Some solid screen savers

Last week, the Patriots earned their all-time best regular-season rating with a 43.8 (61 share) against the Dolphins in the late-afternoon (4-7 p.m.) window.

Channel 4 was the beneficiary of all three of those record ratings.

Sunday's big news day [capture of Saddam Hussein and snowstorm] helped Channel 4 all afternoon. The CBS national news coverage of the morning events in Iraq led into "The NFL Today," which did a solid 8.1 rating locally from 12:15-1 p.m. Nationally, CBS came within a tenth of a rating point [4.5-4.4] of tying Fox in the pregame ratings, a big deal at the network level.

"The Patriots' success over the past four or five years has been important at the network level," said CBS pregame panelist Boomer Esiason. "Boston is our biggest market outside of New York [Jets] while they [Fox] have New York, Dallas, San Francisco, Chicago, and Philadelphia. The Patriots are starting to get a real national following and the fans in New England have been unbelievable."

Still, it was after the game that Channel 4 scored big, hanging on to a big chunk of the housebound Patriots game audience.

News director Peter Brown melded the scheduled postgame "5th Quarter" show into a combination news, weather, and sports wrapup dealing with the days big three stories. The result was a massive 16.5 rating from 4:15-5:45 p.m.

This Saturday, Channel 5 hopes to hop on that Patriots express. WCVB-TV will simulcast Saturday's ESPN-originated Patriots-Jets telecast from the Meadowlands at 8:30 p.m. A month ago, when the Patiots met the Cowboys on ESPN's "Sunday Night Football," in a similar simulcast, Channel 5 did a 20.1 rating and ESPN a 10.5 for a combined 30.6 for the telecast.

The only difference in the Channel 5 and ESPN telecasts is that ESPN will offer the game in HD. And, of course, the folks at Channel 4/38 will "remind" their viewers that the game is on ESPN and to switch to Channel 38 for the postgame "5th Quarter" show to try and keep viewers from hanging in after the game for WCVB's NewsCenter5.

Last Saturday's evening airing of "Patriots All-Access" on Channel 5 did a 3.9 rating, its best to date, showing the Patriots appeal across the dial. The WCVB folks are hoping this Saturday's 7-8 p.m. show, leading into a separate half-hour pregame, will top that number.

Plenty to talk about

Speaking of simulcasts, both FSNE and ESPN will carry tomorrow's Mavericks-Celtics game (8 p.m. tap-off) as former cocaptain Antoine Walker comes home to face his former Boston teammates. You can choose Mike Gorman and Tom Heinsohn on FSNE or Mike Breen and Bill Walton on ESPN. Figure both crews will have plenty to say on Walker, last night's six-player trade with Cleveland, and the Green retiring Cedric Maxwell's number last night. An example: "I wish I could be there [for the Maxwell ceremony,] Walton said yesterday from Las Vegas where he is attending the NBA retired players' convention. "It's a great moment for Cedric and one that's long overdue. And, I'd like to apologize publicly for ruining his life by instigating his trade to the Clippers." Walton feels some lingering guilt that Max was the price for his 1985 trade to the Celtics from the Clippers. "Meanwhile, the poster boy of the convention," said Walton, is Marvin Barnes. "It's a remarkable turnaround. He's been sober for four years and looks absolutely great." As for Walker's return tomorrow, Walton said, "I fully expect the Boston fans to give him a warm reception despite his recent comments. [Director of basketball operations Danny [Ainge] traded him to a better team, one that's closer to a championship, with better players, and a freespending owner that provides his players with every creature comfort known to man. And Antoine says Danny is trying to wreck his career? What am I missing? Danny wasn't under any obligation to Antoine Walker. But the great thing about the NBA is that Antoine gets his chance to prove Danny wrong [tomorrow] night." . . . Channel 4's Dan Roche, in New Orleans covering the baseball winter meetings, has something many of the sport's free agents are looking for: A new three-year deal of his own.

Double clicking ESPN is calling the next two weekends "Double Coverage" as the NFL adds Saturday games. After the ESPN crew of Mike Patrick, Joe Theismann, Paul Maguire, and Suzy Kolber calls the Patriots-Jets, they'll fly a charter to Indianapolis and do the Broncos-Colts on "Sunday Night Football." Saturday's other local offerings are Falcons-Buccaneers (Ch. 25, 1:30 p.m.), and Chiefs-Vikings (Ch. 4, 5 p.m.). Sunday, the Boston market will get Dolphins-Bills (Ch. 4, 1 p.m.), Giants-Cowboys (Ch. 25, 1 p.m.) and 49ers-Eagles (Ch. 25, 4:15 p.m.) . . . "Obscene Call." That was the New York Post headline yesterday after Joe Horn grabbed a cellphone from under the goal-post padding to make a celebratory phone call Sunday night during the Saints' 45-7 victory over the Giants . . . A sampling by Nielsen/NetRatings found that 4.7 million people took part in fantasy football leagues on the web in October. The interesting part was that 3.1 million of that total visited the [mostly] free Yahoo! Sports service (average 1 hour and 28 minutes per visit). Among pay services, the CBS SportsLine/NFL.com collaborative drew 1.3 million (averaging 1:42 per visit). ESPN.com (397,000 viewers/55 minutes per visit), Fanball (239,000/8 minutes) and Fox Sports (217,000/42 minutes) also drew significant numbers. . . . FSNE has taped coverage (tomorrow, 3 p.m.) of last Saturday's Foot Locker national high school cross-country races in San Diego. Belmont's Victor Gras (ninth) and Lincoln-Sudbury's Lindsay Donaldson (16) represented Massachusetts in the event . . . Thursday, the Globe's Bob Ryan and Michael Smith will join Bob Lobel on "Sportsplus" which will air following NESN's Flames-Bruins coverage (faceoff at 7 p.m.) . . . ESPN2 will televise Friday's Division 1-AA NCAA football championship game between Colgate and Delaware.

Bill Griffith's e-mail address is griffith@globe.com