The Seattle Seahawks snatched the GM title away from Mike Holmgren, leaving him with just one job: Coach.

Bob Ferguson, the man who now has Holmgren's old front-office job, believes no coach in the NFL should hold both positions, whether they have it in name or not.

"There's not a coach in this game that can do everything every day," Ferguson said. "I'm prejudiced, of course. But there are just too many problems, too many things that come up. They get emotional, and rightly so.

"Things happen they can't control. It's all ego-driven. I don't care what they tell you. Somebody wants to be in charge of everything."

The GM has to be the "bad cop" sometimes to insulate the coach from the players.

"When you really are having some trouble, sometimes it's nice to have somebody there to take the bullets for you," Ferguson said. "I believe the GM's job is to take the bullets and let the coach do what he has to do to win on Sunday. They've got enough problems as it is."

The devil's in the details

They don't preach about turnovers for nothing. The Saints might be 8-3 instead of 5-6 except they lead the NFL with 15 lost fumbles. Quarterback Aaron Brooks has lost seven and Deuce McAllister three.

Opponents converted 11 fumbles into eight touchdowns and three field goals.

The Saints also have committed 42 pre-snap penalties.

"It goes back to paying attention to detail and taking care of the little things," Saints coach Jim Haslett said. "We don't have pre-snap penalties in practice."

No gets out of here a winner

Here's one 4-7 coach who's not talking playoffs.

"The playoffs are very, very unrealistic," Steve Spurrier said after his Redskins lost to Miami last week.

Spurrier is head for his second consecutive losing season in Washington after going 19 years in the USFL, at Duke and Florida with just one.

After the Redskins lost to Miami, Spurrier said, "We're all losers tonight."

Where Eagles fly

Philadelphia's offense hasn't lost a ball in the past four games. Since 2000, the Eagles are 24-5 in November and December, best in the NFL and they are a league-best 42-17 overall since 2000.

Quick slants

Bad Omen: Tampa Bay's Keenan McCardell has seven touchdown catches, all in Bucaneers' losses.

Bad Omen II: The Falcons have lost the past five games in which they led at halftime.

Parity: Twelve games last weekend were decided by seven points or fewer, the most since 1993. All 14 games were decided by no more than 13 points for the first time in history.

Parity II: The Eagles are 13-1 since 2001 when they've completed passes to eight or more receivers.

Parity III: Jon Gruden: "There are no guarantees that anybody else in the league wins another game, based on what I've seen. You've got all these experts, no one expected Kansas City to be leading the AFC. No one expected Carolina and Dallas to be on top of the NFC. I don't know how you predict next week's games, either."

Haslett's job probably is safe (he's signed at $3 million annually through 2006) but word from New Orleans is owner Tom Benson might force him to fire some coaches. Offensive coordinator Mike McCarthy, like Haslett a Pittsburgh native, is reportedly on solid ground.

Bears coach Dick Jauron on Kordell Stewart's play coming off the bench last week: "You see a lot of high-profile athletes that get demoted and don't do what he did and don't prepare and take up their role and really fulfill the obligation to the team, which he did."

Since 1990, all but two of 38 teams (95 percent) that finished the season 10-6 made the playoffs. Only 29 of 49 teams (59 percent) that went 9-7 made it.

Deuce McAllister has eight consecutive 100-yard games, fifth on the all-time list behind Barry Sanders (14), Marcus Allen (11), Walter Payton (9) and Fred Taylor (9).