MANY HAPPY RETURNS.

Byline: BILLY WITZ NFL 

As the Chicago Bears' Devin Hester settled in under Jay Feely's 52-yard field goal attempt that was two yards short of its destination, he really had the best of intentions to follow the orders of special teams coach Dave Toub: Don't run it out of the end zone.

After all, the Bears would get the ball from the spot of the kick, the 42-yard line, a good spot from which to build on their four-point lead early in the fourth quarter.

But when Hester caught the ball and looked up, and saw what was in front of him -- 108 yards and lots of rather giant New York Giants, he figured, well, what the heck.

``I said, `Stop! Stop!''' Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher said, joining a chorus on the Chicago sideline as Hester, after a few hesitant steps, began to run out of the end zone. ``And then I said, `Go! Go!'''

And with only a couple of necessary blocks, Hester veered toward the right sideline and raced past everyone in sight -- even his own blockers -- on the way to a 108-yard touchdown that not only cemented Chicago's 38-20 win over New York, but also the Bears' standing atop the NFC.

It was a week of happy returns in several ports.

Steve McNair, who spent his first 11 seasons with Tennessee, returned to Nashville after being traded to Baltimore in June, and rallied his team from 19 points down to a 27-26 victory -- the largest comeback in Ravens' history.

A video montage honoring McNair was shown before the game, but by the end of the afternoon fans must have walked away thinking they'd seen Remember The Titans (When They Were Good).

McNair threw the winning touchdown pass to another former Titan making his first return, Derrick Mason.

And another returning Raven, cornerback Samari Rolle -- who, like Mason was let go a year ago in a salary purge -- contributed four tackles.

At the end of the day, McNair, who received a hug afterward from Titans coach Jeff Fisher, left on much better terms than he did last spring, when he was locked out of the team's facility for fear he'd injure himself and thus the team would have been stuck with McNair's nearly $24 million salary cap number.

The same could not be said for Eric Mangini.

When the Jets' coach met New England coach Bill Belichick at midfield after New York's 17-14 upset, Belichick, who attended the same college (Wesleyan in Connecticut) and who had supervised Mangini in his previous 11 NFL seasons, greeted his former assistant with a no-look, limp-wristed ``handshake.''

It might have been an opportunity for Belichick to extend an olive branch in a relationship that has turned into a cold war since Mangini -- against Belichick's wishes -- interviewed for the Jets' job.

Mangini reportedly returned to Foxborough after the interview to find the locks changed on his office door.

Belichick refused to address him by name to the media this week.

When the Patriots beat the Jets at the Meadowlands in Week 2, Belichick made a quick slap of Mangini's hand and beat a hasty retreat.

This time, Mangini at least was ready.

``I just grabbed Bill's hand and his forearm and pulled him in and said `Great job,''' Mangini told the Boston Globe. ``He didn't say anything. Just `Huh?'''

That was an appropriate response in several other cities around the NFL.

Such as in Cincinnati, where they were wondering how Carson Palmer could look no different than before he underwent Kimo-therapy, Chad Johnson's game finally matched his mouth, and the Bengals could score 41 points ... and lose. Huh?

Or in San Diego, where the better question was, regarding the team that beat the Bengals: You mean a team coached by Marty Schottenheimer, who never met a football or a fan base he couldn't take the air out of, scored 49 points? Huh?

Also dumbfounded were the once-promising Rams, Vikings and Falcons, who -- along with the Bengals -- have faded back to mediocrity after losing three, three and two in a row, respectively.

The ranks of the mundane seemed to grow so rapidly on Sunday that even the Pittsburgh Steelers -- who had won two games in the season's first two months, quite an accomplishment for a Super Bowl champ -- have a flicker of hope.

The Steelers gutted out a win over New Orleans -- and who on Labor Day thought that sentence would be written -- to improve to 3-6, and with the Cleveland Browns (twice), Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Ravens on the schedule in the next four weeks, could find themselves back in the playoff chase.

Such pedestrian concerns are not for the Indianapolis Colts, who continue to test how close they can cut their margin for error in their perfect season. They survived two returns by Buffalo's Terrence McGee -- one of a fumble for a touchdown, another for 88 yards on a kickoff -- and escaped with their seventh victory of a touchdown or less when kicker Rian Lindell missed a field goal midway through the fourth quarter.

Nor are the Bears concerned with the proletariat. They own a two-game lead for the best record in the NFC and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

In the meantime, they'll work out the kinks in Rex Grossman and the chinks in their run defense that have surfaced the past two weeks.

That work will begin this week when the play the Jets, once again traveling to the Meadowlands, the land of happy returns.

Elsewhere around the league in Week 10:

Oakland Raiders quarterback Andrew Walter, who has been sacked a league-leading 40 times, was asked if he voiced displeasure with the playbook to offensive coordinator Tom Walsh: ``Numerous times,'' Walter told the Oakland Tribune. The response? ``Some acceptance, some rejection. I would like to see more quick stuff, more swing routes, flat routes, short stuff ... We need to make it more complex.''

It has gone largely unnoticed, but the Browns' defense is playing better. The past three weeks, Cleveland has held the Jets and Atlanta to 13 points -- their second lowest total each -- and in between held LaDainian Tomlinson and the Chargers to a field goal for nearly three quarters.

The Houston Texans snapped a 12-game road losing streak with their win over Jacksonville, which it has now swept. Said offensive lineman Chester Pitts: ``It's bigger than a monkey off our back. No, it's a cow. It's a longhorn.''

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