The Bears weren’t the only team to win Sunday for the first time this season. Pittsburgh surprised the Jaguars in Jacksonville, and New England, which had been close in all of its games before losing, won handily in Denver.
There are still two teams searching for a victory.
Cincinnati, under new coach Dick LeBeau, managed to score for the first time since its opener, but blew an early lead and lost to Miami for its fourth defeat.
San Diego fell to the bottom of the pack with its fifth loss, scoring 31 points at St. Louis but giving up six touchdowns and five field goals to lose by 26.
The Chargers get Denver at home next week, then go to Buffalo before taking Week 8 off. If they lose both, they could be joined at 0-7 by the Bengals, who face Tennessee, Pittsburgh and Denver in the next three weeks.
IDLE HANDS
Enjoying the week off were New Orleans (the Bears’ opponents next week), the New York Jets, Oakland and Terrell Owens.
Owens, the San Francisco receiver who was suspended by the 49ers for his midfield touchdown celebrations in Dallas last week, watched his team win without him, beating Arizona 27-20.
Owens will return next week with the blessing of the man who sat him down.
“We will welcome him back,” 49ers coach Steve Mariucci said. “We’re going to begin again. He will jump right in, and he will help us win football games this season.”
PREMATURE SPIKE
With Owens on the sidelines, this week’s celebrity spiker was almost Steelers rookie receiver Plaxico Burress.
Burress spiked the ball at the end of a 19-yard pass play Sunday at Jacksonville. The only trouble was, he wasn’t down yet because no defender had touched him.
When Burress got up and slammed the ball to the ground, Jacksonville’s Danny Clark scooped it up and ran it back 44 yards.
Six plays later, the Jaguars were stopped on downs at the Steelers’ 4-yard line. Burress was the first player to run out on the field and congratulate the defense for protecting a 24-6 lead.
“I’m just glad it didn’t cost us the game,” Burress said after Pittsburgh won 24-13.
“I thought the play was over. I was mad because I didn’t stay up. I thought I could have run farther. I learned a lesson. I’ll never spike it again except in the end zone.”
WHERE’S WARREN?
Tampa Bay started its game at Washington without defensive lineman Warren Sapp, last year’s defensive player of the year, who was benched for disciplinary reasons by Buccaneers coach Tony Dungy. Sapp entered the game in the second quarter.
In three quarters, Sapp had one sack, five quarterback pressures, three tackles and one blocked field goal. Neither Dungy nor Sapp would discuss why Sapp had been benched for the first quarter.
Several Buccaneers players, when asked about Sapp, offered only cryptic responses that he had violated team curfew rules. For his part, when he was asked what happened, Sapp said, “Next question.”
HAVE A BALL
Minnesota’s Randy Moss handed the ball to retired Flint, Mich., schoolteacher Katie Granberry after two of his three touchdown catches against the Lions at the Silverdome in Pontiac.
Granberry, a former second-grade teacher, was sitting behind the north end zone.
“I have no idea who she was,” Moss said. “I just remembered her from last year, and I gave her a ball back then. I just remembered her face. I don’t know her.”
Last year, Granberry was rewarded after holding out her hands when Moss scored a TD at the Silverdome.
When he was told Sunday that she’s a retired schoolteacher, Moss said: “Better yet.”
JERRY AND EMMITT
The two biggest touchdown scorers in NFL history added to their impressive totals Sunday.
Jerry Rice of the 49ers caught his 172nd touchdown pass, and now has 182 total with 10 rushing TDs. Dallas’ Emmitt Smith scored his 150th TD, and 138th on the ground.
REMEMBER THEM?
The Baltimore Ravens, who beat Cincinnati 37-0 last week, blanked Cleveland 12-0 Sunday to become the first NFL team to string together shutouts since the 1985 Bears beat Dallas 44-0 and Atlanta 36-0 in successive games.
The Ravens, however, will have to win 14 straight games, including the Super Bowl, to match the Bears’ 18-1 mark as Super Bowl XX champions.
