It’s homecoming week in the NFL.
While the Bears enjoy their only week at home all season, there are reunions all over the league.
Packers receiver Terry Glenn goes back to New England, where he was suspended and missed the Super Bowl before his trade.
Vikings receiver Randy Moss plays in the Metrodome for the first time since his arrest for pushing a traffic officer with his car. Will he drive to the game?
Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer faces the Chiefs, the team he coached for 10 years, in the hot AFC West.
Baltimore plays the Colts in a reunion that will always sound strange.
Saints coach Jim Haslett and Redskins coach Steve Spurrier face off for the first time. Spurrier suggested when he got his job that Haslett’s extended office hours weren’t helping him win. Of course, the comment somehow got twisted into a vendetta.
Falcons coach Dan Reeves returns to New York for the second time to face his former team, the Giants.
Forty-Niners coach Steve Mariucci and Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren renew acquaintances from their days in Green Bay.
Panthers quarterback Rodney Peete plays against one of his former teams, the Cowboys.
Bills coach Gregg Williams is in Houston, where he recalls only 15,000 showing up at the final Oilers game in 1996 when he was a Houston assistant.
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Calm down: Packers quarterback Brett Favre said he told Glenn not to try to do too much Sunday, something Favre did in 1999 when Holmgren returned to Lambeau Field with the Seahawks, who pummeled the Packers.
“There was a different feeling I had for that game,” Favre said. “It worked against me. And the more I tried to do well, the worse it got. I know he wants to have a big game, and that’s great. But don’t get out of your game.”
Glenn anticipates a rude welcome.
“It won’t be good, but it’s something I’m going to have to deal with,” Glenn said. “The better we do as a team, the more it will shut them up.”
Glenn had eight catches for 154 yards against the Bears on Monday night, his breakout game as a Packer. He had been bothered by migraine headaches since his first catch of the season, but a New York neurologist provided new medication last week, shifting the headaches onto the Bears.
A comparison: Favre riddled Ray Lewis and the Ravens a year ago and has beaten Brian Urlacher and the Bears in four of their last five meetings.
Choosing his words carefully in comparing the two middle linebackers, Favre said: “Brian is getting nothing but better. I’m sure he’d be the first to say there’s always room for improvement. But I don’t know if there’s much room left. He runs to the ball as well as any player we play against. To compare him to Ray Lewis, I think it’s a little unfair for both guys because they’re both great.
“The only difference, I think . . . is Ray Lewis is probably a little more physical. Brian is a little more elusive, a quicker guy. Don’t get me wrong, Urlacher can be physical and Ray Lewis can cover the field. But if there was a comparison or a difference, that would be the difference.”
Keeping score: The Chiefs, in last place in the AFC West, have scored 85 points in the fourth quarter, more than the Jets, Ravens, Steelers, Bengals, Texans, Giants, Redskins, Cowboys, Falcons, Seahawks and Rams have scored over four quarters.
Through five weeks, games are averaging 45.7 points, the most in 44 years to this point. The two-team average after five weeks in 1958 was 47.9. The overall record for a full season is 46.5 in 1948.
There have been 26 300-yard passing games, up seven from this point last season. There have been four 400-yard games, one fewer than all of last season. Do the Bears play in this league?
Spurred on: Spurrier explained his comment about Haslett: “Someone asked if I was going to work all those long hours that NFL coaches work. There happened to be an article earlier that morning about Jim Haslett coming in at 4:30 a.m and working until late at night. His team was struggling at the time. … I said all those hours are not helping his team right now. I’m sure he worked as hard during the struggling times as he does now. All coaches spend many hours until we are prepared and feel comfortable with our team. I wasn’t trying to knock him.
“I have tremendous admiration for all NFL coaches. Somehow that comment got twisted around. I was not trying to insult anybody for working hard. I was just trying to make a statement that no matter how many hours you put in, it doesn’t always work out.”
Haslett is downplaying it: “Steve can work whatever time he wants. I really don’t care. He can do his deal and I’ll do my deal. There’s not a coach in this league who doesn’t work hard. I don’t know of any coach who comes in at 9 [a.m.] and leaves at 4 [p.m.]. If that’s the norm, I’m sure more people would get into coaching.”
Playoff facts: Whistling past the graveyard, Mike Martz of the 0-5 Rams is searching history.
“You look at Cincinnati, they started off 1-7 and made the playoffs,” Martz said.
Actually, it was 1-6 and it was 1970, but the Bengals did make the playoffs that year, winning their last seven in a 14-game schedule. Since the advent of the 16-game schedule in 1978, 50 teams have made the playoffs with 9-7 records and five with 8-8 records.
No big deal: Rich Gannon of the 4-0 Raiders, after beating Seattle, Pittsburgh, Tennessee and Buffalo: “I’m not saying this is an absolute, but there’s a chance that all four of those teams don’t make the playoffs. Where does that really put us as a football team and how good of a football team are we? The next five or six weeks will certainly give us a better indication rather than the first four weeks.”
Different view: It would be wrong to label Dick LeBeau of the 0-5 Bengals a poor coach.
Last Dec. 30, his Bengals showed the rest of the NFL how to beat Pittsburgh’s No. 1-ranked defense when Jon Kitna, operating in a no-huddle spread offense, completed 35-of-68 passes for 411 yards in a 26-23 overtime victory. Three teams have scored 30 points against the Steelers this season.
LeBeau also is widely viewed as the creator of the zone blitz defense, or at least its most creative advocate when he was defensive coordinator of the Bengals under Sam Wyche. When LeBeau, Dom Capers of New Orleans and Bill Cowher of Kansas City came together to Pittsburgh 10 years ago, they popularized that defense.