Maurice Jones Drew

Remember when the NFL was a simpler place, when the big worry was the rest-or-rust debate ? whether the best teams should play hard through the end of the season or save their starters for the playoffs? That was so 2009. Now, no one has the luxury to coast. The Indianapolis Colts certainly don't. Less than a year after flirting with a perfect season, they have lost four of five games and are in serious peril of not reaching the playoffs for the first time in nine years.

While the elite of the 2006 NFL draft class were being squired around Manhattan, schmoozing with Donald Trump and staying in a posh Midtown hotel, UCLA running back Maurice Jones-Drew was elsewhere. Jones-Drew was holed up in an economy hotel in Concord, his Bay Area hometown, waiting for his name to be read. And waiting. He sat in one room with his two agents, watching the proceedings, getting increasingly angry as the day wore on.

Maurice Jones-Drew wears No. 32 as a reminder of the number of teams that passed on him in the draft last spring. That's all of them, and most of them are probably wishing they hadn't right about now. Jones-Drew, picked 60th by the Jacksonville Jaguars out of UCLA, made his first start Sunday against the Patriots and rushed for 131 yards and two touchdowns in a 24-21 loss.

The New York Giants didn't need a reminder to turn out the lights Sunday after playing their last game at a stadium they've called home for 33 years. They threw the switch before kickoff. "It's shocking and it's disappointing," quarterback Eli Manning said after the lifeless Giants were embarrassed at home by Carolina, 41-9. "When you have a shot to get into the playoffs and everything is right in front of us, to come and have mistakes and turnovers and penalties. . . . We did about everything we could to try to lose that game."

One is called crafty. The other crazy. One astute. The other arrogant. Maurice Jones-Drew made an unexpected decision that worked. Bill Belichick tried one that failed. Jones-Drew, the Jacksonville running back, tore off a nine-yard run and took a knee at the one Sunday instead of crossing the goal line -- even though his team was trailing the New York Jets by a point inside of two minutes. The Jaguars were able to burn the final ticks off the clock and win, 24-22, on a 21-yard field goal.

The last time Los Angeles saw them together, USC's Reggie Bush was a superstar, and UCLA's Maurice Jones-Drew (whose surname was then simply Drew) was an afterthought. Bush was the Lakers, Jones-Drew the Clippers. Bush was Hollywood, Jones-Drew was Westwood. On Dec. 3, 2005, when USC delivered a 66-19 crosstown thrashing at the Coliseum, Bush finished with 260 yards and, essentially, the Heisman Trophy. Jones-Drew had a respectable by unremarkable 84 yards and a touchdown.

As provided by the league: SATURDAY DALLAS at ARIZONA ? COWBOYS: QUESTIONABLE: WR Roy Williams (groin). PROBABLE: RB Marion Barber (calf), LB Keith Brooking (foot), WR Jesse Holley (knee), LB Bradie James (knee), RB Felix Jones (shin), LB Sean Lee (shoulder, concussion), S Gerald Sensabaugh (concussion). CARDINALS: DOUBTFUL: RB LaRod Stephens- Howling (hamstring). QUESTIONABLE: LB Clark Haggans (groin), LB Joey Porter (triceps). PROBABLE: QB Derek Anderson (head, illness)

Running back Maurice Jones-Drew signed a five-year, $31-million contract Wednesday with the Jacksonville Jaguars that includes $17.5 million guaranteed. "It really was a matter of wanting more Maurice," Jaguars Coach Jack Del Rio said. "We want Maurice on the field more often. We believe he's a feature guy and it's his time. We're excited about that." Jones-Drew, a second-round draft pick from UCLA in 2006, has 6,003 all-purpose yards and 40 touchdowns in three seasons.

What, you don't believe they can do it? You doubt that Jacksonville running back Maurice Jones-Drew can be buried up to his neck on a beach, then use his superhuman burst to explode out of a hole five feet deep? You wonder whether Denver quarterback Chris Simms can effortlessly throw passes into trash cans 45 yards away, then pull off the same trick as a can is zipping past on a golf cart? You scoff at the comic-book quickness of New York Giants tight end Kevin Boss, who bends backward Matrix-style to one-hand a pass screaming at his head from point-blank range?