NFL Roundup: Take Solace In Akers

Observations and tidbits from a day of football ...>

• The Eagles might have suffered as heartwrenching a loss yesterday as could be imagined this early in the season — there were about eight different moments in the fourth quarter that had to break exactly right for the Giants for the game not to be over — but they have to happy with kicker David Akers, who not only might have taken a cheap shot at a coach (arguable) but also gleefully scuffled with two Giants twice his size on the sidelines (definitely). Akers, other than Neil Rackers obviously, is our favorite kicker, because it seems important to him that you know that just because he kicks footballs for a living doesn't mean he can't kick your ass. The guy took on an offensive lineman and a fullback on the opposing sideline. Hard not to like that. So there's something, Eagles fans. • Daunte Culpepper kind of looks like he's near death, doesn't he? Did they really just lose at home to the Bills? Culpepper seemed to be juggling the ball every time we saw him; perhaps he had some Smoot on his fingers. • Ohmigod ohmigod ohmigod TObrokehisfinger! • If you didn't see "Inside the NFL" this week, you missed Peter King's ill-timed interview with Jake Plummer about his friend, the late Pat Tillman. We're still not sure what Plummer has to contribute to the public discourse on Tillman, and only slightly because he's seemingly within seconds of being the backup quarterback to a rookie. He deserves it for cutting his hair. • By the way, we'd like to toss some bad words in the general direction of HBO Sports for making the foolish decision to not give highlights from every game anymore on "Inside the NFL" so they can "better tell the story" of "big games." No, really, we'd rather see clips of Bill Cowher's family than watch actual highlights of actual football. No, really, we would. Dicks. • We're making a vow: We're going to talk about Kerry Collins, erratic quarterback of a dreadful last-place team, as much as we are Brett Favre, erratic quarterback of a dreadful last-place team. You have our word. • You know, if Rex Grossman suffers a season-ending injury in the next two weeks, we think they should probably just shoot him and put everyone out of their collective and individual misery. • Boy. The Raiders.