Saints Unsure How Long New Injury Will Sideline Williams

Whether Williams, who suffered a sprained ankle in the Saints' season-opening win over Carolina, will play against the Bears will not be just a matter of his ability to play with pain, Ditka said.

"This could be a functional problem where he can't function, can't hold the ball," Ditka said. "We can't play him if he can't do that. If he can't move his hands or catch the ball or if he's not agile enough to control the ball, you couldn't play him."

Williams only talks to the reporters once a week, and he refused to comment after Sunday's game.

Broncos. Linebacker John Mobley will be out for the season after suffering a torn ligament in his right knee in Denver's loss in Kansas City on Sunday.

Mobley, who played for Chichester High and Kutztown University, was Denver's leading tackler the last two years.

The Broncos opened this season amid talk of their possibly winning an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl, but they have lost their first two games and now find history against them.

The only team to win the Super Bowl after losing its first two games was Dallas in 1993. New England started 0-2 in 1996 and advanced to the Super Bowl before losing to Green Bay.

Packers. Mark Chmura's flirtations with paralysis are becoming more frequent, and his team is wondering how much longer its Pro Bowl tight end will continue to tempt fate.

In Green Bay's loss to Detroit on Sunday, Chmura's hands and arms went numb for the third time in six weeks after he took what his teammates said was a cheap shot from rookie linebacker Chris Claiborne of the Lions.

Team doctors were scheduled to examine Chmura yesterday to determine whether it would be safe for him to continue playing. He was expected to undergo an MRI and other tests before deciding whether to retire, as he has been urged by his wife, Lynda, and his agent to do.

Chmura has a bulging disk in his neck that was first noticed on Aug. 5, when he was hit in a training-camp drill by defensive lineman Vaughn Booker. He sat out several days of practice but went numb after hitting a tackling dummy a week later.

Chmura missed the Packers' entire preseason schedule but played in their season-opening win over Oakland.

"If his career is over, it's been a great eight years," Lynda Chmura told the Green Bay Press-Gazette. "He accomplished a lot more than most people thought he could. If it isn't, we'll just keep chugging along."

Titans. Steve McNair is a mobile quarterback, one just as liable to run as throw. Neil O'Donnell likes to get rid of the ball quickly. Their Tennessee team will live with the difference for the next four games by changing as little as possible while McNair recovers from back surgery.

"If we change our offense for Neil, we affect the other 10 guys on the offense," coach Jeff Fisher said. "You have to stay with what you're doing. We did not change anything when it became apparent to us that Steve would not play. We're going to do things the entire offense is familiar with, not just do things that suit Neil."

McNair, who underwent surgery Sunday to repair a ruptured disk in his back, ranked first in the AFC in passing after having thrown for a career-high 341 yards in the Titans' opener.

Vikings. Minnesota has come up empty on half of its trips inside the opponents' 35-yard line. That leaves them with a big question: What's wrong with Gary Anderson?

Anderson became the first perfect kicker in NFL history last season, going 35 for 35, but he already has missed twice and seen two other field-goal attempts blocked this season.

Anderson, who turned 40 in July, is now just 2 for 6, and he can't recall a worse start in his 18-year NFL career.

But it's not just Anderson who has been off the mark. When Charles Woodson blocked Anderson's 43-yard attempt in Oakland's upset of the Vikings on Sunday, the snap was high, and the right side of the Minnesota line collapsed.

Is the entire field-goal unit out of sync?

"I'd say that's probably a fair statement," Anderson said. "Just like when things are going well, I mean, it's an 11-person thing out there, and we all need to be doing our jobs."

There are other questions as the Vikings (1-1) prepare for their NFC Central showdown in Green Bay (1-1) on Sunday. Such as: How can a scoring machine that produced an NFL-record 556 points last season struggle to get 17 two weeks running?

Randall Cunningham, who was sacked six times Sunday, said he would have to start getting rid of the ball sooner.

Giants. The 50 points scored by the Washington Redskins in their victory Sunday were the most scored against New York in 33 years.

"The first three times they had the ball, they went right through us like Grant took Richmond," Giants coach Jim Fassel said. "They took it right down the field every time and scored."

Bengals. Rookie quarterback Akili Smith is getting ready for his first NFL start while his team holds out hope that starter Jeff Blake will be able to play.

Blake suffered a sprained passing shoulder Sunday in Cincinnati's loss to San Diego and spent most of yesterday being treated at the Bengals' practice facility.

Jets. Coach Bill Parcells refused to single out his new quarterback, Rick Mirer, for Sunday's 17-3 loss by New York to Buffalo. Instead, he insisted that it was a team effort.

"It wasn't a good performance by anyone," he said.

As a result, the Jets have begun the season 0-2 for the second straight year and the fourth time in the last five years.

The Jets failed to score a touchdown for the first time since their 1995 season finale, a 12-0 loss to New Orleans. They managed only 190 total yards, including 74 rushing.

Browns. Tim Couch entered the Cleveland huddle in the third quarter Sunday against Tennessee, looked into the eyes of his offensive linemen, and made a bold prediction.

"I told them, 'If you give me protection on this one, it's going to be a score,' " the rookie quarterback said.

Seconds later, Couch backed up his boast, hooking up with rookie wideout Kevin Johnson on a 39-yard touchdown pass. It was Couch's first TD pass in the NFL and Cleveland's first of the season.

"We call him Babe [Ruth] now," Browns coach Chris Palmer said, referring to Couch's called shot.

Seahawks. Seattle expects to get its starting quarterback and top defender back for this weekend's game in Pittsburgh, coach Mike Holmgren said.

Quarterback Jon Kitna watched from the sideline, while linebacker Chad Brown, who led the team in tackles last season, didn't even make the trip to Chicago for Sunday's game, which the Seahawks won on two fourth-quarter touchdown passes by reserve quarterback Glenn Foley.