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Sunday, December 08, 2002

Only one Woodland Hills High School player is having a better season than the ones who played in Hershey yesterday.

Miami defensive end Jason Taylor, a former home-schooled Wolverine, is making a case for NFL defensive player of the year. He has 13 sacks, 53 tackles and 32 quarterback hurries, fighting through double teams the whole way.

"He's quick on the edge, said Bill Stanfill, who holds the Dolphins' sack record with 18 1/2. "To be that quick, he's got kind of an uncanny ability to be on the smaller side and still plug his gap on the run plays."

Taylor, who played at Akron, is only in his sixth season with the Dolphins and is just 17 sacks from the team sack record of 67 1/2.

"I'm not done," Taylor said. "I'm not there yet."

Manning on his own

In the world outside of Peyton Manning, no quarterbacks call their own plays anymore. Terry Bradshaw did it. Jim Kelly did it when Buffalo ran the no-huddle and Manning does a lot of checking off at the line of scrimmage.

Few quarterbacks even want to call their own plays. They wouldn't know how, because they're not doing it in college, in high school or even in midget football.

"No one really calls their own plays," said Colts Coach Tony Dungy, a former quarterback at the University of Minnesota. "My son is in little league football and the coaches call the plays there. The quarterbacks aren't used to it any more and when they get to this level it's not something they really want to do."

Manning's offensive coordinator, Tom Moore, also was Bradshaw's last coordinator with the Steelers, which may have something to do with it.

"That's just kind of our offensive philosophy," Manning said. "Tom Moore puts a lot of trust in me to make checks at the line, to make calls at the line to try to get us in good plays."

Not fond of Foxboro Stadium

Drew Bledsoe returns to New England for the first time today, but to a new stadium. He won't miss old Foxboro Stadium.

"I wanted to be the one to push the button to blow that place up," Bledsoe said. "That place was horrible. It rained in the training room."

He might not enjoy Gillette Stadium for other reasons. In the teams' first meeting in November, Bill Belichick pushed a button and blew up Bledsoe and the Bills, 38-7.

Marvin's the man

If Hines Ward is on a sizzling pace, what does that make Marvin Harrison? The Colts' receiver has 109 receptions, or nine per game. The NFL record is 123. Harrison is on pace for 145.

"Every week, it seems like he has the same number of catches," Tennessee Coach Jeff Fisher said.

Harrison, a three-time Pro Bowler, tied Hall of Famer Raymond Berry for the franchise record with 631 career catches, and passed him in touchdowns with 70. Berry played 13 seasons; Harrison is in his seventh. Ward quietly set the Steelers' record last Sunday when he caught a pass for the 68th consecutive game. Harrison owns the Colts' record at 93 games.

Quick slants

Peyton Manning is the only NFL quarterback to pass for 3,000 yards in each of his first five seasons.

The Lone Star Back State: The NFL's top three rushers, all in the AFC, are Priest Holmes (from San Antonio), LaDainian Tomlinson (Waco) and Ricky Williams (University of Texas).

Houston rookie left tackle Chester Pitts started 20 games in his career at San Diego State. He'll start his 21st game, including preseason, today for the Texans.

Oakland defensive tackle Sam Adams on Jets quarterback Chad Pennington: "He gets a couple of wins and everybody wants to jump on the bandwagon. He's a good quarterback, I don't want to take that away from him. But, please, let him earn it."

Clinton Portis needs 5 yards to become the fourth different Denver back over the past eight years to rush for 1,000 yards in his rookie season.