Jacksonville will play its regular-season finale Sunday against Cincinnati without quarterback Mark Brunell, who will be nursing an injured left knee.
Brunell, knocked out of Sunday’s game against Tennessee in the first half, said he expects to be back for the Jaguars’ first playoff game the weekend of Jan. 15-16. But he presumes the Jaguars will earn a week off.
The 13-2 Jaguars must beat the 4-11 Bengals with backup quarterback Jay Fiedler to ensure a playoff week off. If they lose and the 12-3 Titans beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh, the Titans would be AFC Central champions and the Jaguars would have to play on the wild-card weekend of Jan. 8-9, presumably without Brunell.
“I’m out next week,” Brunell said. “Then the bye week will be an interesting situation. Then I get some rest and I plan on being back.”
Brunell sprained his medial collateral ligament. He missed parts of the 1997 season with an injury to his right knee. Fiedler was ineffective against the Titans, but the Jaguars already were behind 24-7 before he got into the game.
Coslet returning: The Bengals could be playing the Jaguars without their best offensive weapon, running back Corey Dillon, questionable with a knee injury. But the Bengals will not be playing with a lame-duck coach.
Team President Mike Brown said coach Bruce Coslet will be back next season. The Bengals are 21-35 under Coslet.
“He’s a good coach, a fine teacher and a good organizer,” Brown said. “Despite the fact that we’ve had some tough times, I see improvement and don’t blame him for all the things that went wrong this season.”
This news came the day after the Bengals lost their 107th game of the 1990s, breaking by one the futility record for a decade held by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the 1980s.
The Baltimore Ravens ended the Bengals’ three-game winning streak Sunday 22-0.
Lion time: When they emerge from the embarrassment of slinking into the playoffs in full retreat, the Detroit Lions are going to use the 1987 Minnesota Vikings as role models.
Those Vikings lost three of their final four games and made the playoffs with a record of 8-7 during a 15-game season shortened by a strike and marred by replacement games.
But in the playoffs, the Vikings trounced the 12-3 New Orleans Saints 44-10 and then upset the 13-2 San Francisco 49ers 36-24 to advance to the NFC championship game against the Washington Redskins. The Redskins won 17-10.
The 8-7 Lions, losers of three in a row, can save face and avoid an 8-8 record by beating the Vikings on Sunday in Minnesota. At least one 8-8 team is guaranteed a playoff spot in the NFC–Dallas, the Giants, Green Bay or Carolina.
The last three 8-8 teams that advanced to the playoffs made quick exits. The 8-8 Jets of 1991 lost to Houston the first week. The 8-8 New Orleans Saints of 1990 lost to the Bears. The 8-8 Cleveland Browns of 1985 won the AFC Central Division and lost to Miami.
Mobility ability: Buffalo quarterback Doug Flutie explained why the zone blitz has made mobile quarterbacks more important.
“A lot of times a quarterback has trouble picking things up right away,” Flutie said. “Instead of throwing hot (to a receiver who gets open right off the line), you wind up throwing into defensive linemen pulling off the line and going into coverage. If you can rely on your legs to get away from pressure even for a couple of seconds, you’ve got a chance to find a receiver.
“A guy like Peyton Manning isn’t the most mobile guy, but they run the ball so well that it makes their play-action more effective and that gives him time.
“The most important thing is a running game. You have to be able to run the ball to win a championship. You can’t win a Super Bowl throwing the ball 40 to 50 times a game. You can win a Grey Cup (Canadian League championship) that way, though.”
Running scared: Running will get more important in the playoff month. That’s why the Lions without Barry Sanders and the Miami Dolphins without anybody don’t have a chance. They rank 27th and 25th, respectively, in running.
The Lions and Dolphins have stayed afloat because at least they can stop the run. When you can neither run nor stop the run, the season runs out in a hurry. That’s why the Packers are fading. They are 21st in running and 25th in stopping the run. The Bears are 24th in running and in stopping the run.
The teams cranking up their running games are getting ready for the playoffs. The Vikings have Robert Smith healthy along with Leroy Hoard. The Buccaneers have Mike Alstott and Warrick Dunn. There are no teams in the playoffs yet that don’t rank in the top half of the league in either running or stopping the run.
Hope and precedent: For the third time in franchise history, the Colts have gone from worst to first in their division. It happened in 1974-75 and 1986-87. Cincinnati has the NFL’s all-time record with four worst-to-first performances. The easier fifth-place schedule is a key, and the Bears will have that advantage next season for the third year in a row. It didn’t help much the last two years.
A team to watch next year: the Denver Broncos. They will have a fifth-place schedule and get to play against the weak AFC Central. Replay: Five coaches have won Super Bowls and are now with different teams: Mike Ditka, Jimmy Johnson, Bill Parcells, George Seifert and Mike Holmgren. Ditka and Parcells are out of the playoffs and the other three are still scrambling. More numbers: Rams QB Kurt Warner has nine 300-yard games, tying him with Dan Marino (1984) and Warren Moon (1990) for the NFL record. Of that group, only Marino reached the Super Bowl, and Miami lost to San Francisco. Boston Flutie party: Buffalo’s Flutie is 11-1 as a starter at Foxboro Stadium. He was 5-0 at Boston College in 1983-83. He was 5-0 with the Patriots in 1988-89. His only loss was 25-21 last season. Exclusive club: Warner and Carolina’s Steve Beuerlein joined the small club of quarterbacks who have passed for 4,000 yards and 30 touchdowns in the same season.
It’s been done 17 times by 11 quarterbacks, including four times by Marino and two each by Dan Fouts, Brett Favre and Moon. The others: Cleveland’s Brian Sipe, Green Bay’s Lynn Dickey, Detroit’s Scott Mitchell, Baltimore’s Vinny Testaverde and San Francisco’s Steve Young.
