Jones-Drew comes up short on purpose — Brian Westbrook has company in the heads-up move department. The Jaguars' Maurice Jones-Drew, in an unconventional cerebral play reminiscent of one Westbrook made two seasons ago, took a knee at the 1 on a clear-cut scoring run in the late stages, allowing his team to milk the clock and win the game.

Jones-Drew passed up an easy TD by falling to a knee at the 1-yard line with 1:48 to play as his team trailed the Jets by a point. But because the Jets were out of timeouts, the Jaguars were able to run the clock down to the final play, on which Josh Scobee kicked a 21-yard field goal to win it. Had Jones-Drew scored, New York would have had plenty of time to try to answer. Jones-Drew was operating under orders from coach Jack Del Rio, much to the chagrin of fantasy team owners who have Jones-Drew — including the real-life player himself.

"Sorry to my fantasy owners," Jones-Drew deadpanned. "I apologize. I had myself today (in fantasy football), too, so it was a tough call. But whatever it takes to get the victory. "

There was the risk of a turnover or a missed kick, but Del Rio thought that was much less than a Jets comeback.

Two years ago, Westbrook's "self tackelization'' all but sealed an Eagles victory over the Cowboys in a similar, but not identical, situation. A TD then would have provided his team an 11-point lead with about 2 minutes left, giving Dallas a chance —albeit a long shot — to score twice to tie or win.

But by going down at the 1, all the Eagles had to do was not fumble and run out the clock, which they easily did.



Byrd's lofty flight continues — One streak ended but another continued in the stellar rookie season for Bills safety Jairus Byrd, a Clayton High and University of Oregon product. He didn't have two interceptions in Buffalo's loss to the Titans, ending a streak in which he had become the first rookie to record three multi-interception games in a row.

But he did pick off one pass, running his string of games with an interception to five, a club record. And he tied the team mark with his eighth interception of the season to pull within six of the NFL mark of 14 set in 1952 by the Rams' Dick "Night Train" Lane.



Stat city — The Lions joined the Houston Oilers as the only NFL teams to lose 31 games in a 33-game stretch, according to STATS. The Oilers did it it a two-year stretch that ended late in the 1984 season.

(Post-Dispatch news services contributed to this report.)