This is how bizarre this NFL season has become.

	Jimmy Johnson is tired of answering questions about his future in Miami.

The coaches of the teams that entered the weekend with the league's best records -- Jacksonville and Miami -- both came out of it fuming because their offenses were awful.

Welcome to reality, 1999 style, when a touchdown is often an endangered species.

"It's nice to have the best record in the league, but it's unfortunate offensively we have to go through this up-and-down business," Tom Coughlin said after his Jaguars (8-1) beat Baltimore 6-3. "You have to have offense."

That was mild compared to Jimmy Johnson, whose Dolphins went into Buffalo 7-1 after a debate in South Florida over whether the injured Dan Marino should get his job back from Damon Huard, who was 3-0 as a starter and also won a game in relief.

After the Bills won 23-3, holding the Miami offense to just 101 yards, Jimmy went ballistic.

"We had a lot of things going, talking about how good we were and quarterback controversies and everything in the world except talk about our opponent -- an opponent that beat us pretty good before," he said.

The Dolphins actually are part of the problem in what has become the most bizarre season since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970.

Though they remain tied for first place in the NFL's toughest division, they've been playing a prevent offense since Marino went out. Huard was told to take sacks, not risk interceptions and let the defense do the work. The same is true of other teams -- the Giants, Steelers, Ravens and Chargers to name two contenders and two non-contenders.

But even the best defenses have off days, as the Dolphins did Sunday.

Moreover, Johnson lost Cecil Collins, his starting running back, with a broken leg. That just about leaves him bare at a position that was too deep until he cut Tyrone Wheatley and traded John Avery and Karim Abdul-Jabbar.

Coughlin's worries are about the playoffs.

Playing in a division that includes the Browns, Bengals and Ravens, the Jaguars could lock up home-field advantage in the AFC without playing well. But then they have to start playing the likes of the Dolphins, Bills, Seahawks, Colts and Patriots.

Here's the operative stat:

	“	I am frustrated. I am disappointed. I'm embarrassed, to be honest. ”
		— Tom Coughlin on the Jaguars offense

Running back Fred Taylor, who reinjured his hamstring early in Sunday's game, has played only three complete games this year. Jacksonville has averaged 37 points in them, 16 points in the others.

The deceptive stat might be 79 points allowed in nine games against some of the league's worst offenses. Would the Jaguars hold Indianapolis or New England to nine points a game?

So Coughlin worries.

"I am frustrated. I am disappointed," he says. "I'm embarrassed, to be honest."

It doesn't always take two
The success rate for two-point conversions has gone almost steadily downward since 51 percent of the two-pointers tried were made in 1994, the first year the NFL used it. Last year the success rate was 39 percent, and in the first nine weeks of 1999 it was 35 percent.

But that hasn't kept NFL coaches from misusing it.

Sunday's obvious culprit was Detroit's Bobby Ross, who twice went for two-pointers and failed in Arizona, then found himself down by four in the last two minutes, in range of a field goal that could have tied the score if Ross kicked once or won it if he kicked twice.

Ever since the two-pointer arrived in the NFL it has been consistently mishandled. Jim Fassel of the Giants also misused it Sunday, but Fassel's team made it irrelevant by fumbling twice when it was within reach of the tying touchdown.

With 11 minutes left in the third quarter in Arizona on Sunday, Gus Frerotte's 77-yard TD pass to Germane Crowell cut the Lions' deficit against the Cardinals to 23-13. Ross went for a two-pointer to cut the deficit to eight instead of nine.

The Lions scored again with 5:26 left in the game. This time a single point would cut the Lions' deficit to a field goal. Instead, Ross went for two points, perhaps to make up for the first miss. He failed again.

So when the Lions reached the Cardinals' 10-yard line late in the game, they had to go for a touchdown, took their shots at the end zone and missed.

If Ross had kicked both extra points, it would have been 23-21 and Jason Hanson would have had a 27- or 28-yarder to win the game. If Ross had kicked the second time, Hanson could have tied it and put the game in overtime.

"I thought we'd play for the win," Ross said. "Hindsight's always 20-20. I can sit back and second-guess it. I opted to go for the win. I was looking for the field goal to win the game."

Fassel's mistake was the equivalent of a basketball team taking 3-pointers too early to try to get back in a game.

The Giants trailed the Colts 24-6, cutting it to 24-12 in the first minute of the fourth quarter. They went for two and failed. The Giants scored again and kicked, leaving them down 27-19. Twice in the last five minutes they moved deep into Indianapolis territory but lost the ball on fumbles, the second time at the Colts' 10.

But even if they had scored on either possession, they still would have had to make a two-pointer. Had they kicked the first extra point, they could have kicked again to send it to overtime.