But Brister had a poor exhibition season, Shanahan panicked and benched Brister for Brian Griese.

Griese probably will be a good quarterback in time, but he's pressing now, was pressured all game Sunday against Tampa Bay and scares no one. That allows nine-man fronts to shut down running back Terrell Davis. Davis had 53 yards on 19 carries and now has 193 yards in 59 attempts, an average of 3.3 for a man who ran for 2,008 yards and averaged 5.1 last season. (Tyrone Wheatley is having a better year.)

Parcells has been known to bag seasons, such as 1987, when his New York Giants started 0-2 after winning the Super Bowl. The strike team went 0-3, and a talent-laden team finished 6-9.

Exhibit C: Dan Reeves. Reeves is stubborn. Even knowing Chandler is injury prone, he went with Steve DeBerg last year as a backup and survived because Chandler stayed relatively healthy. He went to Danny Kanell this year (loyalty to a player he drafted in New York). Kanell couldn't do it, and now Tony Graziani is the starter when Chandler's hurt.

"Graziani's a good player, but he's not going to get it done," Rams safety Keith Lyle said after St. Louis' 35-7 victory over the Falcons in which Chandler reinjured a hamstring.

	Randy Moss Wide Receiver Minnesota Vikings Profile
	1999 SEASON STATISTICS REC YDS YDS/R TD LNG FUM 9 123 13.7 1 29 0

Anyone for DeBerg, now Reeves' QB coach? Anyone for Tommy Maddox?

Exhibit D: Dennis Green. Green's doing OK. The big loss is Brian Billick, last year's offensive coordinator and now the head coach in Baltimore.

Another problem is Moss, who in three games has nine catches for 123 yards and one touchdown, which came Sunday at Green Bay. Against the Packers, he had two catches for 13 yards. Last year at Green Bay, he had five receptions for 190 yards. Everyone's double-teaming him now and making Cris Carter and Jake Reed beat them.

Whatever, in three games the Vikings have scored 17, 17 and 20 points. They never scored fewer than 24 in any game last season en route to an NFL-record 556 points.

"We're still a very good team," Green said. "We've just played some very good teams.

The best ... and the not so good
Only two teams are 3-0, New England and Tennessee.

The Patriots have won their three games by a total of seven points and could easily have lost any or all of the three. They trailed the Colts 28-7 at the half and almost handed the Giants a victory Sunday night with a prevent defense.

The Titans have two one-point wins plus a 17-point victory over expansion Cleveland. On Sunday, they got lucky when Jacksonville's Mark Brunell threw an end-zone interception while going for the winning touchdown when the Jaguars were within range of a chip-shot tying field goal.

But Tennessee has one thing last year's big four don't -- a decent backup quarterback in O'Donnell. He's been fine while Steve McNair recovers from back surgery.

As for the other end of the spectrum?

Philadelphia scored three touchdowns in the first quarter of its first game, a 25-24 loss to Arizona. All the Eagles have since are a field goal and a safety. They lost 26-0 at Buffalo Sunday. Afterward, Doug Flutie said: "You don't get many NFL games where you can take it easy in the second half."

Hail to the victors
For whatever reason, Michigan guys can be disappointments in the pros: Desmond Howard (minus one great season as a return man), Tyrone Wheatley and Tshimanga Biakabutuka.

But give them time.

Wheatley, a bust with the Giants, was traded to Miami and cut by Jimmy Johnson even before the exhibition season. The past two weeks, he's looked like the first-round draft choice he once was. He now has 176 yards in 41 carries, a 4.3 average, splitting time with Napoleon Kaufman.

"There are 31 teams, and I'll bounce to every one until I can show what I can do," he said.

Biakabutuka, slowed by knee injuries during his three previous seasons, had touchdown runs of 67 and 62 yards in Carolina's 27-3 victory over Cincinnati on Sunday.