Texan linemen try to treat QB Carr with care

Houston's offensive linemen care about rookie quarterback David Carr, even if they have allowed him to be sacked an NFL-leading 53 times.

Just to show they care, tackle Ryan Young says the offensive line will pay for Carr's weekly massages if Carr gets sacked more than two times a game.

"Obviously, David's been hit a lot this season, so every game we want to go out and do what we can do to protect him," Young said. "We told him from here on out if he got hit more than twice, we'll pay for a massage for him a couple of times a week. Hopefully, that'll help too."

Good kicking gone bad

Mike Vanderjagt entered the season as the NFL's most accurate kicker. He hasn't played like it.

Already, Vanderjagt has missed seven of 20 field goal attempts, a career-high, and he missed twice Sunday, from 23 and 42 yards.

Vanderjagt has been plagued by a groin injury in recent weeks. Coach Tony Dungy said he was "shocked" by the misses, but didn't think the problem was a direct result of the injury.

"He probably hasn't gone through something like this before," Dungy said. "I think it traces back to those weeks when he wasn't kicking in practice."

Net gains

In a year when the NFL's TV ratings have risen, visits to the NFL's Web sites, particularly nfl.com, also have increased significantly.

In October, the league's Web sites had 10.72 million visitors, an increase of 49 percent from the previous year. Only ESPN.com had more among sports sites, the NFL said.

One significant reason for the strong numbers has been an average of 1 million visits to radio broadcasts on nfl.com. The top two games this season have been Atlanta at Green Bay on opening weekend and Buffalo-Denver in Week 3.

The Bills-Broncos broadcast drew 175,000 visits, and the Falcons-Packers attracted 150,000. -- From wire reports