Chief QB Trent Green had led his team down the field in the closing minutes of a 27-20 game Sunday against the New Orleans Saints with the Chiefs trailing. On a second and ten, Green threw the ball to RB Derrick Blaylock. The pass deflected off Blaylock's hand and LB Orlando Huff made a diving catch to intercept it at the Saints 4-yard line. Game over…

Huff needed that big play. He had been fooled badly by Blaylock all game long. Huff might have had 6-4 tackles but those tackles came at the Saints expense, as Blaylock rushed for 186 yards plus 38 more receiving. Many of those yards came past Huff, but it was Huff's interception at the end that was the play that counted most…

Saints safety Jay Bellamy continues to be one of the few bright spots for IDP owners on that team. Bellamy 9-4 tackles Sunday and should be a starter for most IDP owners…

Chief safeties Jerome Woods and Greg Wesley allowed Saints WR Joe Horn to get past them for a 42-yard game-deciding score with just over two minutes left in the game. The play was indicative of the Chiefs defense this year and a reason their playoff hopes are seemingly over…

Credit Jaguar CB Rashean Mathis for helping the Jaguars beat the Detroit Lions Sunday in overtime, 23-17. Mathis had the task of covering rookie sensation WR Roy Williams for much of the game. He helped limit Williams to 2/64/0. Mathis had 3-0 tackles, but his most important stats were an interception and batting down five passes…

Bullet Bob Sanders, rookie safety for the Colts, continues to show solid form with 9-2 tackles in Sunday's 49-17 romp over Houston. In the three games in which he has played, Sanders has averaged 8-1 tackles and has two fumble recoveries. He returned one of those fumbles for a score…

The Colts have been looking for a pass rush threat opposite DE Dwight Freeney for a couple of seasons. They seem to have found their answer in 235-pound situational rusher Robert Mathis. Against the Texans, Mathis had three sacks for a total of eight on the year. Eight sacks ties him for third in the NFL. More importantly, he had five solo tackles and forced three fumbles, proving to be an overall disruptive force…

With the Colts scoring seemingly at will, and opposing teams being forced to throw constantly against them, Mathis would seem a good bet to continue to get solid playing time. If he keeps playing the way he has, he'll be starting soon…

As most of you know from watching the news, Steeler LB Joey Porter was ejected from the game Sunday against Cleveland before it even started. What you might not know is that his replacement in the lineup was James Harrison. Harrison had an excellent game with 6-0 tackles and a sack as Pittsburgh beat the Browns 24-10…

Harrison, undrafted when he came out of Kent in 2002, has been only a Steeler as a pro. But he was still a free agent without a home in this last offseason. Then a hand injury to Clark Haggans just prior to camp opening led to Pittsburgh signing Harrison. Harrison played almost exclusively on special teams until he got a chance with Porter's ejection. Sometimes opportunity is all a player needs…

Lo and behold, Falcons DT Rod Coleman gets back in the lineup and linemate Patrick Kerney starts to produce again. In Sunday's 24-14 win over Tampa, Kerney was back to his old self (of earlier this season) with 7-0 tackles and a sack. It was his first sack in five games, after seven sacks in his first four games. Coleman had missed the previous three games due to injury…

Coleman now has six sacks in six games and proved that the team simply is not the same without him. The Falcons have not given up 20 points in any game that Coleman has played. In the three games Coleman missed, Atlanta had allowed a total of 104 points, with at least 20 scored each game…

The Rams defensive backs, led by Jerametrius Butler, Travis Fisher and DeJuan Groce held the Seattle Seahawks without a touchdown for the first time this season. The Rams won 23-12…

Seahawks LB Anthony Simmons will have season-ending surgery to repair a broken left wrist. Simmons was hurt during the loss to the Rams, although he still managed to get 6-0 tackles and a forced fumble. No word yet as to who his replacement will be…

The Chicago Bears defense was able to combat their team's offensive woes with another strong performance resulting in a win. Sunday, it was against the Titans and the end result was a 19-17 overtime win. It seemed appropriate that the game ended in a safety. The Bears offense was outscored by the defense 9-3, as DE Adewale Ogunleye got credit for the safety that won it…

DE Michael Haynes had a terrific one-handed grab intercepting a Billy Volek pass and returned it 45 yards for the team's first points of the game…

It was all about defensive end for the Bears, as Alex Brown also contributed with big plays. Brown got credit for the fumble in OT that resulted in the safety as well as another forced fumble earlier. He also had 4-2 tackles and a sack, after getting four sacks last week. Brown has six sacks on the season…

The Titan defense had nothing to be ashamed of, despite their loss. Defensive linemen Kevin Carter, who switches from end to tackle, sometimes during games, had a great effort with three sacks to go with 7-4 tackles and a forced fumble…

Titan LB Keith Bullock had 6-7 tackles along with half a sack, CB Andre Dyson had a pair of interceptions and safety Tank Williams had 8-3 tackles…

Ravens CB Corey Fuller went from thinking he would have little or no role in Sunday's game against the New York Jets to playing a big part. Even with Deion Sanders out, Baltimore played others in the nickel and dime packages. But when Chris McAlister got hurt in the first half, Fuller came in and did an admirable job in support, getting 4-0 tackles. More importantly, few, if any, passes were thrown his way with success. Baltimore won 20-17…

It should come as no surprise that Jets DE John Abraham had a good game. He does that a lot lately. Abraham had 5-4 tackles and a sack. He now has 9.5 sacks for the year. The surprise here is that former 2002 first round pick Bryan Thomas had a good game. The much-maligned Thomas had a career-high 1.5 sacks and 3-3 tackles as he filled in for the injured Shaun Ellis…

It looked like it would be about star cornerback play Sunday, as Champ Bailey and Fred Smoot for the Redskins went at it versus the Bengals. As it turned out, though, it was the CB's for Cincinnati that led their team to a 17-10 win…

Cincy CB Tory James intercepted his sixth pass of the season, and has four in the last five games. He added 7-0 tackles. Teammate Deltha O'Neal might not have had any INTs, but his coverage helped limit the Skins to just over 180 yards passing and he just missed on two interceptions…

Panther LB Mark Fields saw his most action of the season Sunday as Caroline defeated the 49ers 37-27. Fields, as you likely know, missed all of 2003 while battling Hodgkin's Disease. He came back this year, but prior to Sunday has not been the same player that used to make big plays and cause turnovers. As if being only six months removed from chemotherapy and radiation therapy was not enough, Fields has had to worry about back spasms. And his cancer worries are not going to dissipate anytime soon. Fields was scheduled for a biopsy again on Monday…

With teammates Dan Morgan and Brian Allen out with injuries, Fields found himself on the field frequently. Aside from contributing 3-2 tackles, Fields thought he had made a big play when he caused a fumble by RB Kevan Barlow and ran it four yards for the score early in the second half. The play was called back after officials ruled that Barlow's knee was down before the fumble…

Fields was not to be denied, though, when on the very next play he intercepted a Tim Rattay and returned it to the one-yard line. Carolina scored on the next play…

Cardinal DE Bertrand Berry was a free agent signee out of Denver this year. So far, the results have been positive, especially in Sunday's 17-14 win over the Giants. Berry had a career-high four sacks and added 7-0 tackles. He now has nine sacks on the season. Arizona HC Dennis Green, though, thought that Berry's biggest play was not a sack. "You can talk sacks and all that," Green said, "but when he knifed in there and hit the blocker and knocked him back into (Tiki Barber) for like a 4-yard loss, that was a stunner. Many times you need a stunning play to make a team think maybe they can't do what they thought they could do."…

Eagle LB Jeremiah Trotter was the newly anointed starter at MLB as they moved Mark Simoneau to the weakside in Philly's 49-21 win over the Cowboys Monday night. It looked like the right move, as Trotter had 6-2 tackles and registered his first sack since his return to the lineup…

Until next week…

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