While Corey Dillon (Corey Dillon?) was breaking Walter Payton’s single-game rushing record, another longtime record set by a onetime Bear was falling.
Vikings kicker Gary Anderson booted a 21-yard field goal with 1 minute 4 seconds to play against Buffalo, giving him 11 points for the day and 2,004 for his career. George Blanda, who retired in 1975 after 26 seasons with the Bears, Houston Oilers and Oakland Raiders, finished with 2,002.
The kick, Anderson’s third field goal of the day, also provided the final points in Minnesota’s 31-27 win.
“It couldn’t have happened in a more special way,” said Anderson, 41, a native of South Africa.
“To get a chance to kick a field goal that way in front of the home crowd, in that kind of a setting, I couldn’t have asked for a better script.
“I wish every kid in America could experience what I’ve felt the last few years.”
ANOTHER SHOT
Minnesota, at 7-0, is the only undefeated team in the NFL. Anderson, who entered the league in 1982 with the Pittsburgh Steelers, has never been to a Super Bowl.
In 1998, Anderson went all season without missing a kick until the NFC championship game against the Falcons. Anderson missed a 38-yarder that would have clinched a Vikings victory. Instead, Atlanta came back to beat Minnesota in overtime.
Now, it appears, Anderson and his team will have another chance at the big one.
The Vikings have started 7-0 three other times in their 40-year history, in 1973, ’75 and ’98. However, only the ’73 team made it to the Super Bowl, where it lost to Miami.
FALLING APART
While the Vikings have bounced back, the Jacksonville Jaguars are spinning out of control.
Last year the Jaguars went 14-2, won the AFC Central and were one win from the Super Bowl.
This year everything has gone bad in a 2-6 start. After the Jaguars’ fifth straight loss Sunday, coach Tom Coughlin took off the gloves.
“This is a very proud franchise, and we’ve fought our tails off to get where we are,” Coughlin said. “Quite frankly, things I saw on this field are unrecognizable. I don’t want to recognize it.”
The frustrations were apparent when Jacksonville’s highest-paid pass rusher, Tony Brackens, recovered a fumble late in the second quarter, then got flagged for kicking Redskins guard Jay Leeuwenburg while he was down. Brackens was ejected.
“If he did kick him, and I don’t know if he did, then that’s a totally selfish act,” Coughlin said. “You’ve only got seven defensive linemen [available], and a guy goes off on his own and does something like that? Again, that’s an embarrassment to the franchise.”
NOT GOING TO MISS IT
Counting Sunday’s loss, the Cleveland Browns finished 5-24 in Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium, where they lost their first 16 games until finally winning in 1986. The Steelers are moving into a new stadium next season.
COMING BACK
The Rams have lured former defensive coordinator Bud Carson out of retirement.
“I think Bud can help us,” coach Mike Martz said. “We need some help over on the defense right now. There’s some things we’ve got to shore up and I think Bud’s contribution can only help us.”
The Rams were trounced 54-34 by Kansas City on Sunday, and despite a 6-1 start have had trouble stopping their opponents. Only an offense that has averaged 42.3 points a game has overcome a defense that has surrendered 32.6 per game.
Carson, 69, formerly coached the Browns and was the architect of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ “Steel Curtain” defenses in the 1970s. Martz’s initial offer was for Carson to become co-defensive coordinator with Peter Giunta, who is in his first season as the sole defensive coordinator.
“He’s a consultant,” Martz said of Carson. “He can be the co-head coach if he wants. He can have half my job if it’s going to help us win.”
TRIVIA TIME
The Vikings’ Daunte Culpepper is the third quarterback in NFL history to win in his first seven starts, joining Mike Tomczak and Dieter Brock.
Tomczak, currently on Detroit’s injured-reserve list, was helped by his defense. He started 7-0 for the 1986 Bears despite throwing 10 interceptions and just two TD passes.
Brock, who had played in Canada for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, did it for the 1985 Rams. He’s the guy who fumbled the ball that Wilber Marshall scooped up and returned for a touchdown in the snow in the NFC championship game the year the Bears won the Super Bowl.
