Believe. In the Cincinnati Bengals? It is time. Granted, Bengal faith is spare and rare for the best of reasons: Since the striped-helmet ones lost the 1989 Super Bowl to the San Francisco 49ers, they have posted but two winning seasons and made the playoffs once. Once! That's unmatched NFL futility over those two decades. Bengals, Bungles. Same difference.

What would I have done? Punt, of course - 100 times out of 100. OK, maybe 98 out of 100. Don't miss the larger point of New England's 35-34 loss to the undefeated Indianapolis Colts, however: The Patriots had the Colts beaten in Indianapolis, and it took coach Bill Belichick's really risky ploy that backfired to open the window for Peyton Manning and the boys.

Norfolk State football coach Pete Adrian watched it live, but he wasn't sure he could duplicate it if he stepped into the same situation. "Personally, I think I would've punted the football," Adrian said Monday, when it seemed all of the sports world was debating New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick's failed fourth -and-two gamble from his own 28-yard line Sunday night.

LANDOVER, Md. Joy, ladies and gentlemen, in Dudville. FedEx Field, that is. To which the Washington Redskins on Sunday returned competitive football. Winning, bang-for-the-buck football, in fact, that required no apologies, unlike their earlier home victories over two awful opponents.

NORFOLK Stanford women's basketball coach Tara VanDerveer picked up one of her easier victories Friday night on her way to 800. Or 900. Or whichever crazy milepost she's near when she puts together, as VanDerveer likes to say, her last puzzle.

The NFL at midseason... Eight games into a season in which a full quarter of the teams are still vying for next year's top draft pick. Eight games left - except for the New York Giants and Houston Texans who have played nine - for the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts to try to stay unbeaten.

Marvin Mitchell is as big a fan of quarterback Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints' NFL-leading offense as anybody. "They've got so much good personnel," said Norfolk's Mitchell, a special-teams scrapper and back up linebacker for the 7-0 Saints. "You can see them each and every day in practice, but you're still impressed when you see them on game day."

OK, maybe I'm gun-jumping here a little. I know Percy Harvin, who plays with true abandon, still must navigate through eight regular-season NFL bruise-fests to complete his rookie season. It won't be easy. But for fun, let's play the "He's On Pace To" game anyway...

PHILADELPHIA Don't be hypnotized this year by the perennial NFC East hype. Halfway through this NFL season, the typically tough, chain-rattling division remains long on reputation, but it's conspicuously short on performance. That's why some of us take the Philadelphia Eagles' 40-17 Sunday drubbing of the New York Giants at Lincoln Financial Field with a lot more than a single grain of salt.

BLACKSBURG

Tough to explain, this one. One of those three-hour, slow-motion demonstrations you see throughout a college football season of why they play the darn games.

The scene: a full Lane Stadium on a clear, sparkling Thursday night. Orange everywhere, in the grandstands and draped on Virginia Tech on the field.