SPOTLIGHT : A GLANCE AT THIS WEEK IN THE NFL

WORLD CUP COUNTDOWN

Soccer fans who have tried to sell their game to America for years have our undivided attention in the wake of Saturday’s NFL thriller between the New York Jets and Washington Redskins.

Final snore: Jets 3, ‘Skins 0.

Our very best argument against soccer has been that it does not generate enough offense to satisfy our sophisticated sporting tastes.

Soccer enthusiasts might ask us to chew on Saturday’s dud, a gross encounter in which the most exciting play came when the Jets’ Roger Duffy hit holder Louie Aguiar in the ear hole with a center snap.

NBC game analyst Mike Ditka, unshackled from his in-studio role as quipster and gum-smacker, exclaimed at one point that an upcoming punt would be the game’s most important play.

Sadly, Iron Mike had it right.

Ditka also noted that it appeared the Jets were afraid to win.

The Jets, whose playoff hopes burn bright after improving to 8-5, have not scored a touchdown in 14 quarters.

The Redskins (3-10) were led to another defeat by General Richie Petitbon, who thought it best that his top rusher, Reggie Brooks, get only nine carries in the game.

CARTER’S TOUGH LITTLE PILL

So, who was more relieved after the Rams’ upset victory over the New Orleans Saints?

1). Chuck Knox. Win might have saved his job.

2). Rams’ owner Georgia Frontiere. Might quell talks about team’s possible move to Baltimore.

3). Quarterback T.J. Rubley. Earned another week as Rams’ starter.

Actually, the choice here is Dexter Carter of the San Francisco 49ers, whose two fumbles against Atlanta on Saturday cost the 49ers their 10th win.

The Saints, noted NFL opportunists, could have cut the 49ers’ lead to one game in the NFC West with a win over the Rams. Instead, the 49ers maintain a two-game lead over the Saints with three games remaining.

The Carter goofs, however, could cost the 49ers in their quest to maintain home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. A victory would have allowed the 49ers to keep pace with the 10-3 New York Giants.

Carter is pushing his luck in San Francisco. A first-round draft choice in 1990, he has been a bust as a running back who had been banished to kickoff and punt return duty.

Now that he’s messed that up, what’s left?

MAKING A LIST

Everyone is offering suggestions on ways to improve the NFL.

Here’s five more, in no particular order of preference:

1). Never, ever again schedule a game between the Jets and Redskins. Saturday was only the fifth time the teams have met. Let’s hope there won’t be a sixth.

2). Get Dennis Hopper a day job. His role in the Nike commercial as the demented former referee who sneaks into NFL locker rooms to sniff Bruce Smith’s shoes is frightening children. If you want to catch Hopper in film noir , rent “Blue Velvet.”

3). Give the Indianapolis Colts a 12th player on offense, preferably Jerry Rice. The Colts have not scored a touchdown in their last 17 quarters.

4). Make illegal any contact to Kansas City Chiefs’ quarterback Joe Montana. Keeping the living legend in the lineup should be the NFL’s top priority. Montana down the stretch could salvage the season.

We’ll forgive his not leading the Chiefs to a comeback win over the Denver Broncos.

5). Make field goal kickers kick with their non-kicking legs. For example: the Saints’ Morten Andersen, a lefty, would have to boot right-footed.

Exempt from this provision would be New England kicker Scott Sisson, who Sunday missed three field goals from inside the 30.

THEY HAD TO HAND IT TO HANDLEY

Sometimes fans are right. New York Giant loyalists who bayed at the moon for the ouster of coach Ray Handley last season knew what they were howling about.

The Giants, 6-10 under Handley last season, became the first team to qualify for the playoffs Sunday with their 20-6 victory against Indianapolis.

Under Coach Dan Reeves, the Giants improved to 10-3 after their fifth consecutive win. They own the NFC’s best record and are in control of their playoff home-field destiny.

Some old-line players grumbled initially when Reeves, the longtime Denver coach, arrived in New York and started cleaning house, in some cases bringing in former Broncos--linebacker Michael Brooks, punter Mike Horan, kicker David Treadwell.

Turns out a house-cleaning was just what the Giants needed.

Reeves might not be John Elway’s choice as NFL coach of the year, but he might be everyone else’s.

THE AGONY OF VICTORY

The good news at Foxboro, Mass.: the New England Patriot ended a seven-game losing streak with a heart-pounding, 7-2 victory over Cincinnati.

The bad news: With the win, the Patriots improved to 2-11 and temporarily fell out of the last place race with the 1-12 Bengals for the right to the first pick in next April’s NFL draft.

Hard to believe based on the final score, but the game was a matchup of the NFL’s lowest scoring teams. The Bengals, in fact, were denied the shutout when the Patriots took an intentional safety with 19 seconds left.

Has Patriot Coach Bill Parcells no sense of history? The play cost New England its first shutout in 97 games dating to a 24-0 whitewash against Indianapolis on Nov. 22, 1987.

. . . MORE BENGAL BUNGLES

This week’s Leon Lett Award goes to . . . Cincinnati’s Patrick Robinson. Following a taunting penalty after a touchdown, New England’s Scott Sisson was forced to kick off from his own 20.

Robinson settled under the ball at the Cincinnati 19 with 20 yards of open field in front of him when he inexplicably lifted his arm and signaled for a fair catch.

“I knew that time was running out and someone told me if the kick was high to make a fair catch,” Robinson, a rookie from Tennessee State, later explained.

“But what he really meant was if it was high and short to do that.”

Cincinnati coach David Shula said Robinson misunderstood his instructions.

“I told him if the ball popped up short, we’d come up on the ball and fair catch it, and then we would still have two timeouts left with 25 seconds. But he just made a poor reaction. It was a line drive.”

UNITAS, MOORE AND MORE. . .

The New York Giants commemorated the 35th anniversary of their 1958 NFL championship game with the Baltimore Colts, won 23-17 by the Colts on Alan Ameche’s one-yard run in overtime. Among the former Giants participating in ceremonies at Giants’ Stadium were Charlie Conerly, Kyle Rote, Rosey Grier and Harland Svare. Among the former Colts participating included Johnny Unitas, Ray Berry, Ordell Braase and Lenny Moore.

It has been dubbed by football experts as “the Greatest Game Ever Played.”

Not participating in ceremonies was the city of Baltimore, which lost the franchise in 1984 when Colts’ owner Robert Irsay packed up the U-Haul trailers in the dead of night and relocated the team to Indianapolis.

It has been dubbed by transportation experts as “the Greatest Move Ever Made.”

THINGS WE DIDN’T NEED TO KNOW

This just in from Atlanta, where Falcons’ cornerback Deion Sanders is still rattling his jewelry in the afterglow of his two-interception, showdown victory against 49ers’ receiver Jerry Rice.

Sanders credits his success to the arrival of his lucky underwear--green boxers with white dollar signs--which had arrived by courier Saturday morning after disappearing last Sunday in Houston.

“It’s got to be the difference,” Sanders said. “It’s got to be the drawers.”

NAMES AND NUMBERS

Injury updates: Houston Oilers free safety Marcus Robertson, tied for second in the NFL with seven interceptions, suffered a season-ending knee injury on the final play of the first half against Cleveland . . . Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly sprained his left ankle in the third quarter, was replaced by Frank Reich for a series, then re-injured the ankle on the Bills’ next series and left for good. Bills’ running back Thurman Thomas bruised his left forearm in the first quarter and played sparingly the rest of the way.

Chicago Bears backup quarterback Peter Tom Willis played the second half in place of Jim Harbaugh, who bruised his right hand just before halftime . . . Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Hardy Nickerson’s 15 tackles gave him 175 for the season and broke the team record of 174, set by Cecil Johnson in 1981 and equaled by Broderick Thomas in 1991 . . . Giant quarterback Phil Simms’ second-quarter touchdown toss to Chris Calloway was the 197th of his career, moving him into 16th place with Kenny Anderson for career touchdown passes. Simms, who is one of nine NFL quarterbacks to start every game this year, also moved past Anderson (32,838) in career passing yards with 32,875.

Philadelphia Eagles receiver James Lofton caught two passes for seven yards and needs 12 more to become the first receiver in NFL history to reach 14,000 . . .When the 49ers blew a 17-point fourth-quarter lead on Saturday, it temporarily kept them from breaking their own NFL record of 10 consecutive seasons with 10 or more victories.