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Sunday, October 15, 2000

St. Louis, St. Louis, St. Louis.

Doesn't anyone ever talk about that other unbeaten team, the Vikings? Their coach, Dennis Green, said not only are they unbeaten, they've played a better brand of opposition than the Rams.

"We've had a very difficult schedule," Green said. "Miami is one of the best teams in football right now. New England is a lot better than their 2-4 record indicates. Tampa Bay is a very good football team. I think we've really had to fight to get our five wins."

St. Louis? The Rams have played a bunch of nobodies.

"St. Louis has been playing some magnificent football," Green said. "They've been on cruise control. So even though we're both 5-0, I think we arrived there on totally different paths."

The Bowl Championship Series rankings no doubt will take that into account.

Unbeaten -- and unhappy

The Rams, meanwhile, have their own problems. Mike Martz, their head coach and offensive whiz, is mighty angry about those televised reports that he considered firing defensive coordinator Peter Giunta and special teams coach Larry Pasquale last week but was talked out of it by management.

"What upsets me about that, fellas, is nobody ever confirmed that with me," Martz said. "Nobody ever called me, nobody ever asked me. That's ludicrous. That's just absolutely ludicrous. That's just devastating for those two coaches."

No, devastating would have been had they actually been thrown into the street -- and then run over by a cement truck.

The pressure mounts

Just as some punters might have expected, there's some hanky-panky going on with those so-called K-balls. The K stands for kickers, not K-Mart.

The game officials are supposed to mark each K-ball after checking the air pressure, among other things.

But Falcons punter Dan Stryzinski discovered that they're checking them with different levels of precision. He said they forgot to check the air pressure on any of the balls during one game in Atlanta this season.

Said Stryzinski, "The ballboy goes [up to the referee, at halftime] and says, 'Hey, these balls are flat.' And the ref goes, 'Oh, yeah. Yeah, they are. I guess we need to check the air pressure in them.' "

San Francisco treat

One of the biggest surprises in football (besides the flat ones in Atlanta) is Jeff Garcia. It's not surprising that the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers has the second-best passer rating in the NFL. The surprise comes because it's Garcia and not Steve Young.

Garcia leads the NFL with 15 touchdown passes and has a 105.1 rating, second only to Kurt Warner. He has been sacked just twice.

Quick slants

Minnesota's Daunte Culpepper is only the seventh quarterback since 1960 to win his first five starts. Warner did it last year with the Rams.

The Cardinals have not scored an offensive touchdown in the first quarter in 22 consecutive games.

Atlanta has been inside the 20 on 13 occasions this season and scored just one touchdown.

The 1-5 Chicago Bears had their team photo taken the past week. "I don't think there were any smiles, just serious looks," said cornerback Walt Harris.

Kerry Collins, who got off with a bang this season, has been firing blanks lately. The Giants quarterback has a 72.9 passer rating; the only one worse in the NFC is Cade McNown.