Isn’t it amazing how ultra-rich guys can say such stupid things. No, I’m not talking about the Steinbrenners.

Woody Johnson actually said this yesterday:

“It’s not a decision we reached (Sunday) or 10 minutes ago. This is a decision that was basically running through the season. We don’t take this decision lightly.”

So Question #127 is for Woody:

If the firing of Eric Mangini was in the works through the season, if it had been reached before Sunday, what would you have done had the Jets beat the Dolphins and won the AFC East and made the playoffs? Was Mangini still going out the door then? What if he won a playoff game or two? Was he still fired?

That, of course, is ridiculous. No way Mangini gets fired if the Jets make the playoffs at 10-6, and definitely no way he gets fired if the Jets win a game or two in the postseason.

So Woody is full of baloney. That decision wasn’t made before Sunday. It was made when the Jets were eliminated, either before or during their game against Miami.

Either that, or Woody Johnson is as dumb as he sounds.

The Jets just fired Eric Mangini. He didn’t even last 24 hours from his/their last loss and playoff elimination, despite a second winning record in three years as head coach.

I’m not defending Mangini, especially this year, which included a woeful collapse and followed a dreadful ‘07. I’m not defending anybody, though, including Mike Tannenbaum the GM, and especially Brett Favre.

But I will say this: When you rip up the whole thing—and Tannenbaum has to go now, too, right?—you risk that it will get worse, maybe much worse, before it gets better. And that it’s truly hard to judge a coach when he’s had no stability at the quarterback position. He went with an unproven, not-ready backup most of last year, and an injured over-the-hill old guy this year.

If Mangini had had Eli Manning or Matt Cassel or Matt Ryan or Joe Flacco, or somebody even better than those guys, do you think he’d be fired today? Do you think the Jets—a team I said at the beginning, even with Favre, even with Tom Brady down in New England, wasn’t good enough—would not have won one of those pathetic west coast losses with a better QB? And then they’d be prepping for the playoffs instead of firing the coach the minute the owner gets back to his desk on Monday.

So now Woody Johnson has to show us if he has any football acumen at all, if he’s smart enough to get the right guy in to replace Mangini (it’s possible he already has his guy, hence the quick firing of Mangenius; maybe he’s already spoken to Bill Cowher). And Johnson and whomever he picks have to find a way to get Cassel or a franchise-ready quarterback. And a backup QB.

The coach goes nowhere without the QB and the backup. Mangini, for all his faults and his oddball Belichickian personality, never had a shot without one.

Well, well, well, Sammy. We’ve got a game after all. One week for all the peanuts. Sort of like the Jets, although the Jets need some help.

I had a 9-7 bounceback week to get back to .500 and to within a game of Sam, who did his Tony Romo (A-Rom) and went 4-12.

Anyway, the final installment of a full slate of picks includes the final installment of Brett the Jet and perhaps of Mangenius. They go down to Chad Pennington, who pretty much makes the playoffs whenever he’s healthy.

The Giants? No idea what they’ll do in Minny. I understand the whole play-to-the-end thing, about the character it shows to play to win even when there’s nothing to gain. But it’s critical for the Giants’ title defense that they get some injured guys healthy, and I don’t see Tom Coughlin going all-out in the Dome.

But at this time, I want to again disspell this idea I keep hearing and reading—that the Giants went into last season’s playoffs on a roll. Huh? They lost at home to Washington in Week 15 (Eli: 18 for 52), struggled to beat Buffalo to clinch their playoff spot in Week 16 (21 fourth-quarter points after five fumbles, two lost, and two picks), and lost at home to New England in Week 17, albeit a confidence-building battle with the then-immortal Patriots.

Also, props to the Lions on a fine, fine season. You guys must be so proud.

But I digress.

Standings

Sam 117-115-6 —
Carp 116-116-6 1GB

WEEK 17
Giants (+6 1/2) over VIKINGS
Dolphins (+3) over JETS
Raiders (+13) over BUCS
PACKERS (-9 1/2) over Lions
Cowboys (+1 1/2) over EAGLES
Bears (+2 1/2) over TEXANS
Panthers (-3) over SAINTS
FALCONS (-14 1/2) over Rams
Chiefs (+3) over BENGALS
RAVENS (-12 1/2) over Jaguars
COLTS (+3) over Titans
STEELERS (-10 1/2) over Browns
Patriots (-6 1/2) over BILLS
CARDS (-6) over Seahawks
Redskins (+3) over 49ERS
CHARGERS (-8) over Broncos

4:25 p.m., Saturday, Sam says:

Happy Holidays to everyone. I’m sorry I wasn’t around yesterday but it was my 30th birthday, so I spent most of the day crying. (Actually, it was an excellent day that featured family, friends and a fantastic lobster dinner – about as good as you can get on a day when you really start to feel old).

Anyway, I’m almost glad that things have worked out this way in the picks contest. I’ve given Carp a little hope and now, in the final week, I’ll just crush it with a strong closing performance. Who do I like to win? Put it this way: It ain’t Carp.

Giants (+6 1/2) over VIKINGS
Dolphins (+3) over JETS
Raiders (+13) over BUCS
PACKERS (-9 1/2) over Lions
EAGLES (-1 1/2) over Cowboys
TEXANS (-2 1/2) over Bears
Panthers (-3) over SAINTS
Rams (+14 1/2) over FALCONS
BENGALS (-3) over Chiefs
RAVENS (-12 1/2) over Jaguars
COLTS (+3) over Titans
STEELERS (-10 1/2) over Browns
BILLS (+6 1/2) over Patriots
CARDS (-6) over Seahawks
Redskins (+3) over 49ERS
CHARGERS (-8) over Broncos

CC. AJ. Tex.

In the span of a few weeks, the Yankees have added two aces and the premier position player on the market to their roster (and about $420 million in salary). They may or may not be done.

So, given all that, consider this: Are they the best team in the AL East?

A year ago they weren’t. They were the third-best, behind the Rays and the Red Sox. So far this winter, neither one of those teams has done anything to change their team while the Yankees have essentially plugged their two most glaring holes. To me, that puts them ahead. Yes, they’re the best right now.

It’s hard for me to write that, mostly because the Yankees have made tons of big moves in winters past and have very little to show for it. Are CC and AJ better than Kevin Brown and Randy Johnson and Javy Vazquez and Jose Contreras? Looking back at the latter names now, it’s easy to say, “We knew those guys wouldn’t fit,” but the truth is that most of the reaction at the time of those additions was positive. Just like it is now.

So maybe I’m getting sucked in again. As I wrote in today’s paper, none of these moves guarantees anything in terms of winning. Any Yankees fan who’s been paying attention for the past seven years knows that. But I do think it’s enough to get them back to the AL East title and back to the playoffs. What they do once they get there remains to be seen.

CARP SAYS:

First and foremost, Happy Holidays!

I think the best part of the Texeira signing for the Yankees is that it keeps him out of Boston, and maybe it keeps Manny Ramirez’s act out of the Bronx.

But, no, nothing’s certain because of these three signings. First of all, Burnett, with the exception of his one Carl Pavano-contract season, is a .500 pitcher. His stuff is better than Darrell Rasner’s, maybe among the best in the league, and he’ll give you innings and strikeouts, all of which is important. But will he actually win more games than a Rasner or a Sidney Ponson? No guarantees at all.

I still think Sabathia preferred to pitch elsewhere, and that there is an inherent danger in bribing somebody to sign. He’s an ace, no doubt, but he’s not a 20-game winner, or at least he hasn’t been in his recent glory years. If he and Wang are healthy, then the Yankees have a very strong top of the rotation. But unless Joba Chamberlain is going to the bullpen, the bullpen remains weak in the middle-to-late innings.

The Yankees still are weak, if not awful, in the outfield; still have question marks at second base and behind the plate—I think Robinson Cano will rebound, but I have no idea how much Jorge Posada will be able to catch. Their lineup wasn’t good enough last year, and that was with Jason Giambi and Bobby Abreu. Texeira should be as productive as Giambi was, and maybe Posada and Cano’s return to what’s expected of them will offset the loss of Abreu.

I’m not saying, at this point, that they’re better than the Rays or the Red Sox. But they are in the conversation now, because of Sabathia and Wang.

12:08 p.m., Sam says:

Figured I’d post two links I found interesting:

First, here’s Rob Neyer – always a great read on ESPN – with his take on the “conventional wisdom” that the Yankees ARE the team to beat now.

And second, here’s Rays manager Joe Maddon’s take on the Tex signing – basically reminding everyone that the Rays did pretty well with their own system last year. It’s a fair point.

Where are all those people, now, who made the Jets favorites in the AFC East when Brett Favre came aboard? Where are all those who upped the ante and the expectations when Tom Brady got hurt? And mostly, where are all those cockamamy knee-jerks who started talking about a Giants-Jets Super Bowl in Tampa as soon as Gang Ganji began to win some games?

The Jets are 9-6 and still have some mathematical chance at a playoff spot only because of a Dick Jauron play call, a fortituitous bounce, and because one of their D-linemen who was busted for pot was allowed to play the next Sunday. Otherwise they’d be 8-8 and eliminated already. And Brett Favre would be scheduling his press conference to announce his probable, maybe, possible retirement.

Big Blue, on the other hand, won a huge game, a great game, against a very powerful Carolina team late Sunday night. Won home-field advantage that might not ever actually matter—the win only gives the Giants home field in the event of an NFC title-game against the Panthers; they already had home-field locked up against everybody else, along with a first-round bye.

No, the Giants didn’t need to win that game in OT. They had already accomplished all they needed to accomplish during regulation. They got back to playing their game, running the football, Eli throwing off play-action, dominating the offensive line, and if Justin Tuck wasn’t barfing right there on the field, maybe the defensive line, too. The Giants simply had to get back to being the Giants, with their Super Bowl swagger; to know they could again be what they were before that little two-game pratfall.

If the Panthers had won the game in OT, big deal. Are you saying the Giants, who won four road games in the postseason last year, couldn’t win one road for the NFC title this year?

No, the most important thing for the Giants was to play as well as they did, again, and now the most important thing is to get healthy—and with a meaningless game in Minnesota this week, and then a bye in the first round, they should be able to get better, especially Brandon Jacobs, who was not 100 percent Sunday, and Tuck, who has a leg injury to go along with his debilitating flu, and Kareem McKenzie, who played hurt.

I wonder what the G-men will do next week, given all of the hullabaloo of last year’s season finale, when they and the Patriots had nothing to play for, and yet went four quarters full speed rather than pull up and rest guys. I wonder if Tom Coughlin will limit Manning, or if he’ll sit out Jacobs and Tuck. Or if he’ll go hell-bent on beating Minnesota just as he did, and New England did, last season.

11:25 a.m., Sam says:

Let’s make this a clear question that’ll sound familiar to one we were all talking about last year at this time: Should the Giants play their regulars next week or sit them?

We all know what happened a year ago. Tom Coughlin played everyone against the Patriots in a meaningless regular-season finale in which the only thing on thing on the line was the Patriots’ undefeated regular season. It was a great game, the Giants almost won (but didn’t) and everyone looks back at it as a real kickstart to the Giants’ postseason run.

Even if the Giants hadn’t won the Super Bowl, though, it would have been the right move. And it’s the right move again this year, even though there are some injuries – including one to Jacobs – lingering around the Giants.

I believe in the power of momentum. I also believe in confidence, and I think the Giants – especially since they have a bye in the first round – need to give their regulars a lot of reps against the Vikings, if only to keep them from going three weeks without NFL action. This isn’t college – NFL players need to stay sharp. And the time when players get hurt most often is when they’re “taking it easy.”

Play ‘em hard, play ‘em the whole (or at least most of the) game.

Sam, you know I wish you no ill will, especially in this holiday season, but with two weeks left, I sure hope you go 3-13 twice.

Otherwise I don’t think I can catch you. Actually, I don’t think I can catch you if you go 3-13 twice the way I’m picking them now. I had a 5-8-3 Week 15, and Sam could have put me completely away. But he was 6-7-3. So the lead is six games, with (after last night’s Colts win) 31 to play. That’s pretty safe territory … unless you’re the Mets.

As for Gang Cannibus, I don’t see another miracle fumble returned for a touchdown, and therefore I see a disaster in the Pacific Northwest. And then Chad Pennington comes home next week and finishes off the whole ridiculously over-optimistic Brett Favre experiment. Well, at least the Jets sold a lot of merchandise and PSLs.

I think the Giants bounce back big-time in the cold of night in the swamp, and claim the No. 1 seed in the NFC and the bye that Brandon Jacobs, Justin Tuck, Kareem McKenzie and Co. need. Plus it gives the guys an off week to visit the Latin Quarter—not that a game week has ever stopped them before. Somebody needs to tell Antonio Pierce, though, that the last two weeks weren’t bye weeks.

Speaking of Byes, we can say goodbye to that gosh-awful stadium with the hole in the roof after tomorrow. What a dump.

Here we go:
Standings
Sam 113-103-6 —
Carp 107-109-6 6GB

WEEK 16
w-Colts (-6 1/2) over JAGS
COWBOYS (-4) over Ravens
SEAHAWKS (+4 1/2) over Jets
GIANTS (-3) over Panthers
TITANS (+2) over Steelers
Dolphins (-4) over CHIEFS
PATRIOTS (-7 1/2) over Cardinals
BROWNS (-2 1/2) over Bengals
49ers (-5 1/2) over RAMS
Saints (-7) over LIONS
BUCS (-3 1/2) over Chargers
RAIDERS (+7) over Texans
Bills (+6 1/2) over BRONCOS
VIKINGS (-3 1/2) over Falcons
Eagles (-5) over REDSKINS
BEARS (-4) over Packers

4:45 p.m., Friday, Sam says:

Well, the weather outside is definitely frightful and I’m hoping that my last two weeks of regular season picks are not nearly so ugly. I like to think I’m better than the Mets when it comes to holding on to a lead,
but the truth is that I could easily see myself coughing it up. The picks game is a tough one. There’s no guarantees.

(In case you can’t tell, I subscribe to the ‘don’t ever do anything that might jinx yourself’ theory. Thus, I’m going to downplay my chances now that we’re in crunch time instead of continuing to talk about how terrible Carp is at these picks – and boy, is he terrible. Not that I’m focusing on that.)

Anyway, on to the picks!
L-JAGS (+6 1/2) over Colts
COWBOYS (-4) over Ravens
Jets (-4 1/2) over SEAHAWKS
GIANTS (-3) over Panthers
Steelers (-2) over TITANS
Dolphins (-4) over CHIEFS
PATRIOTS (-7 1/2) over Cardinals
BROWNS (-2 1/2) over Bengals
RAMS (+5 1/2) over 49ers
LIONS (+7) over Saints
BUCS (-3 1/2) over Chargers
Texans (-7) over RAIDERS
BRONCOS (-6 1/2) over Bills
VIKINGS (-3 1/2) over Falcons
Eagles (-5) over REDSKINS
BEARS (-4) over Packers

CARP SAYS:

Sam, even a wordsmith like you doesn’t have the word to describe how terrible I’ve been lately. I’m picking almost as poorly as Antonio Pierce has been playing. Almost. But I can still scare the scrooge out of you with a good week this week, so I can’t be all that bad.

This is how dumb the college bowls have become (not to mention that any team that wins a couple of games pretty much plays in a bowl game now):

The names of the games have gotten so crass and commercialized that the Meineke Bowl and the Chick-fil-A Bowl seem like the Grandaddys Of Them All. I mean, PapaJohns.com Bowl? Are you kidding me?

Anyway, the madness starts Saturday with the EagleBank Bowl and the New Mexico Bowl—how’d you like to be the Grand Marshall for those parades?—so we here at Faceoff are going to provide you with the winners. Although in some cases, if not most, we will also provide you with the losers, and in many cases we will provide you with neither and you’ll have to figure them out yourselves.

The caveat is that at any time, but especially in this economy, you remember not to wager. If you must wager, though, please don’t wager on these picks. We sure won’t.

Before we get to that, though, here is tonight’s NFL pick: Colts (-6 1/2) over JAGUARS.

Bowls

EagleBank—Wake Forest over Navy
New Mexico—Colorado State over Fresno State
St. Petersburg—South Florida over Memphis
Las Vegas—BYU over Arizona
New Orleans—So. Mississippi over Troy
Poinsettia—Boise State over TCU
Hawaii—Notre Dame over Hawaii
Motor City—Central Michigan over Florida Atlantic
Meineke—North Carolina over West Virginia
Champs Sports—Florida State over Wisconsin
Emerald—California over Miami
Independence—Louisiana Tech over N. Illinois
PapaJohns.com—Rutgers over N.C. State
Alamo—Missouri over Northwestern
Humanitarian—Maryland over Nevada
Texas—Rice over Western Michigan
Holiday—Oklahoma State over Oregon
Armed Forces—Air Force over Houston
Sun—Oregon State over Pitt
Music City—Vanderbilt over Boston College
Insight—Kansas over Minnesota
Chick-fil-A—Georgia Tech over LSU
Outback—Iowa over South Carolina
Gator—Clemson over Nebraska
Capital One—Georgia over Michigan State
Rose—USC over Penn State
Orange—Virginia Tech over Cincinnati
Cotton—Texas Tech over Mississippi
Liberty—East Carolina over Kentucky
Sugar—Alabama over Utah
International—Buffalo over UConn
Fiesta—Texas over Ohio State
GMAC—Tulsa over Ball State
BCS Championship—Florida over Oklahoma

10:30 a.m., Friday, Sam says:

Bad job by me not getting on here yesterday but I was pretty swamped handling the craziness at Yankee Stadium. You can read my column on CC Sabathia here, my notebook on A.J. Burnett and other assorted news here and some other tidbits about the day on Pete Abraham’s excellent LoHud Yankees Blog here.

As for the NFL game, I’ll gladly take a loss because – as a former Jacksonville resident – I would have taken the Jaguars anyway. Now, on to the college picks …

EagleBank—Navy over Wake Forest
New Mexico—Colorado State over Fresno State
St. Petersburg—South Florida over Memphis
Las Vegas—BYU over Arizona
New Orleans—Troy over So. Miss
Poinsettia—TCU over Boise State
Hawaii—Hawaii over Notre Dame
Motor City—Central Michigan over Florida Atlantic
Meineke—West Virginia over North Carolina
Champs Sports—Wisconsin over Florida State
Emerald—California over Miami
Independence—Louisiana Tech over N. Illinois
PapaJohns.com—Rutgers over N.C. State
Alamo—Missouri over Northwestern
Humanitarian—Maryland over Nevada
Texas—W. Michigan over Rice
Holiday—Oklahoma State over Oregon
Armed Forces—Air Force over Houston
Sun—Oregon State over Pitt
Music City—Vanderbilt over Boston College
Insight—Kansas over Minnesota
Chick-fil-A—LSU over Ga. Tech
Outback—South Carolina over Iowa
Gator—Clemson over Nebraska
Capital One—Georgia over Michigan State
Rose—USC over Penn State
Orange—Virginia Tech over Cincinnati
Cotton—Texas Tech over Mississippi
Liberty—Kentucky over E. Carolina
Sugar—Alabama over Utah
International—Buffalo over UConn
Fiesta—Texas over Ohio State
GMAC—Ball State over Tulsa
BCS Championship—Oklahoma over Florida

At this point, I think we are all aware of what former Ranger Sean Avery said a few weeks ago in regards to other NHL players dating his (celebrity) ex-girlfriends. If you need a reminder, you can click here.

Since then, the league has given Avery a six-game suspension for his comments, which doesn’t matter in the long run because the Dallas Stars (Avery’s current team) have suspended him indefinitely. Here’s my question: Does he deserve it?

Any team owner is entitled to do whatever they want in terms of what players they put on their team, and it’s absolutely reasonable to applaud the Stars for making it clear that sexist and demeaning comments about women won’t be tolerated. But to kick a guy off the team for good for that? Doesn’t that strike anyone as a little over the top?

I’m not condoning what Avery said. Not at all. But is it SO much worse than when Antonio Pierce said his favorite part of Texas Stadium is the Cowboys cheerleaders because, “They got the best cheerleaders in the league. Six-foot stallions. Six-foot things. Whatever they feed ‘em, it’s working.”

Six foot things? Really? In case you were wondering, Pierce received no reprimand at all from the league and no public admonishment from the Giants. None.

Here’s my point: Avery said something stupid. No doubt about it. And those who know him or have followed him in the past know he’s done it before. But NHL commish Gary Bettman didn’t talk about how the suspension was for a litany of offenses and, to my knowledge, neither did the Stars. They focused only on this incident.

And, in this incident, I’m just not sure the punishment fit the crime.

CARP SAYS:

… and yet, you can get busted for speeding with marijuana in your car and still be the hero the very next NFL Sunday. Or you can get caught with a militia’s worth of firearms in your home and still be allowed to play in the Super Bowl. Or you can fire a 95-mph fastball into the small of an opponent’s back and only have to surrender first base.

I think it’s pretty obvious that Avery—an ugly, nasty person who I am on record as having said, before his Rangers stint, that I wouldn’t want on my team—is being punished for his entire body of work, which includes alleged racist remarks on the ice, a physical fight with an assistant coach in Los Angeles, and many, many punk-like transgressions.

The actual comment he made wasn’t a suspendable offense. But the fact that he made it against a particular player, and the fact that he sought out the camera and then made sure the camera was rolling when he said the idiotic phrase gave NHL commissioner Gary Bettman enough ammo to punish him. Was the punishment too harsh? Absolutely.

Was it also obvious by then that the Dallas Stars players wanted this guy out, and probably Dallas management—run now, by the way, by Brett Hull, who was always one for firing off a dumb remark without thinking—regretted signing him to that big contract over the summer.

You know who comes out of this looking best? The New York Rangers, who saw past Avery’s abrasive benefits on the ice and decided they didn’t want such a terrible person poisoning their lockerroom.

Incidentally, those who worship Avery for his first-round wackiness in the last two playoff seasons, against Atlanta’s Ilya Kovalchuk and the Devils’ Martin Brodeur, conveniently forget how Avery became a pedestrian in the second rounds of those playoffs, in which the Rangers were eliminated.

So long, punk.

Just want to remind you of this: In Week 15 last year, the Giants were beaten 22-10 by Washington at Giants Stadium and were 9-5 and in danger of not making the playoffs (especially with undefeated New England on the schedule in Week 17).

So, no, it’s not time for panic based on two consecutive losses by the defending Super Bowl champs.

Concern? Yeah, there’s concern over whether Brandon Jacobs is going to be healthy in the playoffs (and he shouldn’t rush back just for home-field advantage in the event of a Carolina-Giants NFC title game; the Giants will have home-field against anybody else, no matter what.

Yeah, there’s concern over Kareem MacKenzie, because his backup sure has struggled in the few times the Giants have needed him—and opponents have taken complete advantage of MacKenzie’s absence.

Yeah, there’s concern that the Giants allowed Eli Manning to be beaten up by the Cowboys Sunday night, but again that’s largely due to the lack of a running game, an offensive line missing two starters, and a fired-up opponent fighting for its very playoff life at home against an arch-rival. I don’t think most teams are going to get to Manning.

The Giants of last season didn’t exactly go into the playoffs on a roll. They beat Buffalo in Week 16, but trailed 21-17 in the fourth quarter of that game, to clinch a playoff spot. Then they lost gamely to New England, as you remember. Oh, and then they won four in a row away from home to win the Vince Lombardi Trophy.

There is no reason to panic over two losses at any point in the season, especially when you have the playoff spot wrapped up. Can the Giants tighten up some spots? Absolutely. Antonio Pierce sure has been worse than horrible since the Plaxico Burress caper. Eli’s receivers have dropped some balls and run some bad routes trying to fill in for good ‘Ol Plax. But the D-line sure beat the living heck out of Tony Romo Sunday, and sure will smack the daylights out of quarterbacks with lesser offensive lines than Dallas’s.

No, the main thing for the Giants right now is to get Jacobs and the offensive line healthy again. Once the Giants can re-establish the run, they will be tough for any opponent to beat.

11:50 a.m.,  Sam says:

That was ugly last night. Ugly, ugly, ugly. The only difference between how the Giants and Jets games was that the Jets managed to play a team bad enough to give away a win. The Giants weren’t so lucky.

I’m a little concerned about the Giants. Sure, it’s just two losses but the issues you were supposed to get worried about after the Plaxico situation occurred seem to be coming true. Pierce, who needs to be the rock of the defense, looks nowhere. Tuck is getting double-teamed and contained as a result, and the defense isn’t nearly as effective. That’s a problem.

Also, without Burress the passing game is more stagnant. Yes, part of that is owed to Jacobs’ injury and the inability to mix up runs and passes, but Jacobs’ injury isn’t going to get 100 percent better this season. It just isn’t. There may come times – and maybe even in the second half of a playoff game – when Jacobs can’t go and Ward/Bradshaw need to step in. Last night, I wasn’t impressed by what I saw from either one.

The Giants aren’t dead. They still have Manning, who deservedly gets plenty of credit as a winner and the kind of quarterback who can lead a team where it needs to go. But he needs help. And a lot of those Giants weapons seem to be misfiring right now, leaving me more than a little worried about what might still be to come.

First things first. Can’t the NFL step in and stop the 3-11 Bowl scheduled to happen in St. Louis, between the Rams and the Seahawks? This game can only set back the league a few decades.

I just figured out something. Sam has a five-game lead on me, and since I post my picks first, all he has to do is make the exact same picks as me and I can’t catch him. I don’t think he’ll do that, though, for fear of embarrassing himself if he copies one of my signature 3-13 weeks.

Last week was not one of those. I went 9-7 to Sam’s 8-8 and picked up a game in the standings. It will take a miracle in these final weeks, though. I’m going to do the unusual and pick both the Giants and Jets this week, both coming off their dreadful performances. The Jets need a win over the struggling Bills more than the Giants need to beat the upbeat ‘Boys … and I think both will win. Could be a death-knell in Big D for Tony Romo, T.O. and the ‘Boys.

Speaking of Romo … I’m guessing his first name is actually Anthony, which in athlete-lingo would make him A-Rom, which is perilously close to A-Rod, and to whose post-season failures he can be most closely associated.

Here we go.

Standings
Sam 107-96-3 —
Carp 102-101-3 5GB

WEEK 15
T-BEARS (-3) over Saints
Giants (+3) over COWBOYS
JETS (-7 1/2) over Bills
Packers (-2 1/2) over JAGUARS
Lions (+17) over COLTS
Redskins (-7) over BENGALS
Bucs (+3) over FALCONS
DOLPHINS (-6 1/2) over 49ers
Seahawks (-3) over RAMS
Titans (-3) over TEXANS
Steelers (+2) over RAVENS
PANTHERS (-7 1/2) over Broncos
Chargers (-5) over Chiefs
CARDINALS (-3) over Vikings
Patriots (-7) over RAIDERS
EAGLES (-14) over Browns

9 a.m., Saturday, Sam says:

First of all, Carp, I’m a straight-shooter – I wouldn’t play defense for the last three weeks just to win the picks title. That’s not my style. (Maybe just the last week but ….)

Anyway, let’s get to the correct-ness …

T-BEARS (-3) over Saints
Giants (+3) over COWBOYS
JETS (-7 1/2) over Bills
JAGUARS (+2 1/2) over Packers
Lions (+17) over COLTS
Redskins (-7) over BENGALS
FALCSON (-3) over Bucs
DOLPHINS (-6 1/2) over 49ers
RAMS (+3) over Seahawks
Titans (-3) over TEXANS
Steelers (+2) over RAVENS
PANTHERS (-7 1/2) over Broncos
Chargers (-5) over Chiefs
CARDINALS (-3) over Vikings
Patriots (-7) over RAIDERS
EAGLES (-14) over Browns