From the beginning, back in training camp, Mike Vanderjagt kept telling Dallas head coach Bill Parcells not to worry. That he would be fine for the regular season. Of course, his groin injury didn't heal quickly enough and Shaun Suisham kicked in the opening-day loss to Jacksonville. In fact, Suisham missed a 36-yard attempt that may have altered the outcome.

If you include the field goal that he missed for Indianapolis in the playoff loss to Pittsburgh, Vanderjagt has missed six of his last 18 attempts. A pretty poor conversion rate, considering he entered the season as the NFL's very best all-time at 87.5 percent.

Parcells has always been a stickler for having a clutch field-goal kicker. When he won his last Super Bowl with the New York Giants, it was Matt Bahr who put his 1990 team in the game with five consecutive field goals to upset the San Francisco 49ers in Candlestick Park. Bahr hit a 42-yarder at the gun to win the game 15-13, and he made two more in Super Bowl XXV while Scott Norwood was sailing wide right.

Basically, Vanderjagt was wide right twice in Sunday's upset of the Colts.

You have to wonder why Adam Vinatieri, the best clutch playoff kicker in the past five seasons, ended up in Indianapolis and not in Dallas?

The best story is that Colts GM Bill Polian gave Vinatieri a contract offer and told him if he left the building and visited the Cowboys the offer was off the table. Vinatieri took the deal and the Cowboys had to settle for Vanderjagt, the kicker the Colts discarded.

Another version is that Parcells told Bill Belichick and Scott Pioli, New England's brain trust, that he wouldn't pursue Vinatieri as a free-agent unless another team spoke to him first. Believe me, the Patriots probably wish they didn't make any verbal deal with Parcells.

Vinatieri could come back to haunt the Patriots in the playoffs. If he was in Dallas, though, he could only hurt them in the Super Bowl.

No Money for Backups

There is a simple explanation for why the Falcons are stumbling right now, losers of three straight. Every team has to deal with injuries over the course of the season, but the Falcons spent almost 83 percent of their salary-cap, tops in the NFL, on starters. So, when the starters began to drop in Atlanta, Coach Jim Mora has had to make do with very low-end backups and reserves.

Hey, everyone knows that Joe DeCamillis is a very good special teams' coach. But his coverage units have been getting torched recently. It's pretty hard to compete in that area when management elected to spend the fewest amount of dollars on special team players. This includes the very good acquisition of 46-year-old place-kicker Morten Andersen.

Gruden in the Dark?

There is no question within the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that Jon Gruden's agent, Bob Lamonte, was the source of last Sunday's report in the Tampa Tribune that the head coach was getting feelers from other organizations, including Thursday's opponent, the Dallas Cowboys.

The interesting aspect is that Gruden may have been totally oblivious to the notion that his agent was spreading the news. And this is why he voiced such a strong denial on the newspaper's report. He really didn't know about it.

Depending on your point of view, Gruden may be underpaid at $3.5 million a season. Then again, after winning the NFC South last season, the Bucs have slipped off the radar screen this season.

But, hypothetically, Gruden and Tony Romo would be an interesting combination should Bill Parcells decide to retire at the end of the season. Gruden is doing a pretty special job with rookie quarterback Bruce Gradkowski.

Crazy "Sex" Quote

In case you missed it last week, Bengals defensive tackle Sam Adams has been playing pretty well the past two games. Adams is also probably pushing 350 pounds. He and Atlanta's Grady Jackson are pushing for the biggest looking lineman in the NFL.

Asked why he's playing better, Adams responded by saying: "I feel a lot better. I feel like I changed sexes."

You feel like what?

"I feel like I'm a different human being," Adams said.

You changed what?

"Changed sexes," he said. "I'm a different human being right now."

Last Shot at Mangini

Jets rookie head coach Eric Mangini defended his on-sides' kick strategy in a 0-0 game against the Bears to start the second half. His defenders say he was trying to show his team that he will try anything to win a game.

OK, but the Bears just happen to have the game's best special teams this season. Devin Hester leads the NFL with seven punt returns of 20 yards or more. The next closest guy has three. The Bears are very good in all aspects of special teams and a couple of them noticed that Mangini had changed some players on the on-sides' attempt. They anticipated the kick. And that's another reason why Mangini shouldn't have tried it. The percentages were not in his favor against the Bears. Against some other team, it may have succeeded.

Rex Grossman has now thrown 18 touchdown passes, tying Jim McMahon's career season-high set in 1985. In fact, Erik Kramer (29 in 1995) is the only Chicago quarterback to throw as many as 20 touchdown passes in the last 41 seasons.