1. The San Diego Chargers went to the AFC Championship game last season, and returned virtually the entire team intact. Sure, Merriman’s hurt, but to plunge to 4-8 after a home loss to Atlanta is inexcusable. Supposed offensive guru Norv Turner is now 69-84-1 in his career.

2. New Orleans coach Sean Payton, a media darling, is 0-17 when trailing entering the fourth quarter. When the media removes itself from Payton’s balls, perhaps they’ll write about how it is about time the offensive genius use his superpowers to conjure a comeback.

3. The New York Giants have won seven in a row, and the last six of those opponents have winning records. Beat Dallas two weeks from now and it’d be difficult to envision the Giants not reaching the Super Bowl.

4. Peter King said last night it was “highly unlikely” Plaxico Burress would ever play with the Giants again. He’s fucked: “Getting special treatment at New York-Cornell Hospital, where he gave his name as Harris Smith, saying he’d been shot at an Applebee’s restaurant. Nonetheless, hospital workers recognized him as Plaxico Burress, sources said, and the gunshot was not reported, as required by law.” Applebee’s? Yeah, he better have a damn good lawyer.

5. New playoff outlook: NFC looks like Giants, Vikings, Bucs, Cards, with Dallas and Carolina as the wild cards. The AFC looks like Jets, Steelers, Titans, Broncos, with Indy and Baltimore as the wild cards. The Patriots have four winnable games, but three of the four are on the road.

6. A fake field goal attempt wherein 250-pound kicker Sebastian Janikowski is asked to run the football is either incredibly laughable or incredibly brilliant. Laughable because, well, there’s no shot he’s out-running anyone anywhere, and that includes Peyton Manning and Kurt Warner. Brilliant because … who expects the Raiders to attempt such a play? It failed, of course - the pitch to Janikowski was bad and the Chiefs took it to the house for six.

7. Dude, where’s my offense? The Redskins have scored four TDs in four games and are 7-5 heading into Baltimore next weekend. Bart Scott must be salivating.

8. If we have to stomach any more DREW BREES FOR MVP talk, we’re moving to Edmonton and learning the nuances of hockey. What does it matter if he leads the league in yards if he also is near the tops in interceptions? Quick, someone find out how many fourth quarter picks he’s thrown this season. Aaron Brooks had five fourth quarter comeback wins in 2004 alone. How’s this: All three MVP “favorites” - Brees, Warner, and Favre - lost this weekend.

9. Three weeks ago, the Browns beat the Bills on the road on MNF to improve to 4-6. Brimming with potential now that Brady Quinn was the QB, perhaps Romeo’s job could be saved. No. Quinn got hurt and the Browns haven’t scored a TD in two games. And Ken Dorsey’s probably going to be your starter the rest of the season, now that Anderson’s done for the year.