A - Away. The Patriots finally showed that they can win a road game when they beat Buffalo on Sunday. It's their first road win other than the neutral site game in London all year, and it really only barely counts because the Pats have beaten the Bills relentlessly no matter where they play - New England has beaten Buffalo a league-best 13 straight times. New England needs to figure out how to win more road games if they want to do any damage in the playoffs, because at least two road contests likely stand between them and the Super Bowl.

B - Bengals. It was a rough week for the Bengals - a tough road trip west is never easy, but this one was complicated by the death of Chris Henry earlier in the week. Though it would have been easy for them to be distracted, the Bengals played a reasonably solid game against the Chargers. The problem wasn't their grief, it was that they just aren't quite as good as the red-hot Chargers. With the win the Chargers clinched the AFC West after convincingly overcoming an early 3.5-game deficit to the Broncos.

C - Cutler. It's official - Jay Cutler is terrible. Just when you thought that the highly-touted former Broncos' pivot couldn't play any worse for the Bears he found a new way to be mystifyingly awful. He completed just 10-of-27 passes for 94 yards, and he tossed three interceptions against the Ravens. Joe Flacco had a career-high four touchdowns in a stellar performance by the Ravens, and the Bears crushed any last bits of hope surrounding their pitiful team.

D - Dallas. Mark Cuban always seems to be outraged about something or another, but this time he is right to be mad. Cuban's Dallas Mavericks have filed an official protest with the NBA regarding their overtime loss to the Rockets on Friday night. Erick Dampier was ejected with 1:01 left in overtime after receiving his second technical foul, but Cuban (rightly) claims that the officials, who did an extensive video review of the call and assessed Aaron Brooks a flagrant foul on the same play, should have seen that Dampier didn't actually throw an elbow. Cuban would like the game replayed from the point of the foul, with Dampier on the foul line shooting two.
 
E - Exchange. The Mariners and the Cubs both seem to think that their problems are worse than the problems of others, because the two teams have exchanged problem children. Milton Bradley and his attitude were sent to Seattle in exchange for perpetually awful pitcher Carlos Silva and his laughably big contract. It seems doubtful that Silva will recapture his game, but the Cubs are just happy to be rid of Bradley at any cost. Seattle is taking a good gamble in my eyes - if Bradley can behave and play like he did in Texas then he is a huge asset both offensively and in the huge Seattle outfield.
 
F - Frye, Charlie. There seems to be little doubt that JaMarcus Russell is in his final days in Oakland. The Raiders decided to start Frye, a rusty journeyman third-stringer with little obvious skill, over Russell. When he was shaken by a shot to the head, Russell came in and led the unlikely winning drive at Denver. His reward for that unexpected composure - Frye has been pegged as the starter again next week if the cobwebs have cleared.

G - Green Bay. The Packers got involved in perhaps the craziest shootout in the NFL all year, and they didn't quite have enough to come out ahead. Aaron Rodgers was stellar, passing for 383 yards and three touchdowns. Unfortunately, Ben Roethlisberger was just a little better - 503 yards and three TDs. The lead changed four times in the last eight minutes, and in the end a 19-yard pass as time expired gave the Steelers the crazy 37-36 win.

H - Halladay. Roy Halladay deserved better than being stuck on consistently average Toronto teams all these years, so it is nice to see him finally playing for a contender. In one of the biggest blockbusters in recent baseball history, Halladay was shipped to Philadelphia. The Phillies shipped another Cy Young winner, Cliff Lee, to Seattle. The Mariners gave up prospects, and the Jays wound up with three solid prospects from the Phillies. The moves have a profound impact on both the NL East and the AL West.

I - Indianapolis. And then there was one. The Colts are the last remaining undefeated squad after they won a surprisingly tough game against the Jaguars on Thursday night. Jacksonville had the lead after three quarters, but Indy scored the only TD of the final stanza to win by four. Now the most interesting thing to watch will be the amount of effort the Colts put into their last two games. They are meaningless other than the shot at history that is the 16-0 record, and Indy has a history of resting players when the games don't matter.

J - Joshua Cribbs. The Browns got another win on Sunday, and it was on the back of two amazing performances. Cribbs returned two first half kickoffs 100 yards or more to tie the single game record and set the career record with eight. Little known running back Jerome Harrison took over in the second half, scoring three times and piling up a career-high 286 yards. Harrison, a fourth year back out of Washington State, had more yards than he had had in any of his first three years, and just 15 fewer than he had all year coming into this game. Matt Cassel played pretty well for the Chiefs, but that's not much help when his team can't stop the run or cover kicks.

K - Krzyzewski. Coach K has had a lot of wins over the years, but not many have been as dominating against good teams as the win over Gonzaga on Saturday. Duke, ranked seventh, beat 15th-ranked Gonzaga by 35 points at Madison Square Garden, and in the process they held Gonzaga to 41 points - the Zags' lowest total in 41 years. Nolan Smith and Jon Scheyer were the stars for the Blue Devils, and they combined for three more points than Gonzaga managed.

L - Lackey, John. After flirtations with several teams, the biggest free agent pitcher of this offseason has a new home. Lackey has landed with Boston, and he's sporting a five-year contract that is just slightly better than the one given to A.J. Burnett last year. Lackey joins a rotation that is now as dominant 1-3 as any in the league. Though the Angels had given up hope of resigning Lackey, his official departure is yet another blow in what has been a very rough offseason for the perennial AL West champs.

M - Minnesota Wild. Hockey players are very particular about their equipment - it takes weeks to break it in, and they will use shoulder pads and skates for years if they are superstitious. It was understandably a major blow for the Wild, then, when a fire in an equipment truck in Ottawa on Friday destroyed much of their equipment. All but nine players, including the goaltenders, were forced to play with new equipment on Saturday. The Wild tried to get the game postponed, but were ultimately forced to play. Not surprisingly, they lost.

N - New Orleans. So much for the perfect season. People had been saying for a while that there was one game left that the Saints could lose, and on Saturday they lost it. The Cowboys deserve all of the credit in the world for this one - they went into the hostile Superdome and were unquestionably the better team on both sides of the ball. The biggest concern for the Saints going forward has to be the offensive line. Drew Brees was running for his life much of the game, and it looked like the Saints' had installed a turnstile where the left tackle was supposed to be.

O - Ouch. The Cardinals got a win to improve to 6-2 on the road after going just 3-5 last year, but they came very close to suffering a humiliating upset at the hand of the Lions. After opening up a 17-0 lead at the half, the Cards took the third quarter off and let the Lions tie it up. Detroit tied it again with less than four minutes left before Arizona took the lead for good. Arizona needs to be significantly better than they have been the last two weeks if they want to do anything in the playoffs.

P - Penn State. I don't think that I have ever written about volleyball in this column before, but this deserves some real attention. The Penn State women's team won their third straight national title this week. Over that time they have not lost a single match. They have amassed a mind-boggling 101-game winning streak over the three years. They fell behind 2-0 in the five-set finale against Texas, but were able to win and extend their incredible streak.

Q - Quit. There was an unexpected shakeup in the Redskins' front office on Thursday when Vinny Cerrato resigned as VP of football operations. In his place, Bruce Allen, the former Tampa Bay GM and son of hall-of-fame Redskins' coach George Allen, was hired and given the title of GM. Owner Daniel Snyder has never had a GM, so if he actually lets Allen act like a GM the team may actually stop making stupid personnel decisions and start to build a long-term contender.

R - Ricky Williams. Williams passed a big milestone early in the Dolphins' loss to Tennessee when he passed 1,000 yards on his season. This is his fifth 1,000-yard season, but the first in five years, and that's the longest gap between 1,000-yard seasons in league history. You can't help but wonder what Williams could have accomplished in this league if he hadn't spent those years off finding himself and then playing in Canada.

S - St. Petersburg Bowl. Heading into the St. Petersburg Bowl there were two big questions for Rutgers - would they be able to overcome the potent Central Florida pass rush, and would it be a problem that they were playing right in their opponent's backyard. The Scarlet Knights provided emphatic answers to both questions when they rolled to a surprisingly easy 45-24 over the UCF Knights.

T - Texas. The Longhorns faced a huge test on their road to the Final Four on Saturday when they played North Carolina. They passed it with flying colors. In an impressive, dominating 13-point win in the first game played in the new Cowboys' Stadium, Texas became the first team to score 100 points on the Tar Heels since Roy Williams took over. This was Texas' first real opponent, so it gives us a sense of what they are capable of. We'll know even more on Tuesday when Michigan State visits Austin.

U - Ugly. Saturday was a day when good basketball teams suffered bad losses, and Tennessee was no exception. The ninth-ranked Volunteers lost, 77-55, to USC, and in the process handed Bruce Pearl his worst defeat with the program. The difference in the game was new USC point Guard Mike Gerrity. He was made eligible just before the game after transferring from Charlotte last year, and he was a one-man wrecking crew. He scored 12 points and added 10 assists to give USC coach Kevin O'Neill his first big win since taking over from Tim Floyd.

V - Villanova. The Wildcats beat Montana to win their first FCS National Championship in football on Friday. The difference for Villanova was the running game - they had two 100-yard rushers, and Montana could never find a way to stop them. This is another frustrating setback for the top-ranked Montana team - they also lost in the finals last year, and have been runner-ups five times since 1996. They were champs in 1995 and 2001, and have made a record 17 straight playoff appearances.

W - Wyoming. On paper it looked like Wyoming was badly outclassed by Fresno State in the New Mexico Bowl. They couldn't stop the run, and were facing one of the best running backs in the country. Games, though, aren't played on paper. Wyoming played an impressively feisty game, and scored the last 11 points to take the contest to overtime. Neither team scored in the first overtime, but Wyoming scored a touchdown in their second try to seal the win and start the bowl season out with a big upset.

X - Xavier. It's been a pretty solid week for the mascots of our column. Last Sunday they beat their hated rivals from Cincinnati in double overtime in an instant classic. Cincinnati was ranked 19th, so that was a huge win. On Saturday they almost pulled off another huge win. They traveled to Indianapolis to play 17th-ranked Butler, and the Bulldogs needed a basket at the last second to secure a one-point win. Xavier isn't the team they have been in recent years, but they have certainly shown that they are legitimate.

Y - Yikes. The Vikings must be wishing that the season ended in November. For the second time in three weeks, Brett Favre and the Vikings looked more than a little bit lousy. The game was close and dull for much of the way before Carolina pulled away in the fourth to win by 19. Julius Peppers was the star of the game. He was as dominant as he has ever been - so good, in fact, that stud left tackle Bryant McKinnie was benched for his poor play despite being perfectly healthy.

Z - Zzzzz. The Jets and the Falcons may have played the most boring game in the history of the NFL on Sunday. If it wasn't then it certainly should be in the conversation. The Falcons ultimately won, 10-7, in a game that saw lousy quarterback play on both sides, and the near-total absence of anything approximating a running game. Only a reasonably competent winning drive late in the game for Atlanta provided the littlest bit of interest in this dud.