A day for elements of surprise

On an afternoon when some of the biggest NFL games were played in snow, wind, drizzle and even a downpour, the story Sunday was the whether.

Whether controversy would distract the New York Giants.

Whether, on a shut-the-windows day, the window of opportunity would slam shut on San Diego.

Whether the streaking New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Indianapolis Colts could keep winning.

Whether Cleveland would run out of quarterbacks.

And whether any team from the Left Coast would get it right. For once.

San Francisco answered the last one, winning at Buffalo to become this season’s first West Coast team to win in the Eastern time zone. Until the 10-3 victory by the 49ers, teams from this side of the country -- including Arizona and Seattle -- were 0-16 in those games.

This time, it was the Bills who were reading an upside-down map. They got one field goal in four trips into the red zone and clanked two kicks off the left upright, one from only 20 yards.

With a light snow swirling in Green Bay, the home team made a clutch field goal from point-blank range, but it wasn’t enough. Only two plays after Mason Crosby put the Packers up by three points with less than two minutes remaining, Carolina scored the winning touchdown in a 35-31 head-spinner.

DeAngelo Williams scored four of the Panthers’ five touchdowns, all on one-yard runs, making the most of his touches and keeping Carolina in the thick of the NFC South race.

In football’s tightest division, only three games separate the 9-3 leaders (Tampa Bay and Carolina) from the 6-6 laggards (New Orleans). Whereas some divisions have bad teams and good teams, the NFC South has the haves and the have lots.

That competitive balance was obvious Sunday when the visiting Saints lost to the Buccaneers, 23-20. That game came down to a monsoon-piercing, 37-yard field goal by Matt Bryant with two minutes to play. It was the fourth consecutive victory for the Buccaneers, who are 6-1 since quarterback Jeff Garcia regained his starting job.

The Saints have quite a quarterback too, although Drew Brees was off the mark more than once in this game. He had two touchdowns but three interceptions, calling it “one of the more disappointing losses I’ve ever been a part of.”

Not that it’s overly important to Brees, but his 296 yards kept him on pace to break Dan Marino’s single-season yardage record.

Peyton Manning once broke a Marino record, but the Indianapolis quarterback looked downright average Sunday in a four-point victory at Cleveland, where the only touchdown was scored by the Colts’ defense.

Asked to assess his performance, Manning said, “I’m sure I could, but I’d rather not. Our defense won the game for us.”

Regardless, it was a big victory for Indianapolis, which for the fourth time this season overcame a fourth-quarter deficit to win -- all on the road.

So five years after a 9-6 victory at Cleveland, the Colts won 10-6.

That’s called progress.

The Browns are on their third quarterback.

That’s called life in Cleveland.

Brady Quinn is out for the season because of a finger injury. His replacement, former starter Derek Anderson, suffered a knee injury in the fourth quarter against the Colts. Ken Dorsey stepped in for him with less than two minutes remaining and his day was summed up this way: incompletion, incompletion, interception.

The day wasn’t much better for the NFL’s newest -- or oldest -- star quarterbacks: Matt Cassel and Brett Favre. New England’s Cassel, coming off consecutive 400-yard games, had two interceptions and no touchdowns in a 33-10 home loss to Pittsburgh. The Patriots gave up 30 consecutive points for the first time since a 31-0 loss to Buffalo in their 2003 opener.

Just as forgettable was the performance of Favre and the Jets, who had a chance for their first six-game winning streak in a decade. But Denver, which has the league’s 27th-ranked pass defense, denied Favre a passing touchdown, and three times in the second half forced a turnover by downs.

Denver, which survived a big dip earlier this season, has won three of four. That makes things even tougher on the Chargers, who are three games behind the Broncos in the AFC West with four to play.

There’s no reason to think San Diego will catch up, even though it plays host to Denver in a season finale. In losing to Atlanta on Sunday, the Chargers fell for the fifth time in six games and clearly won’t be making the skin-saving turnaround that got them to the AFC championship game last season.

Even if the Chargers run the table, they’ll finish only 8-8. Amazing.

While the Bolts have become the Bleats, the Giants are still going strong. Despite losing star receiver Plaxico Burress, who accidentally shot himself in a leg at a Manhattan nightclub Friday, New York keeps winning. According to various reports, Burress will be charged with criminal possession of a weapon and today is expected to turn himself in to authorities.

The Giants sure didn’t miss him in their 23-7 victory at Washington.

In fact, they could have penned him a carefree note:

Wish you were here. The whether is beautiful.

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BEST OF THE DAY

*--* PASSING Att Cmp Yds TD JAY CUTLER, Broncos 43 27 357 2 ELI MANNING, Giants 34 21 305 1 AARON RODGERS, Packers 45 29 298 3 DREW BREES, Saints 47 25 296 2 JOE FLACCO, Ravens 29 19 280 2 RUSHING Att Yards Avg TD THOMAS JONES, Jets 16 138 8.6 2 MARSHAWN LYNCH, Bills 16 134 8.4 0 ADRIAN PETERSON, Vikings 28 131 4.7 1 PEYTON HILLIS, Broncos 22 129 5.9 1 MICHAEL TURNER, Falcons 31 120 3.9 0 RECEIVING No Yards Avg TD MARK CLAYTON, Ravens 5 164 32.8 1 BERNARD BERRIAN, Vikings 4 122 30.5 1 RODDY WHITE, Falcons 6 112 18.7 0 TONY GONZALEZ, Chiefs 8 110 13.8 0 MARQUES COLSTON, Saints 6 106 17.7 0 *--*