More evidence of an upside-down NFL season:
– The Green Bay Packers will try to avoid a third straight loss in Lambeau Field.
– The Oakland Raiders are accusing other teams of dirty play.
– The Indianapolis Colts are on the verge of a six-game winning streak.
– The 8-1 Jacksonville Jaguars are getting booed at home.
– The St. Louis Rams are worried about overconfidence against the San Francisco 49ers.
– Bill Parcells is happy with his quarterback.
– Jimmy Johnson misses Dan Marino.
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Two thumbs down: Packers quarterback Brett Favre and Detroit Lions quarterback Charlie Batch are nursing sore right thumbs, making it difficult to grip a football.
Favre has slipped to 26th in the NFL passer ratings at 69.5. He leads the league in interceptions with 15. About half of his 24 incompletions against Dallas were poorly thrown balls, either way high or way low.
“There’s so many things I’ve had to be conscious about, two hands on the ball, stuff I’ve never had to be conscious about,” Favre said. “Now I go to throw and it might come out. I just don’t have the grip I had.”
But the Packers haven’t considered resting him while Matt Hasselbeck plays. Favre has the NFL record for consecutive starts at quarterback, but the Packers have lost four of their last five including two in Lambeau.
Meanwhile, Batch was inactive last week while Gus Frerotte played in Detroit’s loss to Arizona. Batch is questionable this week. In the 23 games since coach Bobby Ross promoted him, Batch has missed parts or all of seven games with injuries. But the Lions are 6-3 this season and can take a two-game lead in the NFC Central by winning Sunday in Lambeau.
Knees, please: The world champion Denver Broncos may be uncharacteristically down, but they remain characteristically dirty, according to the Oakland Raiders, longtime experts.
The Raiders have joined a chorus of criticism against Broncos offensive line coach Alex Gibbs, whose tactics helped convince the league to institute rules this year against what used to be legal in-line clipping.
But Raiders defensive tackle Darrell Russell claims “they’re not even trying to go by the rules. I think they would get cussed out in meetings if they were caught not holding.”
Russell believes Denver linemen set him up, then dive for his knees. He vowed: “If they are going to try to hurt me, when I do get the opportunity, I am going to try to hurt their quarterback. If they are going to play dirty, then I am going to play dirty.”
Raiders wide receiver Tim Brown had this to say about Bronco linebacker Bill Romanowski: “Dirty. He’s looked at as being a dirty football player, no doubt about it. One thing you’ve got to give the guy is he plays hard. He may do a little extra after the play, but during that play he’s going to give everything he has.”
Colts feel frisky: The Colts are on pace to match the record eight-game turnaround in one season held by the 1975 and 1992 Colts, 1997 Jets, 1988 Bengals and 1976 Patriots. The 7-2 Colts would need to win 11 games to match that record.
The Colts’ improvement cannot be explained by an easy schedule. Six times they have played teams that were no worse than tied for first place in their divisions. They are 5-1 in those games.
“Everybody realized, after seeing what Atlanta did last year and seeing what teams like us and St. Louis are doing this year, that the NFL is a strange business,” Peyton Manning said. “There are so many great players out there, it’s all about putting it all together. And sure, you have to have some good fortune go your way.”
Jaguars fans spoiled: Late in the fourth quarter against Baltimore, the Jaguars were about to wrap up the NFL’s best record when the celebration was interrupted by boos. A 6-3 win didn’t give the home fans their money’s worth.
“This is a college town,” receiver Jimmy Smith said. “They’re used to Florida State and Florida winning. The NFL is totally different. You’ve got so much parity in the league. Everybody’s good. This ain’t Florida State, and this ain’t the University of Florida. This is the NFL.”
But even Smith admitted he understood: “The way we played today, we deserved to get booed. In one sense the fans are never wrong.”
The worm turns: The Rams go for their first sweep of San Francisco since 1980. Until the Rams’ 42-20 victory over the 49ers on Oct. 10, the 49ers had won 17 straight. Now the 49ers instead of the Rams are trying to get rid of albatross running back Lawrence Phillips and the Rams are worried.
“I just don’t want to get trapped,” Rams coach Dick Vermeil said. “Philadelphia trapped the Washington Redskins. Detroit goes into Arizona and they get beat. We cannot get lulled to sleep. We cannot start strutting early and think, `Oh, we’ve got it made.’ Every week is a critical week.”
Ray of hope: Parcells rescued quarterback Ray Lucas from a special-teams career in New England and watched him beat the Patriots on Monday night. Now Lucas is in and Rick Mirer is out for the rest of the Jets’ season unless Parcells changes his mind.
“I told him, `You’re just reading the instructions for the test,’ ” Parcells said. “You know when you open your pamphlet to find out how to do the test? That’s where he is, opening his pamphlet. But it was a step. At least he got his pamphlet open.”
Dolphins shaking: Johnson was so upset after his Dolphins lost to Buffalo last week that he forbade players to talk about anything except this week’s opponent, the Patriots, and ordered his public relations officials to monitor interviews and cut off questions that don’t deal with the Patriots.
Johnson wants total focus on the game at hand, but he can’t control everything. He couldn’t prevent Marino from spilling coffee and ramming into a car on his way to work. Marino was allowed to issue a statement about the accident. He called it “a private matter.” Apparently, it had nothing to do with the Patriots.
Johnson, who has praised backup quarterback Damon Huard for five games while Marino nurses a shoulder injury, admitted, “We miss Dan, without question. We’ve been fortunate in a couple of ballgames, but I think the Buffalo game is where Damon really struggled.”
Common bond: Chargers quarterback Jim Harbaugh and offensive coordinator Geep Chryst have a common bond: Dave Wannstedt turned down both of them. Wannstedt cut Harbaugh and kept Chryst as a quality-control coach, but wouldn’t allow him to coach a position.
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“He’s pretty much the whole reason I came to San Diego,” Harbaugh said of Chryst. “He called me, and I had a ton of respect for Geep in Chicago. So many times I’d go down to his little office to get away from everybody. He’s a great guy. Lots of times, I don’t understand what he’s talking about. It’s the difference between a Princeton education and a Big Ten education I guess.”
Senior Seau: Dick Butkus is a fan of Junior Seau, the Chargers’ linebacker who is the Butkus of his day, a spectacular player on a poor team.
“People like to say he used to overrun plays,” Butkus said. “Well they said the same thing about me, `Oh, he’s out of position. He’s running all over the place.’ Well, what the heck. If I got my assignment covered, what am I supposed to do, stand there? At least he’s hustling.”