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Sunday, October 14, 2001

Compiled by Ed Bouchette

Tony Boselli might be out for the season, Fred Taylor is gone indefinitely and the Jacksonville Jaguars have lost two in a row.

Maybe the Steelers caught them too early, before the disintegration began.

Boselli and Taylor are two of the four players the Jaguars could least afford to lose. Mark Brunell and Jimmy Smith are the others.

Poor drafting, cap mismanagement and injuries have taken their toll on the Jaguars, who also lost 2000 first-round pick R. Jay Soward for the next six games to a substance abuse suspension.

The losing might stop the next two weeks because they are off today and play Buffalo next. But after that, they play at Baltimore, at Tennessee, home to Cincinnati and the Steelers at Heinz Field in a four-game stretch that just might bury them for good.

Oh, and they're having a devil of a time selling tickets to their home games. Next week, they likely will be blacked out on home television for the second consecutive time (Jacksonville's mayor wrote to the NFL to say the blackout policy is biased against small-market teams).

They are a projected $20 million over next year's salary cap.

He's no trouble for Raiders

Sebastian Janikowski keeps getting his kicks on the field and off.

The Raiders' kicker was taken to the hospital early Monday morning after falling and cutting his head at a San Francisco nightclub. Police suspected he was overdosing on GHB, the date-rape drug, but did not arrest him.

Janikowski has had drinking problems that go back to his days at Florida State. He has not fallen down on the football field this year, though -- he's 8 of 8 on field-goal attempts, leads the NFL with nine touchbacks on kickoffs and was the AFC special teams player for the month of September.

"This is the Raiders, man," wide receiver Tim Brown said. "That kind of stuff is not a distraction here."

Seahawks get defensive

Seattle's free-agent signings have paid off so far on defense.

Levon Kirkland, John Randle and Chad Eaton have turned the Seahawks' defense from the worst in the league to No. 11.

"This is a considerably more fun team for me to coach than last year," said defensive coordinator Steve Sidwell, "because we have more guys that have a passion for the game, and obviously that makes my job a lot easier."

One holdover who has the passion is linebacker Chad Brown, another free-agent pickup from the Steelers in 1997. Brown leads the AFC with 5 1/2 sacks even though the 4-3 defense does not feature the outside linebacker as the pass rusher, the way he was with the Steelers.

Randle, considered over the hill in Minnesota, has 3 1/2 sacks.

Building in Buffalo

Just because the Bills are 0-4 and off to their worst start in 16 years doesn't mean owner Ralph Wilson is unhappy with Coach Gregg Williams and President Tom Donahoe.

The two had to slice $13 million from the salary cap before the season and will have their work cut out for them again next year.

"When Tom and I met in Florida," Wilson said, "I said, 'Listen Tom, we're in terrible shape with the salary cap. I want you to join us, but I want you to know coming in about this salary cap situation. It's probably the worst in the league.'

"I really admire him for joining us knowing the situation we were in. But he accepted the challenge and has done a great job."

The Bills cut 22 veterans this year.

Quick slants

Miami defensive end Jason Taylor, who played at Woodland Hills High School, became the Dolphins' all-time leader with his third fumble return for a touchdown last week.

Denver cornerback Deltha O'Neal had more catches last Sunday against the Chiefs than either Troy Edwards or Mark Bruener has for the Steelers this season. O'Neal had four interceptions against Kansas City. Edwards and Bruener each have three receptions.

Tennessee is trying to become the sixth team in history to start 0-3 and make the playoffs. Over the past two seasons, the Titans led the NFL with a 26-6 record.