SPOTLIGHT / A GLANCE AT THIS WEEK IN THE NFL : THE WIZARDS OF BLAHS

It was a blah, 17-14 kind of Sunday, just another blah Sunday in a year of blah Sundays.

A perfect week for the Cincinnati Bengals to emerge from a winless start. A great time for safeties, missed field goals and no-shows. A grand celebration of the incomplete pass.

Of the six early games, three--the Falcons over the Browns, the Saints over the Vikings and the Eagles over the Redskins--limped in with that exact, sad 17-14 tally.

Including the two Thanksgiving Day games, in the 14 games this weekend, only four teams scored more than 17 points--Joe Montana’s Chiefs, who had 23 against the Bills, and Steve Young’s 49ers, who bombed the Rams for 35, the Giants, who had 19 thanks to Brad Daluiso’s 54-yard field goal in the last minute of the game, and the Oilers, who put 23 on the board against the Steelers..

And, if you were tuned in to any of Sunday’s punt fests, you know the 17-14 games were the exciting ones.

Sure, the weather in the East rose up and shook up those poor offenses, but not all of the ineptitude can be attributed to the cold wind blowing.

We had the standard 6-0 classic (Jets over Patriots in a driving wind). We had that outstanding 16-10 Bengals’ victory over the Raiders, courtesy of four missed Jeff Jaeger field goals. We had a pulse-pounding 17-9 victory for the Broncos over Seattle.

Face it, NFL, the appropriate highlight of this week of bad weather and blunders was a disastrous mistake: Leon Lett’s blunder that cost the Cowboys a victory over the Dolphins on Thanksgiving Day.

KICK ME

You thought watching games decided by all those field goals was dull. How about watching games with Sunday’s missed field goals?

Forget about those four that the Jaeger yanked wide left against the Bengals.

The Jets-Patriots and the Vikings-Saints games probably were even better examples of the week’s wacky ways.

Under a pouring rain and in gusts up to 68 m.p.h., the Patriots got inside the New York 20-yard line on only two possessions. They never made it inside the 10.

On New England’s best chance to score, kicker Scott Sisson lined up for a 28-yard field goal from the water-logged grass.

“The ball was under the water,” Sisson said.

The football came up like a dead duck and was easily blocked at the line by Bill Pickel with 5:25 left in the game.

“We’re playing to the best of our ability, but we’re making mistakes in key situations,” said New England’s Leonard Russell, who rushed for a career-high 147 yards, more than half the Patriots’ total of 289. “It’s frustrating.”

And Russell didn’t have to watch any of the other games.

In the Vikings’ three-point loss, Fuad Reveiz seemingly tied the score with less than a minute with a 41-yard field goal, only to have it called back by a holding call. After the penalty, Reveiz missed from 51.

MORE VIKING QUESTIONS

OK, nobody is saying that Minnesota’s recent troubles are Sean Salisbury’s fault. But have you noticed that the Vikings are 1-4 in games he has started in place of the oft-injured Jim McMahon and were 4-2 with McMahon?

This is the first time in Coach Dennis Green’s two years that the Vikings (5-6) have been under .500. Minnesota lost only five times last year on their way to the NFC Central title.

In Sunday’s three-point loss to the New Orleans Saints, Salisbury completed 16 of 26 passes for 208 yards and generally has produced better numbers than McMahon had in the first six games.

For the first time since dislocating his shoulder Oct. 31, McMahon was in uniform Sunday. He might be 100% for the Lions and Green has not yet said who will start.

The match up with the Saints featured the return of Wade Wilson, who was the Vikings’ starter most of last season, to Minneapolis as the New Orleans starter. Green cut Wilson last off-season.

Wilson was intercepted twice and completed 13 of 20 passes for 111 yards.

Said Minnesota linebacker Jack Del Rio: “It wasn’t like Wade dominated the game, but he was the winning quarterback and I’m sure he’s going to have a nice ride home.”

HOT AND COLD

Along with sloppy play, streaky teams have been the norm so far.

The good streaks: the Packers won their sixth in seven games; the Falcons won their third in a row and fifth out of six; the Jets won their fifth consecutive, the Bears on Thursday won their third straight, all on the road. And the Oilers knocked off Pittsburgh to run their winning streak to six.

The bad: the Browns lost their fourth in a row, the Redskins lost their third consecutive (and eighth in nine games) and the Patriots lost their sixth in a row.

SHHH, THEY’RE PLAYING FOOTBALL

What’s the sound of no fans clapping? An RFK Stadium sellout crowd--minus the 9,791 no-shows, most for a home Redskin game since the strike year of 1987.

Those in attendance to a game that used to be one of the best rivalries in the league witnessed the Eagles raise their record to 5-6 with a last-minute touchdown to send the Redskins to 2-9.

Because of injuries, free-agent departures, and general horrid play throughout the year, this basically came down to Bubby Brister for the Eagles vs. Rich Gannon of the Redskins.

Call it an embarrassment of Riches.

Redskin Coach Richie Petiton against Eagle Coach Rich Kotite, that is.

“It’s a very unique situation. I’ve never been around anything like it,” said Gannon, who finished with 279 yards on 20-for-31 passing. “After a while it just takes its toll, when you have guys running all over the place because of injuries. . . . We get inside the 35-yard line and we self-destruct.”

BENCHED, NOT FORGOTTEN

Redskin receiver Art Monk, the NFL’s all-time leading pass catcher, spent the entire first half on the sideline after being benched in favor of Desmond Howard.

Late in the second quarter, the Redskins crowd began chanting “Monk, Monk, Monk.”

Monk got into the game in the third quarter and extended his streak of games with a reception to 159. In the fourth, he put Washington ahead with a 19-yard touchdown reception.

Howard, a first-round pick in the 1992 draft, had one catch for 14 yards.

UH, OH, JOE

Nobody can say Cardinal owner Bill Bidwill didn’t make it clear. He said at the beginning of the season that the team would have to finish with a winning record or else Coach Joe Bugel and the front office folks would probably be looking for new jobs.

They can start looking.

After Sunday’s loss to the New York Giants, Phoenix registered its eighth loss of 1993, which makes a winning season impossible. In four seasons, Bugel is 17-42, and speculation in Arizona indicates Bidwill may choose to clean house sooner rather than later.

“What do you want me to do, sit around and suck my thumb and say: ‘The ultimatum, the ultimatum,’ ” Bugel said. “I’m just worried about this team and winning football games.

“I’ve been in this game for 19 years. I’ve been a winner my whole life. The owner wants to win too, bless his heart, like all of us. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

HEY, VERNE!

One man’s opinion: “If there’s any justice, Joe Bugel keeps his job,” boomed an indignant CBS’ Verne Lundquist at the end of the Cardinal game.

Thanks for the input, Justice Lundquist. And here we thought you were just a TV announcer.

FREEZING BUCS

The Buccaneers probably gave the Packers a better contest that anybody could have expected, given their history of awful cold-weather play.

In a game with 19 punts, Green Bay needed a Brett Favre-to-Sterling Sharpe touchdown inside of two minutes to nip the Buccaneers, 13-10.

At kickoff, the Lambeau Field temperature was 29 degrees. Tampa Bay has played 14 games in sub-40 degree temperatures, and has lost every single one of them.

BITS AND PIECES

Denver suffered a costly injury when it lost starting receiver Vance Johnson for the rest of the season with a fractured left ankle in the second quarter in the Broncos’ victory over Seattle. Johnson made one catch for 11 yards before being taken off the field on a motorized cart. For the season, he has 36 receptions for 517 yards and five touchdowns. . . . Neil O’Donnell, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ starting quarterback, was knocked out of the game with a bruised right shoulder in Sunday night’s loss to the Houston Oilers. O’Donnell, shaken up midway through the third quarter when hit late by Oilers linebacker Lamar Lathon, left for good when he was hit by William Fuller and fumbled later in the quarter. . . . Here’s an odd statistic: Opponents are 23-for-23 on field goals of 50 yards or less this season against Tampa. . . . Norm Johnson’s 51-yard field goal, his 25th in a row for the Falcons, tied him for second place with Morten Andersen. The league record is 29 in a row by John Carney. . . . One of football’s most impressive streaks is in jeopardy: The Redskins are 2-3 at RFK Stadium, and unless they win at least two of their final three home games, their streak of 24 consecutive years of playing at least .500 ball at home will end. That’s the longest such streak in the National Football League.