Texans, Jags cross pond to battle
Well, well, well. Look who's finding some balance in Jacksonville. John DeFilippo, fired after 13 games as the Vikings' pass-happy offensive coordinator a season ago, is overseeing a Jaguars offense that has the AFC's leading rusher (Leonard Fournette) and its leading receiver (D.J. Chark). In the only division without a losing team, the AFC South's featured matchup Sunday is Texans (5-3) vs. Jaguars (4-4) in London.
Jackson faces Patriots defense
The unbeaten Patriots (8-0) and their league-smothering defense travel to Baltimore (5-2) Sunday night to face a quarterback whose running exploits are surpassing even those of Michael Vick, the most gifted runner to ever play the position. In Weeks 6 and 7, Jackson became the first quarterback to rush for at least 100 yards and a touchdown in consecutive games. With 1 yard on Sunday, Jackson will reach 577 rushing and surpass Vick for the most by a quarterback through eight games in NFL history.
Look out, Barry. Here comes Frank
The Bills (5-2) need a bounce-back game after being embarrassed at home by the Eagles. Running back Frank Gore needs 100 yards to reach 15,270 and move past the great Barry Sanders into third place on the NFL's career rushing list. Here comes Washington to make both a strong possibility. The Redskins are 1-7 and ranked 28th in run defense with an average of 137.8 yards allowed per game.
100 NFL SEASONS A LOOK BACK at 1970
Sept. 20, 1970: Nine months of being told their "defense of the '60s" couldn't compete with Kansas City's "offense of the '70s," the Vikings opened the 1970 season at home against the Chiefs team that beat them 23-7 in Super Bowl IV.
