NFL Gameday: Five things to watch in today's games

No love in Jacksonville

The Jaguars are a hit on the field but a bust at the box office.

They’re 3-1 after back-to-back road wins in Denver and Kansas City, and now they play the Texans in a home divisional game.

Yet the game will be blacked out locally because they were 5,000 short of selling out. This is the second straight home game to be blacked out.

Byron Leftwich and not winning used to be two of the excuses but Leftwich is gone and they’re now winning but the fans remain apathetic.

Last year, there were seven blackouts in the entire league.

Bad times for the Bengals

The Bengals are taking on water.

They’re 1-3 after their bye week and play a crucial game at the Chiefs.

The Bengals’ ship showed signs of breaking up after the 34-13 loss Oct. 1 on a Monday night to the Patriots.

Coach Marvin Lewis said some of his players were still playing selfishly. Wide receivers T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Chad Johnson confronted Lewis and Carson Palmer, respectively, on the field.

They don’t figure to have an easy time vs. the Chiefs, who are 32-10 at home in the past six seasons (tied for third best in that period).

Not passing fancy

The Ravens have no deep passing game.

Steve McNair directs the NFL’s 10th-ranked passing game with 233.0 yards per contest, but the Ravens almost exclusively acquire yardage in small chunks with an average of 5.81 yards per pass attempt.

Avoiding turnovers is the mantra from the coaching staff, not taking risks downfield.

McNair has 63 completions between zero and 9 yards. Conversely, he has just three completions between 20 and 39 yards with an extremely low percentage of accuracy on deeper balls.

In addition, the Ravens, who host the winless Rams, have gone 13 series since scoring a touchdown.

Dynamic duels

The Patriots (5-0) visit the Cowboys (5-0) at Texas Stadium. This is only the fifth time in history that two undefeated teams with five or more wins have met.

The others:

• Nov. 13, 1921: Akron Pros (7-0) at Buffalo All-Americans (6-0): 0-0 Tie.

• Nov. 4, 1923: Canton Bulldogs (5-0) at Chicago Cardinals (5-0): Bulldogs 7, Cardinals 3

• Oct. 28, 1973: Los Angeles Rams (6-0) at Minnesota Vikings (6-0): Vikings 10, Rams 9

• Oct. 24, 2004: New York Jets (5-0) at New England Patriots (5-0): Patriots 13, Jets 7

By the way, the Patriots are 23-4 (.852) against the NFC since 2001 (including playoffs) and are 19-2 (.905) in their past 21 games against the NFC.

Surprises

The Packers and Redskins, two teams picked to finish 6-10 by Sports Illustrated, will carry two of the three best records in the NFC into their meeting at Lambeau Field.

The Packers are 4-1, the Redskins 3-1.

The Redskins are coming off a 34-3 victory over the Lions in which they gave up just 144 yards.

This was the Redskins’ lowest defensive yield since October 1992.

The Redskins are ranked No. 3 on defense, up from a collapse to No. 31 in ’06 and back to the level where they were previously (No. 3 in '04, No. 9 in ’05) under coordinator Gregg Williams.