The Boone Docks

First, to the “news” portion of the program:

* Eric Mangini disclosed the team awards from the Titans game.

Offensive player of the game: Leon Washington
Defensive: Abram Elam
Special teams: Marques Murrell
Practice: Brett Ratliff

Also, Mangini said Eric Smith and David Harris would practice today and when the media went out to practice, both players were stretching with the team. We saw Harris working in the positional drills but Smith, after the team adjourned from stretching, went to the sideline and the exercise bike. I’d say Harris is the more likely of the two to play Sunday, but my bet is neither will suit up.

* Brett Favre’s answers are usually pretty good and it was no exception when he was asked to give a snapshot of each of his offensive linemen – D’Brickashaw Ferguson, Alan Faneca, Nick Mangold, Brandon Moore and Damien Woody.

“Nick has the chance to be the best I’ve ever played with. Athletically speaking he’s by far the most athletic.”

“Faneca is one of those guys that every team wishes they had on their team. He never complains; is always running, blocking, doing something. He’s a perfect fit for he side that breaks on, because I see a change in Brick. Once again, I wasn’t here last year, but just form the start of the year now…it goes without saying that Brick is ultra talented. Using that is the key. I think he’s finding out day in and day out he can be pretty darn good.”

“Brandon and Woody, the right side, they’re all playing great. Woody’s got the best feet I’ve ever seen. Brandon is probably our best just pure run blocker. I mean he’s hard to move. He can move people.”

Favre also talked about an in-practice skirmish between Ferguson and Shaun Ellis from a while back.

“Having a little spunk about you is not a bad thing," Favre said. "Everybody laughed, stuff like that. Most people were like, ‘Man, we haven’t seen that side of Brick.’”

* Favre was asked about the dangers of the team getting ahead of itself as the wins keep piling up and the positive attention continues to come. Favre said nothing has changed much since the early part of the season, other than players' confidence.

“You know, you’re on top of the world one day, hit the bottom the next,” Favre said. “As we struggled early in the year, I don’t think it really affected anyone, because look where we are now. I really don’t think that the success we’re having right now will affect us. In saying that, I don’t know what’s going to happen the next five. But I think our preparation, guys will say the right things. It seems like a pretty focused team.”

* Favre on the offense of late, its ability to hold onto the ball and overall effectiveness:

“The key in all of this to me is the fact that our running game has really dominated, no different than our defense, stopping the run. The fact we’ve been able to run the football at our discretion has made all the difference. For any quarterback, if you can run the football the way we’re running it, sort of dictates to the defense, I don’t want to say you want them to play, but how they have to play you. Do they bring an extra guy in the box? If they do that, then a slant should be there, a go route, a back shoulder throw or whatever. We have the guys from our receiver corps standpoint that can catch the ball at the line of scrimmage, get 10 or 15. They did it the other day. If you’re a defensive coordinator, you’re scratching your head going, what do I do?”

* Finally, a quick congrats to the Associated Press' Jets beat reporter, Dennis Waszak, for tagging Thomas Jones and Leon Washington as “Pow and Later.” The nickname seems to have caught on a bit [Washington called it his favorite on ESPN yesterday morning] and whatever you may hear, it originated with Waszak.

And with that, happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I have been - and continue to be - thankful for the readers of this blog since I started on the beat.

I would tell you all about my plans tomorrow, but I don’t want to make anyone jealous. Enjoy the holiday.