Sports

NFL

Quick hits

ALL THE TRAPPINGS

By Times Staff Writer
Published November 20, 2005

---

Cowboys coach Bill Parcells left a cheesy message last week for his players, who found a mousetrap dangling from the ceiling of the locker room and another baited with cheese in the hallway.

Trap game.

The 4-5 Lions should not be taken for granted.

"The message is: He doesn't want us eating the cheese thrown our way," quarterback Drew Bledsoe said.

The clever motivational ploy wouldn't work at One Buc Place, where mousetraps are a practical necessity.

QUOTABLE

"It's good for the NFL to have story lines. I would certainly rather have them talking about something like that than Terrell Owens for eight hours a day."

- Tony Dungy on national analysts predicting when the Colts will lose.

QUOTABLE II

"Actually, it's going to be an historical event. It's not even a game. This game is going to go down in history as one of the best ever played."

- Bengals receiver Chad Johnson on today's Colts-Bengals game

THE LONG, LONG ROAD

The Jaguars' next three games are against the Titans, Cardinals and Browns, teams a combined 7-20. But all three are on the road. Eleven teams have had three straight road games since 2001 - the Bucs will join the list later this season - and only one won all three. Even Tom Brady and the Patriots failed twice. The last team to do it was the 2001 Jaguars, who beat three straight losing teams on the road under Tom Coughlin.

YUKS FOR YUCKS

The latest joke in Baltimore: How do you keep the Ravens out of your back yard? Put up a goal post.

RUNNING OUT OF ROOM

Not every record is made to be broken. The person who breaks Chicago cornerback Nathan Vasher's 108-yard return of a missed field goal will be the last because 109 yards is the maximum possible on a 100-yard field, plus a 10-yard end zone. Yardage is determined by the nearest yard marker, so a 110-yard return is impossible.

ELITE COMPANY

With two receptions today, Indianapolis wide receiver Marvin Harrison can reach 900 career catches in the fewest number of games (149) in history and join only five other receivers in reaching the 900-catch plateau: Jerry Rice (168 games), Cris Carter (192), Tim Brown (202), Andre Reed (208) and Art Monk (210).

GIANTS SADDENED

In the middle of the NFC playoff chase, the Giants are trying to overcome the deaths of owners Wellington Mara and Bob Tisch, men of tremendous character and weight in the community. Tisch died Tuesday of brain cancer at age 79, three weeks after Mara died of cancer at age 89.

"To go through it once is extremely tough," center Shaun O'Hara said. "And to have to go through it a second time is a major blow to our organization, our fans and anybody with the Giants."

A patch with PRT, for Preston Robert Tisch, will be sewn on the opposite shoulder of the Giants' jerseys from where a WTM patch was affixed for the Oct. 30 game against the Redskins.

STAT OF THE WEEK

NFL visiting teams are 53-91.

ROAD WARRIORS

Pittsburgh will attempt to win its 12th straight road game today at Baltimore and move into second place on the all-time list. The Steelers' last road loss was to the Ravens in the second game of 2004.

- Compiled by Times staff writer Joanne Korth using information from the Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Florida (Jacksonville) Times-Union, Indianapolis Star, Minneapolis Star Tribune and Newsday.

[Last modified November 20, 2005, 00:54:20]

[an error occurred while processing this directive]