Extra Points: Week 11

CASH MACHINE
Every time breakout star Derek Anderson cranks his arm forward to throw a pass it’s like releasing the handle on a slot machine. Only every pull is a jackpot. The guy’s playing this season for scale at 350 grand. Next year, he stands to make between $2.56 million (which would be a qualifying offer) and $10.6 million (if the Browns choose to “franchise” him). Pro-rating his stats to the end of the season, Anderson will have earned himself somewhere between $5,000 and $21,000 for every pass he threw this year.

PRIMORDIAL PAIRINGS
It’s been a banner year for geriatric couples. The baseball season featured 48-year-old Julio Franco hitting a home run against 43-year-old Randy Johnson to set a record for the oldest longball “combo” ever. We also saw Johnson square off with Jamie Moyer (combined age 88) to form the oldest pair of opposing left-handers in history. Last weekend, 44-year-old Vinny Testaverde and 38-year-old Brett Favre wheeled up under center as the oldest head-to-head quarterback duo ever in what was dubbed the “senior bowl.” Favre was again terrific, but said, “I don’t think I could do it, or play as well as [Testaverde] did at 44.” We wouldn’t bet against him.

ONE OVER TWO ISN’T HALF BAD
Mario Williams lined up across from Reggie Bush for the first time, and the Texans’ controversial choice to draft the defensive end in 2006 is looking better all the time. Williams harassed Drew Brees relentlessly, collected six tackles and a sack, and forced a fumble in a 23-10 win over New Orleans. Bush, who rushed for 34 yards on 15 carries and fumbled, even was overshadowed by Houston’s Ron Dayne (21 totes for 89 yards), another former Heisman Trophy winner. “I wish I would have scored because I would have did the Heisman pose,” said Dayne, clearly not an English major at Wisconsin.

BUMP AND RUN
Extra Points’ recurring installment of slapdash observation and imprudent opinion:

Fifty different quarterbacks started at least one game in 2006. No. 51 of ’07 took a snap the Sunday before last. Then there’s this: Running backs who were backups when the season opened have produced at least one 100-yard game for 16 different teams.

Eli Manning has started 49 NFL games and owns a record of 27-22. Peyton’s record through his first 49 games was 27-22.

On the same week Shayne Graham’s field goal streak reached a Cincy-record 22, Adam Vinatieri missed four in a row for the first time in 11 years.

Most underutilized player in the NFL: Calvin Johnson. The Lions rookie has looked awesome but Mike Martz, for some reason, uses him as a fourth WR behind the likes of Shaun McDonald and Adam Furrey.

The least of the AFC East — the Jets and Dolphins — transposed a couple of really bad stats on Sunday. New York went into their upset of Pittsburgh with just nine sacks all year, but notched seven. Miami had only five interceptions in its first nine games, but picked off three Eagles chucks in the first half.

Bill Belichick may be running up scores, but he’s an equal-opportunity sadist. Nineteen different Patriots have scored a touchdown. There are 12 TEAMS that have scored fewer than 19 touchdowns.

And the Pats may be blowing the aerial record book out of the sky, but don’t forget about the Vikings ground game. If Minnesota maintains its 5.9 YPC average, that would top the NFL mark of 5.7 by 1963 Cleveland (Jim) Browns.

This year’s Browns are 4-3 when allowing 30 or more points.

QUOTABLE
“I think it’s the most useless thing in sports.” — Brian Billick on the passer rating statistic.

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