Matchups Light, or Fire, Them Up

Flip through your calendar, pull the felt-tip pen from your sock and circle these games. They’re the showdowns, grudge matches and heartwarming reunions -- Mr. Owens, say hello to Mr. Garcia -- that shouldn’t be missed. Listed in chronological order are a dozen must-see games through the first eight weeks of the NFL season:

* Baltimore at Cleveland, Sunday -- Jamal Lewis rushed for 500 yards in two games against the Browns last season. Just imagine, he’d run for 4,000 yards a season if he played Cleveland every week.

* Indianapolis at Tennessee, Sept. 19 -- This game determined the AFC South title winner last season and pits the league’s co-most valuable players, Peyton Manning and Steve McNair.

* Carolina at Kansas City, Sept. 19 -- This game might be the first potential Super Bowl matchup of the season. Can Carolina’s stifling defense put the clamps on Kansas City’s offense, which scored more than any other in 2003?

* Minnesota at Philadelphia, Sept. 20 -- Two of the star quarterbacks from the Class of ‘99, Donovan McNabb and Daunte Culpepper, face each other in this Monday night game. They are a combined 0-4 in conference title games.

* Green Bay at Indianapolis, Sept. 26 -- The stars of this game are its iron men, Brett Favre and Manning, each of whom misses a start about, oh, once a decade.

* Tampa Bay at Oakland, Sept. 26 -- Between the return of Jon Gruden and Tim Brown, and the revenge of Warren Sapp -- unceremoniously dumped by the Buccaneers -- you have your pick of story lines and soap operas.

* Dallas at Washington, Sept. 27 -- In a showdown between a Hall of Famer and a future one, coaches Joe Gibbs and Bill Parcells meet for the first time since 1990. Between them, they have five Super Bowl rings.

* Kansas City at Baltimore, Oct. 4 -- Who’s the better running back, Baltimore’s Lewis or Kansas City’s Priest Holmes? Holmes used to play for the Ravens, remember, and lived such a frugal existence that he used to take the bus to practice.

* San Diego at Atlanta, Oct. 17 -- It wasn’t so long ago that the Chargers passed on a chance to draft Michael Vick, instead getting Tim Dwight and three draft picks they used on LaDainian Tomlinson. The deal worked out pretty well for both teams, which might be a first (and last) for San Diego.

* Seattle at New England, Oct. 17 -- Another potential Super Bowl matchup. Seattle has won the last five in this series -- but the last time the teams played was 1993.

* Philadelphia at Cleveland, Oct. 24 -- Pull out your hankies because it’s sure to be a tear-jerker when Jeff Garcia and Terrell Owens meet for the first time since Owens implied in a Playboy interview that Garcia was gay.

* Baltimore at Philadelphia, Oct. 31 -- Owens made lots of friends in Baltimore when he refused a trade to the Ravens this off-season, then downplayed Ray Lewis’ hitting ability. Nobody accused Owens of being a sharpie.

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Cincinnati’s Carson Palmer, who will make his first pro start Sunday, told reporters this week that he wasn’t feeling unusual pressure heading into his debut against the New York Jets at the Meadowlands.

“I’ll be fine,” he said. “I’m used to pressure. I’m expecting it. I’m feeling it already. I’ve been feeling it all year long.”

Jet defensive tackle Josh Evans said the plan calls for them to turn up the heat as much as possible on the second-year quarterback, then wait for him to crack.

“Bring everything to him and hopefully he’ll fall,” Evans said. “Most of them fall. But some take it and win the game.”

The Bengals are 4-10 in openers on the road.

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Elton John, who performed two songs before Thursday’s season opener at Gillette Stadium, is a Patriot fan and a close friend of team owner Robert Kraft and his wife, Myra. But Bernie Taupin, John’s longtime lyricist, is a Raider fan -- and that made for some tension in the 2001 season’s playoffs, when the tuck rule erased an apparent fumble by Tom Brady, keeping the Patriots alive and sending the Raiders home in defeat.

“We didn’t speak for a week,” John joked.

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Jamal Lewis needed only six runs to compile 333 of his 500 yards rushing for Baltimore against Cleveland last season -- whoppers of 82, 72, 63, 48, 45 and 23 yards. He averaged 9.6 yards per rush in those two games. The Browns are determined to keep him from embarrassing them Sunday with an encore.

“He ain’t going to break the first line of defense,” defensive end Kenard Lang told reporters. “That’s it, that’s all I’m going to say. He ain’t going to break that first line of defense.”

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For the first time in the Bill Cowher era, the Steelers are going with only two quarterbacks, meaning receiver Antwaan Randle El will be the emergency third quarterback, a role he feels fully qualified to play. He was a quarterback at Indiana and moved to receiver when he turned pro. In his first two seasons with the Steelers, he completed 10 of 12 passes when Pittsburgh sneaked him behind center and snapped the ball to him instead of Tommy Maddox. “You got to love it,” Randle El said of playing quarterback. “Something about that, you get a charge at being in control, running and leading a team.”

Randle El would step in for good in a game if Maddox and rookie backup Ben Roethlisberger were injured. The last time the Steelers were forced to use a non-quarterback at the position was 1977 in Houston, after Terry Bradshaw and Mike Kruczek were hurt and the team had no third-stringer. In stepped safety Tony Dungy, who’d played quarterback at the University of Minnesota. Dungy was credited with making an interception and throwing one.

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Back at the Super Bowl, Jerry Rice said this would be his final season in the league. But he since has softened his position on that, partly because he feels so comfortable in Coach Norv Turner’s system. He’s heading into his fourth season with the Raiders, which is twice as long as he once thought he’d play in Oakland.

“To be honest with you, I thought I would be here about two years and after that I would be gone,” he told reporters in the Bay Area recently. “But I still love it, and I still enjoy the challenge. And with the system now, it’s unbelievable. I’m looking at the opportunities, and it reminds me a little bit of when I first came into the league with the Niners, the way we threw the ball downfield.”

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If Jacksonville falls behind early, watch out below. The Jaguars were 1-9 last season when they trailed at the end of the first quarter and 2-8 when the other team scored first.... A year to the day after Tennessee kicker Joe Nedney suffered a torn ligament in the opener against the Raiders, he injured his hamstring squib-kicking the ball at practice. He’s done for the year.

Deion Sanders will wear No. 37 -- his age -- rather than his old number, 21, which belongs to Baltimore cornerback Chris McAlister. Meanwhile, Cleveland rookie Kellen Winslow Jr. has “bought” No. 80, the one his father wore, from teammate Aaron Shea. But Shea wouldn’t disclose how much Winslow paid. “I read somewhere that I’d be asking, like, $50,000 for it,” Shea said. “No way. There was some cash, but it’s more other things on the side, like maybe a few meals, a few suits, maybe a vacation.”