Dispatches

Bengals Linebacker Takeo Spikes keeps a bowl of macadamia nuts in his locker to remind him to keep working toward his goal: a trip to Hawaii to play in the Pro Bowl. If he keeps playing as he did on Sunday, leading Cincinnati to a 21-10 upset of the Ravens with a 66-yard interception return for a touchdown, Spikes will have nothing to worry about....

Jacksonville defenders were grumbling late in the preseason about the bend-but-don't-break scheme of new defensive coordinator Gary Moeller. No more. The Jaguars, 2-0 after a 13-6 win over the Titans, haven't allowed a touchdown, in part because Moeller has played more of an attacking style than he showed in the preseason....

The Vikings, already reeling at 0-2, have a brutal schedule over the next two months (the Bucs twice, the Saints, the Packers, the Eagles, the Giants). They'll also be without their best defensive player, strong safety Robert Griffith, who broke his right fibula while running downfield on the opening kickoff in Chicago on Sunday....

Broncos coach Mike Shanahan says that he thinks wideout Ed McCaffrey, who was put on injured reserve after breaking two bones in his left leg against the Giants on Sept. 10, "will be full speed in six or seven months. He'll play next year." McCaffrey, who had a career-high 101 receptions last year, will be 34 when the 2002 season opens....

The Bears may have made wide receiver David Terrell of Michigan the eighth pick in the draft so he could be their firecracker, but quarterbacks Shane Matthews and Jim Miller appear more comfortable throwing to third-year no-name Marty Booker; he has 18 catches to Terrell's three....

The biggest complaint around the league about the regular officials, who were back on the field after a one-game lockout, is that they call too many ticky-tacky penalties. Well, they came back with a vengeance on Sunday. There were 27 penalties in the Bills-Colts game, 24 in the Lions-Browns game.