There was a lot to dissect after the Minnesota Vikings' 28-18 loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday afternoon. Brett Favre's(notes) lacerated chin was obviously the big story, but the undercurrent of the postgame experience (and perhaps the clearest window yet into just how dysfunctional this Vikings organization has become) was Randy Moss'(notes) postgame comments. ESPN.com's Kevin Seifert transcribed everything Moss said after the game.

Moss began with a soliloquy about the $25,000 fine he recently received from the NFL for refusing to cooperate with the media. "For the league to fine me $25,000, I'm not going to answer any more questions for the rest of this year," he said. "If it's going to be an interview, I'm going to conduct. So I'll answer my own questions. I'll ask myself the questions, then give y'all the answers. So from here on out, I'm not answering any more questions for the rest of this season."

Perhaps the most incendiary moment came when Moss basically threw his

It seemed that all the talk through the NFL last week had to do with Brett Favre(notes): Would he start against the New England Patriots with his ankle injuries? Would his play be up to standard? Should Tarvaris Jackson(notes) play instead. What would happen between Favre and Minnesota Vikings head coach Brad Childress if Childress had to bench him for any reason?

Well, Favre did start, and he played decently enough (22 of 32 for 259 yards, no touchdowns and one interception in a very conservative Childress game plan), but there was no drama regarding his playing the entire game.

[Related: Tony Romo suffers big injury

Halfway through the fourth quarter, with the Patriots up 21-10, Favre tried to hit Randy Moss(notes) with a short pass from the New England 3-yard line. The pass was incomplete, and defensive end Myron Pryor(notes) knocked Favre from the field with a devastating (but clean) hit that opened up a laceration on Favre's chin and had him looking nearly unconscious as he was

There are times when stat lines don't tell the whole story, and there are times when stat lines absolutely lie. You'll find an excellent example of the latter phenomenon if you check out the line of Cowboys quarterback Jon Kitna(notes) in Dallas' 35-17 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Kitna, starting in place of Tony Romo(notes), completed 34 of 49 attempts for 379 yards, one touchdown and four interceptions. You may look at that and conclude that Kitna put on his Brad Johnson(notes) suit and proceeded to stink up the joint.

Not so fast. As we will see, three of Kitna's picks were absolutely and entirely the fault of his receivers.

The first pick had Felix Jones(notes) whiffing on a quick pass, only to see the ball caught by Jags defensive tackle Terrance "Pot Roast" Knighton. Pick No. 2 was a catchable ball thrown in the vicinity of Miles Austin(notes). Austin seemed to want no part of the ball, and gave it up to cornerback Derek Cox(notes). Cox was also the lucky recipient of

Most people had the Detroit Lions beating the Washington Redskins as their "upset special" (though the Lions were actually favored), and that's just what happened - the Lions took care of business with a 37-25 home victory as they welcomed Matthew Stafford(notes) back to the starting lineup.

We'll be talking soon about the efforts of Detroit rookie defensive tackle Ndamukong "I could kick Chuck Norris' butt" Suh, but here's a defensive performance on the other side that's well worth watching. Ladies and gentleman, I give you Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall(notes) covering Lions receiver Calvin "Megatron" Johnson:

You can put a bit of the blame on Stafford for not throwing the ball higher to take advantage of Johnson's height, but credit where credit is due: Hall plays this ball about as well as it is possible to do. Hall has always been a mixed bag and an inconsistent player, but it appears as if the lights are coming on, allowing Hall to play at a different level. Megatron did

-- Are you as sick of the talk of Brett Favre's(notes) streak as we are? Yup, we thought so. Well, here's a streak that is just as impressive: When he takes the field against the Detroit Lions today. Washington Redskins linebacker London Fletcher will have done so in his 200th consecutive game. It's an amazing number, because of the rarity of front seven players appearing in that many consecutive games. The only other current defensive players to even start 200 career games are safeties: Seattle's Lawyer Milloy(notes) and Denver's Brian Dawkins(notes). And a cornerback, Tampa Bay's Ronde Barber(notes), is the only one to come close to that 200-straight number - going into today's game - he stands at 173. Only Ray Lewis(notes) has more career tackles among active players than Fletcher's 1,935, but perhaps the most amazing stat relating to Fletcher's career is that he didn't make a Pro Bowl until his 12th season in 2009. If you want to watch a real artist who isn't holding everyone

The noted sabermetrician Bill James has brought so many different concepts to sports in the last three decades, but one of my favorites was the Peak Value/Career Value lists he put in his early Historical Baseball Abstract books. The lists were somewhat subjective, but I liked the idea of rating players over a set period of time on two different grades - the short-term, single-season value versus the long-term career perspective. It shows how mercurial the rise and fall can be for some players, and how difficult is it to maintain a top-tier level of supremacy at any position.

Perhaps no position is harder to keep at that level than that of cornerback; the myth of the shutdown corner is far greater than the actual evidence of such individuals. Since Oakland Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha(notes) was selected with the 31st overall pick in the 2003 NFL draft, there have been a host of names orbiting his - Champ Bailey(notes), Asante Samuel(notes), Charles Woodson(notes), Darrelle Revis

Former NFL quarterback and current co-host of ESPN's "NFL Matchup" Ron Jaworski probably watches more game tape now than he did when he was playing; that's part and parcel of his job in what has long been the best NFL breakdown show out there. On Thursday, Jaworski went on Phoenix radio station KTAR and gave the Cardinals faithful a dose of hard reality about the abilities of Arizona Cardinals rookie undrafted free agent quarterback Max Hall(notes).

"The attributes you have to be able to have to be successful week in and week out over a long period of time is the ability to throw the football accurately and with velocity. And clearly, when I look at the tape, I don't see either of those.

"I don't see the ball going down the field. You see the bubble screens, the bootlegs, throwing the ball in the flat, nothing down the field. You just don't see a skill set that projects to be a consistent NFL quarterback. Things don't look good when you're on the field with Max Hall. It's that simple.

As first reported by Jay Glazer of FOXSports.com, the NFL has made a rare move by scheduling a conference call involving all the league's officials. The call will take place Friday, and the primary discussion point will be the wave of controversial calls made recently. Glazer brought up two calls that will likely be at the head of the agenda: The Ben Roethlisberger(notes) fumble-that-was-not-a-fumble call in the Steelers-Dolphins game, and the overturned Visanthe Shiancoe(notes) touchdown catch in the Vikings-Packers game.

Both calls have been ripped in the media, and though Vikings head coach Brad Childress was recently fined $35,000 for calling the Sunday night contest "the worst-officiated game I've ever seen" and revealing the content of confidential conversations with the league's officiating arm, the fact that those calls may have decided close games in each case is most likely the main reason for the increased focus.

First-year VP of Officiating Carl Johnson went over both of