NEW YORK, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Marshall Faulk and St. Louis are back in the hunt and LaDainian Tomlinson would like to run them back into the ground as the San Diego Chargers visit the Rams Sunday in one of six interconference matchups in Week 11 of the NFL.
Priest Holmes, the reigning NFL rushing champion, and the Kansas City Chiefs face the San Francisco 49ers; Tommy Maddox renews acquaintances with coach Dan Reeves when the Pittsburgh Steelers host the Atlanta Falcons and Dononovan McNabb and Peyton Manning duel when the Philadelphia Eagles meet the Indianapolis Colts.
Steve Spurrier returns to Florida as the Washington Redskins visit the Jacksonville Jaguars and the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots meet the Chicago Bears, a playoff team last year that has fallen on hard times.
With the return of quarterback Kurt Warner drawing closer, the Rams (3-5) look to extend their winning streak to four games on Sunday. Marc Bulger is 3-0 since taking over as the starter, but Faulk is the key to St. Louis' turnaround.
During the winning streak, Faulk has rushed for 519 yards and scored six touchdowns. He rushed for 261 yards in the first five games.
The Chargers (6-2) are tied with the Denver Broncos for the best record in the AFC and Tomlinson is second in NFL tushing with 845 yards.
Holmes leads the NFL's highest scoring offense (32.4 ppg) with 857 yards rushing and 13 touchdowns. He also has 51 catches for 440 yards and two scores, putting him on pace to eclipse Faulk's single-season record of 26 touchdowns in 2000.
Even though they have a high-powered offense, the Chiefs (4-4) still have questions to answer about a defense that allows a league-high 30.0 points per game.
The Niners (6-2) have the weapons to exploit that defense with quarterback Jeff Garcia, star receiver Terrell Owens and the running back duo of Garrison Hearst and Kevan Barlow.
Reeves believed in Maddox, but Bill Cowher and the Steelers are reaping the benefits. Maddox will go against his former coach on Sunday in a matching teams with four-game winning streaks.
Reeves selected Maddox in the first round of the 1992 draft when he coached the Denver Broncos and then signed the quarterback in 1995 as a free agent when he coached the New York Giants. In 1997, Reeves invited Maddox to Falcons' training camp, but released him.
The 31-year-old quarterback did not play football from 1997-99 before signing with the New Jersey Red Dogs of the Arena Football League. Maddox's biggest claim to fame was earning Most Valuable Player honors in the only season of the XFL.
After not playing in the NFL in six years, Maddox signed with the Steelers in 2001 and won the backup spot to Kordell Stewart. But Stewart has struggled this season and was yanked by Cowher in the third game of the season in favor of Maddox.
That decision started to change the fortunes of the Steelers, who rallied with Maddox for a come-from-behind victory over Cleveland for their first win of the season on Sept. 22.
Maddox took over as the starter the following week - a 32-29 loss at New Orleans - before leading the team to four straight wins. In Maddox's five starts, the Steelers have averaged 29 points.
Reeves is pretty happy with the quarterback running his team. In 2001, Reeves moved up four spots in the first round and selected quarterback Michael Vick No. 1 overall.
Vick has turned the Falcons into an instant contender in his first year as a starter, completing 96-of-159 passes for 1,095 yards and four touchdowns with just one interception.
Manning is on pace to throw for more than 4,000 yards, but has been intercepted 11 times. That could spell trouble against the Eagles, who rank second in the NFL in total defense.
Manning will not have one of his main offensive weapons as running back Edgerrin James is out again with a hamstring injury for the Colts (4-4), who hope to end a three-game losing streak.
McNabb is a running threat as well as a passing threat and has the Eagles (6-2) on top of the NFC East, two games ahead of Washington and the New York Giants.
Spurrier goes back to northern Florida on Sunday, but Tom Coughlin would love to give him a rude welcome.
Coughlin, who has been coach of the Jaguars (3-5) since the franchise's inception in 1995, appeared to be in danger of losing his job after a 6-10 campaign last season and was cognizant of the Spurrier supporters calling for his head.
But on the day that Spurrier resigned as coach at the University of Florida, Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver offered Coughlin a contract extension. Spurrier eventually signed a five-year, $25 million contract - the richest given to a coach.
It doesn't help Coughlin that the Jaguars enter Sunday with a four-game losing streak while the Redskins (4-4) are coming off back-to-back wins over Indianapolis and Seattle.
The Patriots (4-4) will play the second of five games in a 25-day stretch when they visit Chicago (2-6). New England is in third place in the AFC East, but just one game behind first-place Miami and a half-game in back of Buffalo.
A season after winning their first division title since 1990, the Bears have been ravaged by injuries and are in the midst of a six-game losing streak - their longest skid since dropping their first seven games in 1997.
The Green Bay Packers last started a season 7-1 in 1996 when they won the Super Bowl with three-time Most Valuable Player Brett Favre.
At the midway point, the Packers own the best record in the NFL and have a commanding four-game lead in the NFC North over the Detroit Lions (3-5), who have one more win than all of last season under coach Marty Mornhinweg.
The last time the Lions won at Lambeau Field was in 1991, the year before Favre was acquired by Green Bay. Since then, they dropped three straight at Milwaukee and seven consecutive games at Lambeau Field.
This is the time of the year when Favre weather hits Green Bay. When the game-time temperature is 34 or below at Lambeau, Favre is a perfect 32-0 (26-0 in the regular season, 6-0 in the playoffs).
The New Orleans Saints (6-2) can move into a first-place tie with the idle Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-2) in the NFC South with a win Sunday against the Carolina Panthers (3-5), who have dropped five straight.
The Tennessee Titans (4-4) face the team from the city that they used to call home on Sunday when they host the expansion Houston Texans (2-6). The Titans were formerly known as the Oilers when they played in Houston from 1960 until moving to Tennessee following the 1996 season.
The New York Giants (4-4) visit the Minnesota Vikings (2-6) for the second straight year. The Vikings won last year's meeting, 28-16 after the Giants rolled to a 41-0 rout of Minnesota in the NFC championship game two years ago.
In other games, the Arizona Cardinals (4-4) host the Seattle Seahawks (2-6) and the Cincinnati Bengals (1-7) meet the Baltimore Ravens (3-5).
Ray Lucas has had two forgettable games as starting quarterback of the Miami Dolphins. He hopes Sunday night's game against his former team will be one to remember.
With back-to-back losses since Lucas replaced the injured Jay Fiedler, the Dolphins (5-3) visit the New York Jets (3-5) in a battle of AFC East rivals.
The Dolphins signed Lucas, who is from New Jersey and attended Rutgers University, to a three-year offer sheet in 2001. The Jets opted not to match the offer since they had Chad Pennington, a first-round pick in 2000, as a backup to veteran Vinny Testaverde.
After attempting just three passes in his first year with the Dolphins, Lucas was given a chance to start when Fiedler broke his right thumb in an Oct. 13 game at Denver. However, Lucas has not taken advantage of the opportunity, throwing four interceptions in a 23-10 loss to Buffalo on Oct. 20 and two more picks in a 24-10 defeat to Green Bay last Monday.
Meanwhile, Pennington has unseated Testaverde and is 2-2 as the starter, completing a league-best 71 percent of his passes for 1,349 yards and six touchdowns with four interceptions.
The Dolphins snapped an eight-game losing streak against the Jets with a 30-3 rout at Miami on Sept. 22.
Monday night, the Denver Broncos (6-2) hope to continue their mastery of the Oakland Raiders (4-4) in an AFC West battle.
Fired as Raiders coach by owner Al Davis 13 years ago, Mike Shanahan landed in Denver and has turned the division rivalry into a lopsided affair. Since his first season in Denver in 1995, Shanahan has compiled a 12-2 record against the Raiders, including a 7-0 mark at home.
Like Shanahan, Raiders linebacker Bill Romanowski will now get a chance to experience both sides of the rivalry. Romanowski spent six seasons with the Broncos and was a part of their two Super Bowl teams before signing with Oakland as a free agent in March.
The Raiders opened the season with four straight wins, but has lost four straight games since then.
