Race Coming Down to the Wire

Sunday had some of the best games of the season as two teams in particular battled hard for a prized spot. One team did whatever it would take to reach its goal. The other would not. It is no surprise that the Houston Texans have remained in pole position to draft Reggie Bush. The Texans make the plays that need to be made, but the Packers could not keep pace.

Evidentially Packers historian Lee Remmel seems to be the only one who remembers that the club passed on Barry Sanders to draft Tony Mandarich. All Packers coach Mike Sherman had to do was put the ball in Brett Favre�s hands and a loss was inevitable. But Sherman decided to get cute and give the ball to running back Samkon Gado, who not surprisingly, wants to win and keep Reggie Bush far away from the team.

But fate seemed to be smiling on the Packers.

Late in the fourth quarter, Gado was tackled 2-yards deep in his endzone. Gado flipped the ball forward as he was going down making, making it a forward pass. Referee Mike Carey ruled a safety on the basis of intentional grounding. But after a stupid challenge by Sherman, the call was reversed because Gado was outside of the tackle box, making it simply an incomplete pass. If Sherman does the right thing and takes the safety, the Packers are still in the Reggie Bush sweepstakes.

But Sherman takes the easy way out and goes for the victory. That is why Houston is leading to get the USC running back, and the Packers are heading for a draft pick who will become a trivia answer in a few years.

At least if Texans kicker Kris Brown has something to say about it. The former Cornhusker missed the go-ahead field goal with just under four minutes remaining and then had an improbable 31-yard field goal attempt with no time left on the clock fail so far left, even Paul Hornung would be embarrassed that somebody was trying to throw a game that bad. It was like that scene in the James Woods� vehicle, Diggstown, where a young boxer is so bad at throwing a fight that he eventually is killed. But everybody in Houston now loves Brown�although the team giving him a five-year extension for missing the kick was a bit much. But that is Houston. It is doing everything it can to land Bush, and for good reason.

There are those experts�Eric Allen�who believe that the Texans would be better served to trade down, pick up some extra picks and linemen and go forward. That sounds great in theory. But do you think the Raiders would rather have Robert Gallery or Phillip Rivers/Ben Roethlisberger right now? You don't pass on playmakers. You would think that Packers would have learned that by now.

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