled from start to finish, 35-7.

Overall for the week, the split was a lot more equitable between favorites and underdogs, with a 8-7 record overall heading into the Monday night game.

More VIPSports.com "The Edge" Articles...