SPOTLIGHT / A GLANCE AT THIS WEEK IN THE NFL : PATRIOTS ADHERE TO ALL THE RITUALS

Their coach is hospitalized and several of their best players are sidelined.

New England’s 31-14 loss Sunday to New Orleans ended a long week during which Coach Dick MacPherson was hospitalized with a serious intestinal problem and top offensive lineman Bruce Armstrong underwent possible career-ending surgery.

“Everybody wanted to win it for Coach Mac,” said nose tackle Tim Goad. “But when it rains it pours, and it’s pouring now.”

For some reason there was great concern for pregame ritual.

Dante Scarnecchia, who is leading the team in MacPherson’s absence, said he and the players had no contact before or after the game with MacPherson--on doctors’ orders.

For the first time in six seasons, defensive end Brent Williams failed to get his pregame hug from Armstrong.

Goad said preparation did not change in MacPherson’s absence.

“What we’re trying to do is just do things the same as if he were here,” Goad said. “I don’t think he’d want us to do anything special that would throw us off our game.”

Nothing did. The Patriots were 0-8 before MacPherson was hospitalized. They are 0-9 now.

WINNERS, LOSERS: BOTH ARE BAD

Though the Houston Oilers haven’t exactly set the Astrodome afire, the city’s news outlets apparently figured Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Browns was a lock.

The Browns refused to cooperate, winning, 24-14.

“I think the team was really fired up about disproving all the experts, particularly the ones with the Houston media,” Cleveland Coach Bill Belichick said.

His counterpart, Oiler Coach Jack Pardee, had been reading the same reports, which also included information that his team wasn’t what it should be.

“We’ve been told we’re so bad, we’ve started believing it,” he said. “We can’t do that. Everything they’ve heard is how bad they were.”

ELWAY GETS ENOUGH ROPE TO HANG JETS

A year ago, much noise was made about Denver’s John Elway calling his own plays, a throwback to the days before what some quarterbacks call sideline intervention.

Then Elway complained that his job was tough enough without having to do that of the coaches’, too. There was a hew and cry from quarterbacks from days of yore, to whom surrendering any part of running the offense to the sidelines was anathema.

He said he would try it again on Friday, and on Sunday led a 27-16 victory over the New York Jets.

Elway called what you would expect of a quarterback.

“My thought process was to throw on first downs, throw for first downs, keep the defense off balance,” he said. “I wanted to be aggressive right from the start.”

His plays included an 80-yard touchdown pass play to rookie Arthur Marshall, the longest regular-season completion of Elway’s career.

“We’ve been more simplistic in our offensive approach, so I don’t see that becoming a problem this year,” Coach Dan Reeves said. “I’m sure we’ll stay with it.”

HIT THE OTHER GUYS

Tommy Maddox, the Denver Broncos’ quarterback of the future, narrowly avoided injury from an unusual source Sunday. Maddox, trotting off the field after holding for an extra-point attempt, was nearly run over by the Broncos’ horse mascot. Maddox, brushed by the white stallion, said, “I was talking to Keith Kartz and not paying any attention. I’ve heard a lot of things on the field, but I’ve never heard ‘Look out for the horse’ ”

MILESTONES

Nick Lowery’s game-winning field goal was the 300th of his career, making him the sixth kicker in NFL history with that many. Lowery, who kicked three field goals in the game, tied Mark Moseley for fifth on the all-time list in field goals.

Webster Slaughter played for the first time against his former Cleveland teammates, needing five yards on receptions to reach the 5,000-yard mark for his career. Slaughter made quick work of the milestone, catching Warren Moon’s first pass of the game for five yards. He finished with five catches for 31 yards

Tampa Bay quarterback Steve DeBerg became the 11th player in NFL history to throw for more than 32,000 yards. He went over the plateau on a nine-yard completion to Gary Anderson late in the second quarter. He finished with 239 yards passing for a total of 32,136. Sonny Jurgensen is 10th on the NFL list with 32,224.

NAMES AND NUMBERS

Miami’s Dan Marino raised his yardage figure against the Indianapolis Colts to 4,872 yards in 20 games, an average of 243.6 per game.

Dallas third-year running back Emmitt Smith passed Tony Dorsett’s team mark of 3,439 rushing yards in his first three seasons. Smith’s 67 yards in 19 carries Sunday gave him 3,463 yards. Dorsett is the NFL’s third all-time leading rusher with 12,739 yards.

Tampa Bay is 0-11 in games that Vinny Testaverde hasn’t started since 1988. Lest one get too excited about that, the Buccaneers are only 21-38 with him as the starter.

The Cowboys (8-1) are off to their best start since 1983. Dallas started that year 9-1 and finished the regular season 12-4.

The Lions, behind, 14-0, after the first quarter Sunday, have been outscored, 59-24, in the opening period this season. Dallas has an 82-26 combined edge on its opponents in the first quarter.

Jimmy Johnson won only four of his first 26 games as Dallas coach. He since has guided the Cowboys to a 24-9 record.

Houston’s Haywood Jeffires is on track to become the first receiver in NFL history to have two 100-catch seasons. He started Sunday’s game with 58 catches but caught only one pass for five yards and snapped his string of 24 games with at least four catches.

The Seahawks lost their sixth game in a row and are 1-8, the worst start in their 17-year history.

Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre, who began the day with the lowest interception rate in the NFL, had three passes picked off in a two-minute span during the fourth quarter.

With nine points, Matt Bahr passed Eddie Murray for 14th place on the all-time scoring list. The New York Giants’ kicker has 1,122 points.

Keith Byars extended his streak of catching at least one pass through 81 regular-season games.

New Orleans scored only 87 points in its first six games. The Saints have 84 in their last three.

New England gave up five more sacks to the Saints, for a league high of 42. The Patriots had no sacks and have only nine for the season.

THE LAST WORD

Detroit Coach Wayne Fontes on losing to the Dallas Cowboys after beating them twice last season: “Dallas is just a good football team, and they are better than we are . After last season, this should have been a classic confrontation. They have progressed just like we wanted to.”

Eagle quarterback Randall Cunningham, still bridling after being benched for a week by Coach Rick Kotite: “I don’t think it helped me. I could have gone out and thrown a bunch of touchdown passes but nobody will ever know. He had to make a decision and he made it.”

Cunningham on an unaccustomed role as backup, wondering what to do when Jim McMahon was shaken up in the fourth quarter: “I didn’t know how to warm up. I was only gonna hand off, so I figured maybe I’d better get some snaps from center.”

TONIGHT’S GAME

SAN FRANCISCO (6-2) at ATLANTA (3-5)

Time: 6 p.m. TV: Channel 7, 3, 10, 42

It was early Autumn, 1978, and Howard Cosell, then the ambassador of “Monday Night Football,” was asked why the Atlanta Falcons were seldom on the NFL’s weekly showcase game.

“We don’t show clunkers,” Cosell answered, and word got out quickly because the truth hurt. The Falcons were clunkers.

They played on Monday nights a few times after that, during a period of Atlanta playoff appearances, and then disappeared again.

Suddenly, last season, the Falcons made the playoffs again and a reward comes tonight when “Monday Night Football” returns to Atlanta for the first time in eight years.

A capacity crowd of 71,594 is expected in the Georgia Dome, hoping the second meeting of the season between the Atlanta Falcons (3-5) and San Francisco 49ers (6-2) won’t turn into a rerun.

The 49ers crushed Atlanta, 56-17, in Candlestick Park three weeks ago.

“All of us--the players, the coaches, the entire organization--have been looking forward to this ever since the NFL announced this year’s schedule,” Falcon safety Scott Case said. “It’ll be good exposure for our team and our city.”

Atlanta hasn’t won a Monday night game since edging Minnesota, 31-30, in 1981. In four appearances since then, the Falcons have lost four times, three times to the Rams.

Case, tackle Mike Kenn and reserve cornerback Bobby Butler are the only Falcons who were with the team for its last Monday night game--a 27-14 loss at Washington on Nov. 5, 1984.

Atlanta needs all the incentive it can get. The Falcons will be without injured quarterback Chris Miller and will be facing a high-powered 49er attack built around Steve Young. He passed for 399 yards in three quarters and ran for 28 yards in the victory over Atlanta in San Francisco.

“Playing against Young, I can honestly say it’s the first time I’ve ever approached a guy conceding that, no matter what I do, he’s going to make some big plays,” Falcon defensive end Tim Green said.

Young has passed for 1,782 yards and 11 touchdowns and has rushed for 325 yards and three scores.

The Atlanta secondary he will face will include Deion Sanders, who missed the game at Candlestick because he was playing with the Atlanta Braves in the World Series.

Atlanta will start Billy Joe Tolliver in Miller’s place at quarterback. Tolliver came in last week and led an 81-yard drive to the winning touchdown against the Rams.