By VITTORIO TAFUR, San Francisco Chronicle

Plaxico Burress was one of the driving forces behind the New York Giants' 2007 Super Bowl championship. He caught 11 passes for 151 yards in an NFC Championship Game win over Green Bay, then caught the game-winning pass against New England in the Super Bowl.

So far, Giants receiver Hakeem Nicks is having a similar impact this postseason.

Tom Brady should buy himself a cupcake, put a candle in it and blow.

Ten years ago, the "Tuck Rule," or NFL Rule 3, Section 22, Article 2, Note 2, changed Brady's, the New England Patriots' and the Oakland Raiders' fates forever.

Some entrepreneurs probably started designing the T-shirt Sunday and plugged in the heat-press machine this morning. After all, thousands of those bad boys have to ready by Sunday night.

SUPER BAUGH.

Oakland Raiders coach Hue Jackson said he was about to pass out when he took the podium for the postgame news conference after his team's overtime win against Kansas City.

Probably dizzy from all the yellow flags flying around in Saturday's game, and then from trying to figure out why his Raiders team does the things it does.

Aaron Rodgers finally came back down to earth last Sunday. The Green Bay quarterback turned in a season-worst 106.2 quarterback rating, throwing for only 369 yards and four touchdowns before leading the game-winning drive with 58 seconds remaining.

Can a team make a run at the playoffs with Kyle Boller at quarterback? That is the question suddenly hanging over the heads of the Oakland Raiders.

Oakland head coach Hue Jackson answered with a tentative "yes" this week. Starting quarterback Jason Campbell broke his collarbone against the Browns. Campbell hopes to be out only six weeks, which seems very optimistic.

DENVER - Sebastian Janikowski could feel it in the thin air. And when he went to sleep Sunday night, he said, he "dreamed of doing it."

On Monday night, as time expired in the first half, the Oakland Raiders' kicker did -- drilling a low line drive through the uprights for an NFL-record-tying 63-yard field goal.

Darren McFadden was a Terrell Davis fan growing up. And new Oakland Raiders offensive coordinator Al Saunders compared the 24-year-old running back to Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk. But McFadden, a 6-foot-2, 210-pounder, has never tried to run like anybody else.

"Innate confidence." Oakland Raiders head coach Hue Jackson used those words to describe what his team had and why he wasn't worried about an 0-4 preseason in which his club was largely dominated.

Rookie receiver Denarius Moore has been the star of the Oakland Raiders training camp, but the fifth-round pick out of Tennessee has not been the biggest surprise. That would be rookie tight end David Ausberry, a seventh-round pick out of Southern Cal who already has all but made the team.