But how good are the Cardinals, really? The Dallas win came on the front end of an implosion by the 'Boys, and the Cardinals have otherwise beaten the 49ers twice, the Bills, the Rams, and the Seahawks. A 31-10 win over the Dolphins came in Week 2, long before Miami emerged from an 0-2 hole to win six of eight.

And let's not forget the shredding the Cards suffered in New York, against the Jets.

We won't have to wait any longer to determine whether the Cards' wins translate to something more than being the best of four bad teams. In a four-day stretch beginning Sunday, Arizona will get two opportunities to show that it's far more than that.

For starters, the Cardinals host the Giants, a juggernaut with an overall calendar-year record of 12-1. The defending Super Bowl champs return to the field on which they won it all in February; and if Arizona can spoil the encore performance, then the Cardinals will prove they're legitimate contenders to do something other than merely host the NFL's title game.

On Thanksgiving night, the Cardinals travel to Philadelphia for a game against the increasingly desperate Eagles. It'll be Philly's first appearance before the home fans in the wake of "tie-gate," and the entire franchise will likely look to make a statement.

As a result, the Cardinals can make an even bigger statement by driving a stake into the Eagles' playoff hopes.

So, yeah, it's really that simple. Two wins will more than legitimize the Cardinals. Two losses will prompt most league observers to dismiss their dream season, which most likely will be capped by hosting a postseason game for the first time in 61 years, as the product of a record fattened up by a bunch of intradivision turkeys.

The key figure in both games will be quarterback Kurt Warner. He's enjoying a late-career surge nearly as unlikely as his unexpected arrival on the NFL scene nine years ago. And the whispers have grown into presumptions regarding Warner's candidacy for his third MVP award, which could clinch eventual enshrinement in Canton.

It's fitting, then, that Warner's opportunity to demonstrate that his rags-to-riches-to-rags story has nudged back to the riches category by beating the team that kicked him to the curb in favor of a hot-shot first-round draft pick. Though no one (even Warner) expected him to be anything more than a one-year starter for the Giants after Eli Manning arrived, Warner at least expected to get that one year at the helm, and he wasn't happy when it didn't happen.

In other words, it'll be very easy for Warner to get himself riled up for the game.

While Warner never has played for the Eagles, his demise in St. Louis arguably was cemented via a 10-3 loss in Philly from December 2002. In that game, during which Warner suffered eight sacks and coughed up three turnovers, he looked like anything but the three-step maestro of the Greatest Show on Turf. Six years later, Warner is still trying to fully shed the image of hot-shot-turned-old-man in three short hours.

But has Warner really changed, or is he simply in the right place at the right time? His wideouts (Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, Steve Breaston) are even better than the guys to whom he threw passes in St. Louis.

So could it be that, like the 1998 Vikings, anyone with a decent arm could make that offense go?

Ten years ago, it was Randall Cunningham who became an MVP candidate after being on the depth chart when Minnesota starter Brad Johnson broke a leg. In Warner's case, dissatisfaction with the development and maturity of Matt Leinart opened the door, and Warner has made the most of the opportunity.

Along the way, he somehow has avoided the injuries and (except in the Jets game) the turnovers that marred his career in St. Louis. His ability to continue to get the job done and stay healthy for the next two games will directly impact whether anyone takes the Cardinals seriously down the stretch.

The short-term future of the franchise is riding on it. If the Cardinals really are for real, they'll likely find a way to keep Warner around for a few more seasons. It might even get Boldin a Fitzgerald-style contract, if the Cards finally realize that their ability to excel is tied directly to having one of the toughest receivers in the game lining up across from one of the most physically talented.

If these Cardinals can't compete with the like of the Giants at home or the Eagles in Philly, then the ongoing effort to find the right nucleus could prompt the team to bring in a new quarterback for 2009, and to trade Boldin to the highest bidder.

Next week at this time, we'll know a lot more about which track the Cardinals will be on.

Mike Florio writes and edits ProFootballTalk.com and is a regular contributor to Sporting News.

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Sure, their paychecks have many more zeroes than ours, and their stubs detail much larger contributions to federal, state and local governments. We nevertheless like it when these athletes blessed with uncanny God-given physical abilities periodically say and do dumb stuff, too.

But there's a pretty big exception. While it's generally presumed that a fairly large percentage of the population shows up for work merely to collect that relatively modest paycheck, we never, ever, ever want to see the same I-just-work-here mentality in pro athletes.

Here's what we learned Sunday, when Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb declared with stunning nonchalance that he didn't know an NFL game could end in a tie: Many pro athletes are motivated primarily by the fact they get paid a lot of money to do what they do.

How else can anyone explain McNabb's ignorance of a rule almost all NFL fans can recite without advance thought?

As it turns out, several other Eagles didn't know. Plenty of players on other teams also are saying they didn't know, either.

The message? They care. But they don't care. Not like the rest of us, who'd play pro football for free and routinely fork over big money to watch others do it.

This dynamic also exposes an alarming lack of curiosity regarding their professions. McNabb has been playing football for at least 20 years, and he likely grew up dreaming of getting paid millions to spin the pig. So how did he, and others, never think to ask the question of what that "T" means at the top of the standings posted in every newspaper and every NFL-related web site, or of what happens when the 15 minutes of overtime tick away?

It's easy to blame the coaches -- and plenty of Eagles fans are eager for more reasons to chase Andy Reid out of town. But if NFL players need to be told ties can happen, what other relatively obvious stuff must coaches spoon-feed them? That the offense has four downs to gain 10 yards? That a receiver needs to get both feet in-bounds? That the ground can't cause a fumble?

The reality is most NFL scouts and general managers don't care what players know (or don't know) when they enter the NFL. All that matters is how fast they run the 40-yard dash, how high they can jump without pads, how many times they can bench-press 225 pounds and whether (for quarterbacks) they can throw with accuracy and velocity.

But maybe team officials should care. If part of the pre-draft ritual is going to include having the players take a 50-question Wonderlic Test of general intelligence, why not also gauge their football IQ, too?

Some would argue that a player's knowledge of the rules doesn't translate to whether he'll be a good NFL player. But I'm not suggesting that failing to understand the significance of the hash marks disqualifies a guy who can crank out a 4.2-second 40.

However, a player's knowledge of the rules should be a factor in the overall process. It's relevant because it shows whether he truly loves his sport or if he just plays for money and fame. It's relevant to whether he can be counted on to do whatever is necessary to win -- no matter if it's in the first minute of the first quarter or in the final seconds of overtime.

For players like McNabb, it's hard to conclude they truly love pro football. If they did, they'd figure out at some point before turning 30 that tie games can happen, even if they don't happen often.

Mike Florio writes and edits ProFootballTalk.com and writes three columns a week for Sporting News.

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Nothing good typically comes from protracted litigation against the federal government, especially when the charges arise from allegations of insider trading. Martha Stewart ultimately went to jail due to an insider trading brouhaha -- not because of the insider trading itself, but because of her effort to cover it all up.

Stewart, like Cuban, landed on the wrong end of a civil action aimed at forcing her to fork over the money she saved by acting on inside information regarding a stock she dumped just before the price went south. Eventually, she forked over to the feds the $45,000 she saved by ditching the stock, along with three times that amount as a penalty for using inside information.

Cuban may be approaching his own situation more prudently, getting "lawyered up" before talking to authorities and avoiding saying anything that could get him indicted (so far). Still, the sharp disagreement between Cuban's version of what happened and the government's contentions suggests that the feds aren't buying what Cuban is selling, and Cuban could ultimately face criminal prosecution.

The facts of many insider trading cases display the same Christmas-cookie shape and texture; the only real difference is the price of the dough. Martha Stewart saved $45,000 by dumping ImClone stock after she caught wind that the FDA was going to reject an attempt to gain approval for a new colon cancer treatment. So she sold before the private information became public.

In Cuban's case, the government claims that he acquired inside information regarding a stock offering that would have driven down the value of his position in Mamma.com. He allegedly dumped his holdings before the news became public, saving $750,000.

In any case of this nature, the objective facts are straightforward. The defendant sells a big chunk of stock right before bad news becomes public, and the only question is whether the stockholder told Randolph and Mortimer Duke to "sell, sell, sell!" because of the inside information, or for some other reason that was coincidental.

In Stewart's case, the government discovered an apparent scheme concocted by Stewart and her broker to cover up the real reason for her decision to dump ImClone. In Cuban's case, the complaint filed by the SEC against him seems to be based on information that came directly from the CEO of Mamma.com. Indeed, someone with knowledge of the conversation advised the government that Cuban "flew off the handle" when he learned from the CEO of the coming stock offering.

Like Stewart, Cuban has a story, and so far, he's sticking to it. "I am disappointed that the Commission chose to bring this case based upon its Enforcement staff's win-at-any-cost ambitions," Cuban says on his personal blog. "The staff's process was result-oriented, facts be damned. The government's claims are false, and they will be proven to be so."

There's no middle ground here. Either Cuban is clearly right, or he's clearly wrong. With the prospect of prosecution still looming (the pending case is merely a lawsuit), Cuban had better hope that he can back up his claims.

The smarter course would be to simply cut a check. Even if the SEC wants $750,000 plus three times that amount to settle the claim, the total payout of $3 million equates to less than one tenth of one percent of the $4.7 billion he received when he sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo in 1999.

Unless and until the concept of work release includes allowing the owner of a sports franchise to attend games with a certain piece of GPS-enabled jewelry attached to his leg, shaving off a piece of one's personal fortune is always better than spending several months as an involuntary guest at one of Uncle Sam's various properties that give an entirely different meaning to the term "gated community."

Mike Florio is a legal analyst for Sporting News.

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1. NFC North logjam continues

Before the season, it appeared that the AFC North could be won by a team with a record of 8-8 or worse. After the first few weeks, the NFC West seemed to be on track to have a .500 team host a playoff game. More recently, the AFC West had that "none of the above" vibe.

But now, the division that has a team with as many wins as losses in first place is the NFC North.

And, in all, it has three of them.

The 5-5 Bears still play the 5-5 Packers and 5-5 Vikings once each; the Packers and Vikings have split their two games. If the home teams win in the two remaining games among those three teams, and if the Packers and Vikings win their upcoming games against the 0-10 Lions, the two primary tiebreakers among those three teams will be even.

The Bears seem to have the easiest schedule the rest of the way, but no team has it truly easy down the stretch.

Bottom line? It's basically a six-game season, and the three contenders knotted up in the NFC North are all 0-0. In the end, the winner could be 8-8.

2. End of the road for McNabb, Reid?

At a time when the Philly faithful already are clamoring for a changing of the guard within the city's football franchise, a season-killing tie against the lowly Bengals will fire up the push for getting rid of coach Andy Reid to new heights.

Plenty of fans might be even more troubled by the post-game comments of quarterback Donovan McNabb, who claims he didn't know an NFL game could end in a tie.

And he was serious.

It's one of the more amazing statements from an NFL player I've ever heard. How can a 10-year veteran -- a quarterback -- not realize that, in a regular-season game, if neither team scores in the overtime period, the game ends in a tie?

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Has he never looked at the official standings? Has he not wondered what the "T" in the "W-L-T" formula means?

It also makes me wonder what kinds of conversations McNabb has had with his coaches over the years. If he doesn't know that games can end in ties, what other common knowledge regarding the sport he gets paid millions to play does he not possess?

Does he think the ball is really made from the skin of a pig? Does he believe that, in the old days, a short pass to a running back was actually thrown by the quarterback with a small shovel?

At a time when folks in Philadelphia are searching for hooks on which to hang their anti-McNabb and anti-Reid hats, McNabb's stunning admission might give them all the ammunition they could ever need.

3. Broncos back in the saddle

Many assumed, after a three-game free-fall that dropped them to 4-4, that the Denver Broncos eventually would fall apart and miss the playoffs, possibly paving the way for coach Mike Shanahan's exit after 14 years with the franchise.

Since then, the Broncos have reeled off two straight wins, which has extended their lead in the AFC West to two full games.

The victory at Cleveland two Thursdays ago wasn't much of a surprise, given the Browns' defense is so bad. Sunday's upset of the unexpectedly stout Falcons puts the Broncos back on track to do some potential damage in the playoffs.

Though the defense gave up 364 yards, the 20 points scored by the Falcons represents the lowest amount allowed by the Broncos in seven weeks.

So at a time when it seemed the Chargers would blow by the Broncos and take the division title, Denver has responded. If they can keep it up, Shanahan will surely be back for a 15th season.

And San Diego coach Norv Turner very likely could be tossed.

4. Win gets Cowboys on the right track

The Dallas Cowboys emerged from Washington with a critical 14-10 victory, and coupled with a loss by the Falcons, the 'Boys are back in the thick of the wild-card race.

And things get considerably easier over the next 10 days for Dallas, with a Week 12 visit from the 49ers and a Turkey Day treat featuring stuffed birds from Seattle, who at 2-8 would be playing for pride if they actually had any.

And so the Cowboys should be 8-4 as they head into the final four games of the season. Which is when things will get very interesting.

Over the final month, Dallas plays the Steelers, Giants, Ravens, and Eagles.

Win three, and the playoffs will be a sure thing. Lose three, and it's over. Win two, and maybe they'll make it.

But while the defense showed up against the Redskins, the Cowboys will still need more out of the offense (and, specifically, the passing game) in order to finish the job. Quarterback Tony Romo was so-so on Sunday night, throwing for less than 200 yards and two interceptions. While receiver Terrell Owens likely won't be sniping too much over his five-catch, 38-yard night (especially since he was directly responsible for one of the picks), T.O. likely will be crowing if he doesn't see the ball early and often during the upcoming games against San Fran and the Seahawks.

5. Yo, Adrian?

Last week, Vikings running back Adrian Peterson carried the team to a stirring come-from-behind win with some late-game heroics.

This week at Tampa Bay, the Vikings had two cracks at erasing an identical six-point deficit to the one they faced at home against the Packers seven days previously.

And Peterson was a forgotten man in both instances.

On the first drive, he returned the kickoff, gaining only 16 yards. And then a short pass was thrown to him on second down, but it was incomplete.

The second time around, he didn't see the ball at all.

On neither drive did the Vikings give him a single handoff.

So how can a team that rode Peterson's back against the Packers virtually ignore one of the best players in the league with the game on the line? It made no sense, and it will do nothing to quiet those in the Twin Cities who hope to see coach Brad Childress receive an end-of-season heave ho.

6. Weird finish in Pittsburgh

Sunday's game between the Steelers and the Chargers was decided late, with the home team nailing a 32-yard field goal and taking an 11-10 lead.

But that's when things got crazy.

After the kickoff, the Chargers had a few ticks left on the clock to make something happen. And so quarterback Philip Rivers threw the ball to running back LaDainian Tomlinson, who then tried to lateral the ball to receiver Chris Chambers. Chambers caught the ball, and then ran a few steps and tried to lateral it to another teammate.

But Steelers safety Troy Polamalu intervened, and eventually scooped the ball up and scored.

The booth called for a review, and referee Scott Green determined that the attempted lateral from L.T. to Chambers was actually an illegal forward pass. And so the Steelers declined the penalty and took the touchdown.

But then, as the Steelers were lining up for the extra-point attempt, Green turned his microphone back on and gave a vague explanation, declared the game to be over, appeared to be preparing to make the "touchdown" signal again with his arms, and then instead awkwardly grabbed the bill of his hat with both hands.

The subsequent explanation was that the ball became dead at the moment of the illegal forward pass.

The rule book says otherwise. Per Rule 8, Section 1, Article 1(b), if an illegal forward pass is caught or intercepted, the ball may be advanced and the penalty declined.

In other words, if a Steelers player had picked off the attempted forward lateral by L.T. and returned it for a touchdown, the penalty could have been declined.

Or, as actually happened on the play, if the ball is caught by an offensive player and then later lost by that player, the other team can recover the ball, take it in for a touchdown, and decline the penalty.

After the game, Green admitted his ruling was a mistake, and that the touchdown should have counted. (Apparently, the officials were confused about whether the illegal forward pass or the legal backward pass hit the ground. If the illegal pass had hit the ground, the play would have been over at that moment.)

The strange sequence of events doesn't change the fact the Steelers won. But with the betting line in most legal and illegal gambling establishments having the Steelers favored by more than one and less than seven, the outcome provided the difference between the Steelers covering, and the Chargers with points being the winning play.

It's another reason why the NFL must strive to ensure that game officials get every call right -- even those that don't seem to have an effect on the outcome of a game.

7. Sister-kissing in Cincy

From the Eagles' perspective, a tie game won't help the team make it to the playoffs in an increasingly top-heavy NFC field. For the Bengals, however, the outcome isn't all that bad.

When it comes to making unproven college players multimillionaires at the top of the draft, the Bengals now have an instant tiebreaker as to any other teams that end up with the same number of wins as the one-win franchise from Cincinnati.

While teams used to prefer to draft as highly as possible, the difference between each of the top several picks now translates to millions of dollars over the life of a contract. And given the Bengals' experiences with high first-round busts like David Klinger and Ki-Jana Carter and Peter Warrick and Akili Smith, the lower they pick, the better.

With one win through 10 games, however, they'll still be picking pretty darn high.

8. Don't count out the Ravens.

On the surface, it would be easy to dismiss the Ravens based on the pasting they sustained against the Giants on Sunday.

And that's exactly what the Ravens would like you to do.

After starting 2-0, the Ravens dropped three straight, culminating in a 31-3 spanking against the Colts. Written off by supposedly astute NFL observers at that point, the Ravens went on to win four in a row.

Of course, the schedule isn't exactly a cakewalk down the stretch. But the Ravens seem to play their best when no one expects anything from them.

And, after losing 30-10 in New York on Sunday, no one is expecting very much from them right now.

9. Singletary wins battle of the interims

Two of the NFL's three interim head coaches got together Sunday. Though it's still entirely possible that Mike Singletary of the 49ers nor Jim Haslett of the Rams will keep their jobs beyond the current season, Singletary drove a stake into Haz's chances with that 35-16 thrashing.

At one point, the score was 35-3. And, at that point, it became obvious to me that Haslett won't be back.

For Singletary, the jury is still out. Because despite the goofy antics and the bungling of the closing seconds of the Monday night game at Arizona, winning games will aid Singletary's cause. He finally got one on Sunday -- if he can get more before the end of the year, then maybe he'll be the guy in San Fran for 2009, and beyond.

10. Texans still can't solve the Colts

During a season in which the Indianapolis Colts are as weak as they've ever been since the Texans entered the league in 2002, the table seemed to be set for Houston to win a game against Indy.

Or maybe two. ... Well, maybe next year.

After blowing a 17-point fourth-quarter lead when they hosted the Colts in early October, the Texans went to Indianapolis and gave the suddenly hot Colts another run for their money. With safety Bob Sanders out, rookie running back Steve Slaton ran wild, gaining 156 yards. Slaton's 71-yard scamper midway through the third quarter gave the Texans the lead.

And, once again, they couldn't hold it.

The 33-27 loss dropped Houston to 1-13 all-time against the Colts. More importantly, the Texans now sit at 3-7, which for all practical purposes puts them out of the hunt for the first playoff berth in franchise history.

Mike Florio writes and edits ProFootballTalk.comM and is a regular contributor to Sporting News.

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As far as they're concerned, it's January.

The Cowboys have, as a practical matter, no margin for error, especially when it comes to Sunday night's game against the Redskins. Because a loss would force the 'Boys to make up three games in the standings over six weeks in order to overcome Washington's ensuing two-game lead and 2-0 record against Dallas for tiebreaker purposes.

Though the 'Boys don't necessarily need to win each of their remaining seven games, that 5-4 record has put them in a deep hole. With three other wild-card contenders at 6-3, even a 4-3 finish by each of them forces the Cowboys to go 5-2 or better -- and to hope they can finagle the tiebreakers.

As to the Bucs, the 'Boys are in good shape, given the 13-9 victory from last month. As to the Falcons, whom Dallas doesn't play this season, Atlanta is 4-3 in the conference, and the Cowboys are 3-4.

And if the Panthers don't win the division and instead enter the wild-card pool, their current conference mark of 4-2 puts them 1.5 games ahead of Dallas in that key head-to-head tiebreaker.

So, basically, 5-2 might not be enough to get to the "real" playoffs. And with games against the Redskins, Steelers, Giants, Ravens, and Eagles, a stretch run of 6-1 might be a bit too much for any team to expect.

That's why so much rides on Sunday's game. Lose, and it's going to be very hard to forge a path to the postseason. Win, and suddenly the Cowboys and the Redskins have identical 6-4 records.

The job will be considerably easier for the Cowboys, given the news that Washington workhorse Clinton Portis (995 rushing yards) isn't expected to play, due to a partially torn MCL. The bigger challenge for Dallas will be to improve on a pass defense that has allowed 12 touchdown passes, but registered only three interceptions. Given, however, that Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell doesn't make many mistakes, this might be the wrong week for the 2008 Cowboys to try to become the 1985 Bears.

Apart from anything the Dallas defense can do to slow down the 'Skins, the strength of this Cowboys team is (or was supposed to be) its own offense. Quarterback Tony Romo returns after a three-game absence, which is great news. That said, the Cowboys generally weren't reaching their full potential even before Romo broke a pinkie, and even a fully healthy Romo can be counted upon to commit a turnover at an inopportune time.

Putting extra pressure on the passing game is a rushing attack that has sputtered at times. Marion Barber's per-carry average has dropped by nearly a yard since last season, falling into Reggie Bush territory at less than 4.0.

That's why the 'Boys miss rookie running back Felix Jones almost as much as they missed Romo. Jones provides a home-run threat from anywhere on the field, as evidenced by his 8.9 average on 30 carries.

Apart from the manner in which these teams match up, the Cowboys suffer from a dearth of leadership and accountability. Gone are the days in which Bill Parcells ruled with an iron fist to the jaw and a steel-toed boot to the buttocks. Though the fumes of the Tuna regime might have helped fuel that 13-3 regular season a year ago, his influence has faded considerably -- and there's not a single man in the locker room who can klunk heads together the way Parcells could, and it shows in the on-field performances.

That's why most league observers regard the departure of coach Wade Phillips after the season as a foregone conclusion. The bigger question is whether owner Jerry Jones will entrust the team to offensive coordinator Jason Garrett once Wade is gone.

Though the buck doesn't yet stop on Garrett's desk, his star surely has faded a bit during the team's recent struggles on offense. If Phillips isn't wired to be the bad cop, then Garrett needs to do it, especially as to the players on the side of the ball for which he's primarily responsible.

In the end, Garrett might be tainted by the stench of Phillips' unfulfilled expectations, and Jones might choose to swing back to trolling for a big name, especially with that billion-dollar stadium set to open.

Whether it comes to that depends in large part whether the Cowboys can get back to the playoffs. If they're going to get it done, they need to accept the reality that the playoffs begin right now.

Mike Florio writes and edits ProFootballTalk.com and is a regular contributor to Sporting News.

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