Bill Belichick was asked this week about Peyton Manning's subpar performance against Tennessee last Monday night.

"He looked pretty good to me," replied the New England coach, whose team will face Manning and the Colts tonight. "I don't think he is injured. He hasn't been on the injury report, so I am assuming he is not hurt."

Pure coachspeak and probably a shot at the Tony Dungy/Bill Polian/Colts injury report. When Tom Brady was healthy, Belichick, who always has played his own games with the report, listed him as "probable-shoulder."

In any language, Manning is clearly not Manning this season after missing camp following what we now know were two procedures on his knee. He is 22nd in the passer rating at 79.0, about 25-30 points below his usual mark, and about 20 spots in the rankings from where he's been for the last half-dozen seasons. Even Matt Cassel, Brady's replacement, is above him.

But numbers are only part of the story. On Monday night, he looked like a pitcher on a day when he's just missing the corners and his 95 mph fastball is down to 88 — Pedro Martinez with the Mets compared to Pedro Martinez with the Red Sox. He wasn't totally ineffective, but a dozen of his throws seemed off. Not by a lot, but by enough to make a difference.

He's only 32, so it's probably the knee. Or another injury that no one's telling us about.

Some other odds and ends as the NFL reaches the halfway mark:

It's what's up front that counts: This used to be an advertising slogan for a cigarette brand back in the days when smoking was widespread and television advertising was permitted. It's always been the perfect slogan for winning football teams.

Here's the best example.

The Tennessee Titans have 18 sacks and have allowed two, the fewest in the NFL. The New York Giants have 26 sacks, most in the league, and have allowed six. Those two teams are a combined 13-1 and lead their respective conferences. Yes, glamour stats by skill-position players are all the rage with fantasy football players. But guys in the trenches win games.

To that end, will someone outside Tennessee please acknowledge Michael Roos, the Titans' left tackle? Roos, who absolutely stoned Dwight Freeney on Monday night, is one of the reasons the Titans have allowed just two sacks, even with the immobile Kerry Collins at quarterback. The Titans recognized him in the offseason with a six-year, $43 million contract, then gave David Stewart, who plays on the other side, $38.9 million.

That's a demonstration of a team spending its money the right way. But it doesn't guarantee fame.

Roos, who was born in Estonia and moved to the United States when he was 10, was never a glamorous college star, like Alabama's Andre Smith, a left tackle who is likely to be a top five draft pick if he comes out next April. He was a second-round choice in 2005 from Eastern Washington, which doesn't quite get the amount of national TV time as the Crimson Tide get.

So he may be the best left tackle in the NFL right now and one of the league's least recognized stars.

The converse: Pittsburgh's offensive line, hurt by free-agent defections and injuries, has allowed 24 sacks. The Steelers lost to the Giants because they allowed five sacks and had none themselves after coming in leading the league in that category. At 5-2, they should win the AFC North and certainly have the talent elsewhere to advance in the playoffs.

But the OL is making Ben Roethlisberger vulnerable; he rested with a sore shoulder again this week. It's hard to win a Super Bowl when your quarterback is constantly taking a beating.

Singletary's rant: Mike Singletary got a lot of praise in his debut as a head coach with the 49ers. First for calling out the underachieving Vernon Davis and sending the tight end off the field, then for going public on it.

But he also was questioned for criticizing a player in public rather than in private. And for carrying on like a high school coach rather than one in the NFL. On balance, Singletary did the right thing.

It gave him credibility with fans who are tired of highly paid prima donnas who don't perform and probably with those players who are tired of working hard and watching others slack off.

But Singletary's best chance of keeping his team's attention — and in the long run keeping his job — might be to loosen up after the first barrage. Most head coaches learn that a carrot and stick approach works only for so long, and that it's better to get to know 53 individuals and learn what motivates each one.

Singletary was a fiery player and a vocal leader on the Bears of the '80s. But he's in a different position now, a rare one in any sport. Few Hall of Fame players have the patience to tutor those to whom the game comes less easily.

Singletary might take a lesson from Tom Coughlin, a tough disciplinarian who saved his job at age 60 by changing some of his inflexible rules and went on to win a Super Bowl with a team full of strong personalities.

In the long term, it's important that Singletary succeeds. Because if he does, some "me-first" players will get the signal — not only in San Francisco but around the NFL.

If not, they may shrug him off as just another loser trying to tell millionaires what to do.