One week after Edgerrin James began his slow fade in the desert with the Arizona Cardinals, Marvin Harrison showed most of the nation he's nowhere near the wide receiver he once was and isn't long for the Indianapolis Colts .

It wasn't all that long ago - four years, actually - that Manning, James and Harrison were running the league ragged as the Colts were a top-10 offense for their entire seven-year run together with the Colts from 1999-2005.

What Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin were in the 1990s for the Dallas Cowboys, Manning, James and Harrison were for the better part of the last decade. They were "Triplets" for the 21st century.

Now they're being phased out quicker than gas-guzzling vehicles.

Two weeks ago, James was replaced in the Cardinals' starting lineup by Tim Hightower, a fifth-round draft pick out of that Football factory known as the University of Richmond.

Last Sunday afternoon, the Colts beat the Pittsburgh Steelers despite Harrison. Yes, despite him.

Twice he had chances to come up with big plays and dropped each of them. One was a possible 40-yard completion; the other was a potential touchdown. To make matters worse, Harrison looked like he didn't give a full effort to catch either ball.

Manning, to his credit, said all the right things when asked this week if he's seen a difference in Harrison's play.

"No. I really don't have a whole lot to say about that," Manning said. "I'm trying to make good throws, and every time I throw an incompletion I always look to see if I could have made a better throw or not. Everybody's making a big deal about the game (Sunday) night. I thought I could have made some better throws in that game. Some of those should have been in-stride catches, so I think everybody's overreacting a little bit."

Colts coach Tony Dungy also said there's nothing wrong with Harrison, who is coming back from a knee injury that kept him out most of last season.

"He's 100 percent," Dungy said. "Just one of those stretches we're going through. We have taken those plays for granted ever since I've been here that we're normally going to get two or three deep shots, and when we get them and we get them set up, they're normally touchdowns."

Dungy said Harrison's starting position - ahead of hard-charging second-year receiver Anthony Gonzalez - is not in question.

But it's amazing that's even being talked about.

Two years ago, Harrison had 95 catches for 1,366 yards and 12 touchdowns. Now he's on pace for career lows in every category.

Harrison is 36, so a drop-off was going to happen eventually. And he'll still go into the Hall of Fame. But it's the way that Harrison is going out that is depressing.

He looks as if he's not trying some of the time on the field. Off it, his character has come into serious question after an off-season shooting happened near an auto shop Harrison owns in Philadelphia.

The gun allegedly belonged to Harrison, he was seen arguing with the victim in the weeks before the shooting, and both the victim and witnesses have identified Harrison as the man that pulled the trigger, according to the Philadelphia Daily News. While the police have not named Harrison as a suspect, the victim has filed a civil suit against him.

The shooting may end badly for Harrison. His NFL career looks to be headed that way as well. The Colts could very well cut Harrison after the season because he's expected to count $13.4 million against the salary cap next year.

For the former Marvin Harrison, that number would be just about right. But for the guy that's out there now, it's way too much.

James is in the same situation in Arizona, and he'll likely be gone after the season as well.

That will leave just Manning still on top of his game for the Colts. For now.

No big changes ahead

Usually by Week 11 of the season there are some hot-topic issues the league knows it will have to tackle in the off-season as far as rules and regulations. But Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher, who is co-chairman of the competition committee, said recently that this season has been unusually quiet and he doesn't expect any sweeping changes.

"Nothing at this point," Fisher said. "We conference call on occasion during the season but there will be some minor things as far as the rules are concerned and player safety is always, always going to be a priority of ours and we'll continue to monitor that. But I don't see anything major coming up as far as adjustments or rule changes."

Fisher also didn't foresee any alterations to how instant replay is administered despite what happened to the Atlanta Falcons against the Philadelphia Eagles on Oct. 26.

Falcons coach Mike Smith burned all his timeouts to force the Eagles, who led, 20-14, to punt with 2:30 left. The punt landed in front of Falcons return man Adam Jennings, and as the ball bounced up near Jennings, Akeem Jordan of the Eagles picked up the ball. The officials said Jennings touched the ball and awarded the fumble to the Eagles.

But replays showed the ball did not hit Jennings. Since it was before the two-minute warning, the Falcons needed to challenge the play. But since the rule states a team must have a timeout in order to challenge a play, Smith was told he was out of luck. The Eagles won.

Fisher, who co-chairs the committee with Atlanta president Rich McKay, had barely heard about the hubbub. Fisher didn't seem to be inclined to change the rule.

"Nah, no, to me that's not an issue," Fisher said. "I mean, we need to think about preserving our timeouts."

Cowher for Cleveland?

After the Cleveland Browns blew fourth-quarter leads in consecutive games at home to fall to 3-6, coach Romeo Crennel's future is very much in doubt. And general manager Phil Savage could go with him.

Now the Cowher Count is on.

Browns fans are clamoring for owner Randy Lerner to lure former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher out of retirement to coach the Browns, and perhaps run the entire Football operation.

It makes sense. Cowher played linebacker for the Browns from 1980-'82. He began his coaching career with the organization under Marty Schottenheimer, and Cowher dominated the Browns as Steelers coach.

If Lerner throws enough money at Cowher - can anybody say $8 million a year? - he could very well accept the job.

Two short

A lot has been made this week of the decision by Kansas City Chiefs coach Herman Edwards to go for two points and the victory last week against the San Diego Chargers . They were 1-7, what choice did Edwards really have?

What Green Bay Packers fans might be interested to know is the Chiefs were only in that position because long snapper Thomas Gafford sent a low snap earlier in the game on an extra point that caused the try to be aborted.

Had that kick been made, the Chiefs would have been kicking an extra point to win the game.

Gafford competed with J.J. Jansen in the off-season to be the Packers' snapper this season but lost out. Gafford was available when Jansen suffered a season-ending knee injury before the season-opener. The Packers elected to sign Brett Goode instead.

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