SPOTLIGHT / A GLANCE AT THIS WEEK IN THE NFL : ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?

To commemorate Sunday’s matchup of rookie starting quarterbacks Rick Mirer of the Seattle Seahawks and Drew Bledsoe of the New England Patriots, here’s a comparison of their combined number of games played entering the weekend with the starting quarterbacks in every other game.

314--John Elway, Denver (146) vs. Joe Montana, Kansas City (168)

249--Jim Everett, Rams (99) vs. Phil Simms, New York Giants (150)

196--Bernie Kosar, Cleveland (103) vs. Jeff Hostetler, Raiders (93)

162--Bobby Hebert, Atlanta (79) vs. Steve Young, San Francisco (83)

155--Warren Moon, Houston (128) vs. Stan Humphries, San Diego (27)

126--Rodney Peete, Detroit (87) vs. Wade Wilson, New Orleans (39)

101--Cary Conklin, Washington (2) vs. Randall Cunningham, Philadelphia (99)

102--Troy Aikman, Dallas (56) vs. Steve Beuerlein, Phoenix (46)

32--David Klingler, Cincinnati (6) vs. Neil O’Donnell, Pittsburgh (26)

4--Rick Mirer, Seattle (2) vs. Drew Bledsoe, New England (2)

AN EYE FOR A ‘W’

Mirer’s team won the game, 17-14, but he wasn’t around to see it and he wasn’t the one who carried the offense.

While Seahawk tailback Chris Warren was gaining a 174 yards in a team-record 36 carries, Mirer was knocked out of the game with blurred vision when he was hit in the face by Patriot defensive end Mike Pitts late in the third quarter.

Mirer, the second pick in this spring’s NFL draft, came back in for one play, but then returned to the sidelines and Stan Gelbaugh played the rest of the way. Mirer completed 12 of 16 passes for 117 yards and his first NFL touchdown, and generally outplayed Bledsoe.

“It does make me feel good to beat them, because they were the only team to pass on me,” said Mirer, whose injury did not appear to be serious. “It’s not fair to call it that (a victory for him), because everyone out there played hard.

“I thought Drew played fine. I played all right, but the game is not just two guys.”

Bledsoe, the top draft pick, consistently threw behind and above receivers and had two passes intercepted. He completed 20 of 44 passes for 240 yards and a touchdown.

A side note: Bledsoe and Mirer’s coaches, Bill Parcells and Tom Flores are very experienced. They are two of the three active coaches (along with Miami’s Don Shula) who have have two Super Bowl trophies, though both men won their championships with teams very different than the ones they are currently coaching.

“Some of these guys need to wake up a little bit and understand what it takes to win and lose,” said Parcells. “We don’t understand that yet completely.”

GAME FOR HIS FATHER

A day after the death of his father, Detroit linebacker Pat Swilling received a warm welcome from an appreciative crowd of New Orleans Saints fans as he returned to play against his former team.

Travis Swilling died of a stroke and a heart attack on Saturday morning. He was 53.

“The game is what I do and how I make a living,” Swilling said, his voice trembling. “My dad would have understood.”

Swilling had only two tackles and pressured Saint quarterback Wade Wilson once. He was also called three times for being offside.

The Lions lost to New Orleans, 14-3.

Swilling admitted it was difficult for him to concentrate during the game, but he refused to use his father’s death as an excuse for his performance.

“I think this is probably the strongest adversity I’ve ever had to overcome,” Swilling said. “Through God’s and my dad’s tutelage, I’ll overcome it.”

TAKE THIS TO THE BANK

Beyond any doubt, with deep assurance, we can boldly go where hardly any other prognosticator will go and tell you who will win this year’s Super Bowl:

Either the Saints, the Eagles or the Giants.

Why them?

Because the last four Super Bowl champions--the Cowboys, Redskins, Giants and 49ers--each had two things in common: They were NFC teams, and they all started 3-0 in their glory year.

Only three teams fit those terms: the Saints, Eagles and Giants. End of argument.

Add Giants: The last time they went 3-0, they took it all the way to 10-0 in 1990 and went on to--you guessed it--win the Super Bowl.

One more for Giants: The two times Giant Coach Dan Reeves started 3-0 when he coached the Broncos, his team went to the Super Bowl.

JERRY’S SKID

Folks, we have an early leader in the race to be the first NFL coach to get the axe, and his name is a familiar one: Falcon Coach Jerry Glanville.

The Falcons, after dumping loads of cash this off-season to revamp their defense to match the talent on offense, are 0-3 after losing to the San Francisco 49ers Sunday, 37-30, and the rumbling is getting very loud that Glanville, in fourth year with the Falcons, could be fired within the month.

“I never worry about job security,” Glanville said. “I think I’m the seventh longest as a head coach in the NFL (counting his five years in Houston) and I haven’t been around that long. If you worry about job security, there’s something wrong with you.”

The heat may cool a bit, though, thanks to some soft scheduling. Atlanta hosts the 1-2 Steelers this Sunday, goes to Chicago to play the Bears the next week, has a bye Oct. 10, then hosts the Rams Oct. 17.

But if they stumble in any one of those games . . .

“We’re all frustrated,” said Atlanta safety Scott Case. “This isn’t where we expected to be.”

QUARTERBACK CAROUSEL

Even though eight teams had the weekend off, it was another turbulent day for starting quarterbacks, full of benchings, multi-sack beatings and backups breaking loose.

Some examples:

--Though everybody will be talking about John Carney’s busy right foot, the San Diego Charger-Houston Oiler game was chock full of quarterbacking mayhem, complete with the rarely achieved double-benching.

The Oilers’ Warren Moon, who is not used to this sort of experience, hit the pine in the fourth quarter, yanked in favor of Cody Carlson after Moon threw his fourth interception of the game. Carlson, who wasn’t signed to a $2.5 million-a-season deal so he could hold a clipboard, led the Oilers to a go-ahead field goal on his only series before Carney beat Houston.

The guy who rallied the Chargers, meanwhile, wasn’t starter Stan Humphries, who completed only seven of 26 passes before getting the hook, but backup John Friesz, who completed eight of 15 for 110 yards.

--Bobby Hebert, in his first start for Atlanta after replacing Chris Miller last week, probably kept the job at least for another week. Hebert matched 49er quarterback Steve Young by throwing three touchdown passes to Andre Rison in the Falcons’ loss.

Hebert completed 23 of 38 passes for 199 yards.

--Vinny Testaverde, a longtime fixture on the quarterback carousel, stepped in for struggling Cleveland Brown starter Bernie Kosar to lead the Browns’ fourth-quarter comeback victory over the Raiders.

Kosar threw three interceptions, including two on consecutive throws.

Testaverde, the up-and-down former Tampa Bay Buccaneer, completed 10 of 22 passes for 159 yards. Kosar was eight of 17 for 71 yards.

--The Lions’ Rodney Peete wasn’t benched, he was battered. New Orleans sacked him five times against a Detroit offensive line missing starters Lomas Brown and David Richards.

Peete, who completed 12 of 17 passes for 99 yards, suffered a sprained knee in the fourth quarter and was replaced by Andre Ware.

ODDS AND ENDS

Some jottings on Carney’s kicking spree:

With 41 points already accumulated this season, Carney is averaging 13.6 points a game, more by himself than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5.0), Chicago Bears (13.5), Cincinnati Bengals (9.0) and Minnesota Vikings (8.5), and not much less than the Rams (14.3).

If he keeps at his current pace, Carney will score 216 points (on 69-for-69 field-goal kicking), by far an NFL scoring record.

Attention rotisserie mavens: Somebody named Erric, no misspelling, chewed up the 49er defense, but Dickerson had nothing to do with it. Erric Pegram gained 192 yards starting for the injured Eric Dickerson, the most yards ever gained rushing against San Francisco. The performance surpassed a 181-yard day by Chicago’s Willie Galimore against the 49ers on Sept. 16, 1962.

“When you run the ball, you don’t know your yards,” said Pegram. “You don’t know what’s going on. You tell me I had a hundred and some yards and I’m shocked.”

New Orleans linebacker Rickey Jackson recovered two fumbles, giving him 25 for his career and tying him with Chicago Bear great Dick Butkus for second-place all-time in career recoveries, four behind Jim Marshall.

Falcons, Bengals and Patriots beware: Only three of the 167 teams to start 0-3 since the AFL-NFL merger have made the playoffs.

Eagle Coach Rich Kotite is 9-2 in September and hasn’t lost in that month since a 23-0 defeat to the Redskins on Sept. 30, 1991.