By Stephen Silver

One would think the late-season clash between the NFC East-leading Giants and the junior-varsity of the Eagles would be a one-sided, ho-hum affair, especially after the Eagles were crushed 42-0 at home the previous Monday night. But the two teams actually engaged in a hard-fought game, with the Eagles showing life for the first time in
weeks and actually pushing the Giants to overtime, when Jay Feely gave himself some breathing room with Giants fans by kicking the game-winner. Also hard-fought? The action in the stands, where numerous fights broke out between partisans of the teams, leading to the ejections of many Giants fans; those who stayed had to deal with numerous insults from Philly fans, most of which included creative sexual scenarios involving the Barber brothers and Jeremy Shockey's mom. Though my heart was gladdened when I read on Deadspin.com that at a recent match of two Italian soccer clubs, Lazio and Lavorno, rival hooligans arrived at the stadium carrying (respectively) swastika flags and red
communist flags. And you thought there was bad blood in the NFC East clashes.

Bear Minimum
The Chicago Bears' grand scheme of winning all their games without any offensive accomplishment whatsoever ended after nine weeks, as Lovie Smith's team fell to the Steelers and a resurgent Jerome Bettis at Heinz Field. The Bears are now in the unenviable position of considering bringing in Rex Grossman to improve their offense.

Lucky Thirteen For Indy
This whole "will Indy bench the starters?" question is already so tiresome- and will unquestionably get even more tiresome as weeks go by- that I'm almost rooting for them to lose just so it goes away. And speaking of winning streaks, the Vikings have extended theirs to six, to fall just one game behind the Bears in the NFC North. Koren
Robinson is officially having the best season ever by an NFL player the year after he showed up drunk to his one day in jail for drunken driving.

Bush Supporters
Did the Texans really tank the game Sunday in order to get the #1 pick, and Reggie Bush? I think if that were the plan they wouldn't have shanked the field goal quite so obviously, would they? Then again, maybe Dom Capers is just as bad at trying to lose as he is at trying to win.

You Can't Do That on Television
Lions-Packers Sunday and Falcons-Saints on Monday was the worst pair of dog prime-time games in years. Afer Vick left the game, the Monday nighter got so boring that Madden and Michaels spent about six minutes in the fourth quarter talking about college football instead, followed by three or four more praising Brett Favre. One more tradition, going out the window with the new TV deal.

Next Week
The Colts meet their next test against San Diego, the Giants hope for as many changes to beat the Chiefs as the Cowboys got on Sunday, and the Steelers move from the snow to the dome as they try to end yet another NFC winning streak (the Vikings'). Followed by another Monday night winner, Packers-Ravens.