Faceoff: Gaffe on Chad? Rivers or Cutler; 'Boys or Eagles?
CBSSports.com pro football writers Pete Prisco and Clark Judge face off weekly throughout the season.
| Pete Prisco | Clark Judge |
| Would the Jets be better off with Chad Pennington? | |
 Would I be better off if I were 20 pounds lighter? Of course the Jets would be better off with Pennington. Favre, to me, hasn't been what the Jets expected. He has been more hype than performance. He leads the NFL in interceptions with 19. That's terrible. He doesn't throw down the field, which was the knock on Pennington when the Jets ran him out of town. Pennington is averaging 7.7 yards per attempt. Favre is at 6.7 yards. So who's the short-passing game quarterback? Pennington has more yards and has a higher passer rating. He has 17 touchdowns and seven interceptions, while Favre has 21 touchdowns and 19 interceptions. In the past three games, crunch-time games, Favre has one touchdown and five interceptions. Pennington has six touchdown passes and one interception in the past three games. That's clutch. It's easy to see the Jets would be better off with Pennington. | We'll never know, and that's a shame. I never endorsed the Brett Favre move, though I was forced to admit in midseason that it worked out better than I imagined. But I never wavered in my belief that the Jets gave Pennington a raw deal. He wanted to be the starter. He was determined to beat out Kellen Clemens. And, yes, if you want an answer, they would have been as good ... if not better ... with Pennington. Nope, he doesn't have the arm of Favre, but Favre doesn't have the arm of Favre any more, either. Plus, he throws far too many interceptions. Pennington takes care of the football, and look what it has done for Miami: The Dolphins have fewer turnovers than anyone. Plus, for a guy who can't get the ball downfield, Pennington is doing just fine. In fact, he has more yards passing than Favre. If the Jets had a conviction about Pennington they never would have acquired Favre, but they didn't. Miami should be grateful. Pennington has been marvelous when the Dolphins needed it most. In their last four games, all of them victories, he has six touchdown passes and one interception. In the Jets' last four, three of them losses, Favre has one touchdown and six interceptions. Check, please. |
| Your choice: Philip Rivers or Jay Cutler? | |
 That's a tough one. But I think I'd go with Rivers. Most would say Cutler in large part because of that big arm. I prefer the guy who sees the field better, and that's Rivers. I think Rivers has quietly had a heck of a season. He's not even going to the Pro Bowl, which is a joke. Rivers has 32 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, while Cutler has 24 and 16. Cutler has more passing yards, but Rivers is averaging 8.3 per attempt to 7.4 for Cutler. That disputes some of the thinking that Rivers isn't a good down-the-field thrower. Cutler's arm seduces a lot of people, and it's hard not to love. But Rivers doesn't get his due in large part because he doesn't have a rifle for an arm. But he gets it. He sees the field as well as anybody in the league. So Rivers it is. | Rivers. I've never been a big Cutler fan, though I love the guy's release and marvel at his ability to launch rockets. He has one of the strongest arms I've seen, but I've made myself clear on this subject: Arm strength is overrated. Chad Pennington was criticized for not having a big arm. Big deal. He's accurate. And he wins. What has Jay Cutler won? Nothing. Yeah, he throws like Randy Johnson. But he doesn't win like Randy Johnson. In fact, he hasn't won anything. Not yet anyway. Rivers was 14-2 in his first season as a starter. He went to the AFC championship game in his second season as a starter. Now he's on the verge of winning his third straight division title. So he rubs some people the wrong way. The guy is competitive, and I like that. And he's tough. He proved that in an overtime defeat of Tennessee last season, then again in the conference championship game. Oh, yeah, one other thing: He's productive. He leads the league in touchdowns and passer rating, and somebody please notify the Pro Bowl. |
| Who wins: Dallas or Philadelphia and why? | |
 I think it's the Cowboys. Am I nuts? The way they played last Saturday against the Ravens, you would have to say yes. But I think they find a way to regroup in this one. They have too much talent to be heading home for the playoffs. Tony Romo has come under a ton of heat after his terrible play last week and his continued troubles in December. But I think that will change against the Eagles. Romo will kill some of those December demons with a big game. I also look for Terrell Owens to have some success down the field, much to the chagrin of Eagles fans. The Eagles are a blitz-happy defense and the Dallas offensive line is pretty good in pass protection. I think the potential for big plays will be there. This time, Romo makes them. The Cowboys make the playoffs. | Philadelphia. The Eagles are home and, in all likelihood, out of the playoff picture. So they should be sulking, right? Not exactly. They should be fired up. Not just because Terrell Owens is back in town, but because they can bounce Dallas from the playoffs with a defeat. And one thing you should understand about the Eagles is that they know how to beat the Cowboys in December -- winning their last five games against them in that month, three of them in Big D. But there's something else working in their favor: They play Tony Romo, a quarterback with a bad back and a worse record down the stretch. He lost his last regular-season game last season and his last two the year before that. So what? So this is as much a part of the Cowboys' lore as the star in Texas Stadium. The Cowboys haven't won a season finale since 1999, which means they're oh-for-their-last-eight. Philadelphia will be angry. Their fans will be angrier. And the Cowboys? They couldn't beat Baltimore at home, so why should we believe they beat the Eagles here and now? We shouldn't. |
