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PHILADELPHIA -- Brian Westbrook did not practice with the Eagles on Wednesday, nor did he talk about why. His coach, Andy Reid, said Westbrook would practice Thursday and that the reason he was held out Wednesday was his ankle, and not the concussion he suffered in the team's Oct. 26 victory over the Redskins. But if you buy that, I've got a South Philly bridge to sell you, too.

The ankle is a red herring. Westbrook's ankle is a chronic problem, for which he's had surgery, and his ankle probably hurts every day. They can put him on the injury report with an ankle problem anytime they want, and nobody's going to bat an eye. This thing with Westbrook is a case of a player, concerned about his own personal future, taking it slow amid a culture that's only starting to embrace the danger and seriousness of concussions.

CINCINNATI -- As losses go, this one was a stinker. Flying high off yet another last-minute intra-divisional win, the Bengals showed up for a home game Sunday against the Texans and had just about everything go wrong. They lost, 28-17, most important, and they also saw key defensive lineman Antwan Odom and Domata Peko go down with injuries. Odom's is a torn Achilles' tendon, which means they've lost him for the season. Bad, bad loss.

But the message Bengals coach Marvin Lewis delivered to his team in the wake of this bad loss was the same, simple two-word mantra he delivered on the first night of the season, after a goofy last-minute bounce cost the Bengals a game against the Denver Broncos:

"Don't flinch."

CINCINNATI -- Chad Ochocinco is taking some of the credit for the fact that Bengals fans in this area will be able to see the team play on TV on Sunday, and it appears he does have something to do with it. On Thursday the Bengals asked for (and got) a one-day extension of the league's deadline for selling out Sunday's home game against the Houston Texans. Had they not done so by Friday afternoon, the game would have been blacked out in the local market. And as of Thursday night, about 3,000 tickets remained unsold.

But at 1:08 p.m. Eastern time, Ochocinco announced on his Twitter page that he and Motorola had bought the remaining tickets and would be giving them away. Problem solved.

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CINCINNATI -- If Cedric Benson were going to make this climb from the NFL scrap heap to the top of the rushing list, it only makes sense that he'd do it here, among the well-known collection of misfits and ne'er-do-wells that league observers and HBO subscribers know as the Bengals.

This is in many ways the perfect spot for someone like Benson, who was unwelcome in Chicago before he even arrived and who drank himself out of town without ever delivering on the promise that comes with being the No. 4 pick in the draft. Here by the muddy banks of the Ohio River, in the shadow of the creaky Roebling Bridge, a team that's had only two winning seasons in the past two decades is happy to make Benson feel at home.

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NEW YORK -- The whole thing, start to finish, from pick No. 1 to pick No. 256 (minus the 10-hour break overnight Saturday), took 15 hours and 15 minutes. The NFL Draft is a complex, sprawling monster of an event that defies instant synthesis even as it
demands it.

But demand it does, and so here we are, in the hours after South Carolina kicker Ryan Succop was crowned "Mr. Irrelevant" (in a bizarre pageant that found NFL employees boogieing on front of the stage to Donna Summer's "Last Dance"), trying to make it all make sense.

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The three most recent things for which Chris Henry was cited don't seem like major incidents. At least two of them don't, the improper turn and the seat belt violation. I was guilty of both of those at least three times each today. However, you throw in the "driving with a suspended license" charge, and ... Chris Henry is an idiot.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like he went out and murdered someone (though I won't be shocked if that happens sometime next week). But you got arrested 4 times in 14 months, man. The cops are looking for you. Hire a driver. Call a motherflipping cab. Walk your ass to wherever you're going, just like you do on a Bengals play that's being run for someone else.

What is it going to take for Chris Henry to stop breaking the law? You could put him a straitjacket in an empty padded room, and lock him in there for 36 hours, and he'll still find a way to committ two or three felonies.

I don't know what's left for the Cincinnati police force to do. Maybe they should rent A Clockwork Orange and get some ideas from there.

Yesterday, the Chiefs lost a game. A game they should have won, and a game that most Chiefs' fans knew they would win. The win would put the Chiefs in position for a showdown for the AFC West title, a position nobody thought they would be in as little as three weeks ago.

By Sunday night, you would have thought that the Chiefs were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. Some fans thought the Chiefs should look toward the 2007 draft. Others completely eliminated the Chiefs from playoff contention, and if they did make it, gave them no chance to advance past the first round.

At this point, yes, the Chiefs probably are eliminated from the AFC West title. With two teams two games ahead, and seven games to go, a minor miracle would be needed to leapfrog ahead of both teams. But division winners are not given a golden path to the Super Bowl, and the Chiefs are still in a position to go where they have not been in two years-- the playoffs.

What we know is that Kansas City will probably need to win all of its home games. Those games at Arrowhead will not be easy (Oakland, Denver, Baltimore, and Jacksonville), but the Chiefs believe they can beat any team at home, and they can. If they win all four, then they need to win only one road game to be in a good position for the playoffs. That road game is Cleveland, a very winnable game. If they lose a home game, they need to make it up against either San Diego or Oakland. The game at Oakland is winnable; if the Chiefs end up needing to win at San Diego, then I will concede they are in a whole heap of trouble.

Obviously, the Chiefs first need to take care of business in Miami, but there is another game that is of great importance to the Chiefs. Both the Cincinnati Bengals and San Diego Chargers are challenging for playoff spots, one of which the Chiefs would be eager to take.

Both the Bengals and the Chargers have, in a sense, disappointed. The Bengals were one of the sexy picks in the preseason, a sure bet to make the playoffs, but as the season progressed, the Bengals actually regressed. Meanwhile, the Chargers have been considered a top five team, but they have still lost or struggled in games that they clearly should have won.

So both teams are vulnerable. But which team is Kansas City most likely to overtake? Let's take a look at their schedules, aside from this week's game:

Chargers

Remaining Games: Denver (A), Oakland (H), Buffalo (A), Denver (H), KC (H), Seattle (A), Arizona (H)

Best Case Scenario: 6-1
Worst Case Scenario: 3-4
Likely Record: 5-2

The key to the Chargers' schedule is that they have two games against the Broncos. Aside from Denver, their schedule is pretty easy. Oakland, Buffalo, and Arizona are the gimme wins. I think it is likely that they split with Denver, but I believe Denver is more likely to sweep the series than San Diego is. Their key games will be against KC and Seattle. Seattle will likely be making their playoff push with their stars healthy by Week 16. KC never plays well in San Diego.