By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Priest Holmes goes home this weekend to Baltimore, where he spent his first four seasons with the Ravens and lost his job to Jamal Lewis.

Holmes, the NFL's leading rusher in 2001 and Offensive Player of the Year in 2002, already has scored seven touchdowns and shows no effects from December's hip injury or offseason surgery.

"I'm real anxious (to play the Ravens)," Holmes said. "I know the defense has changed since I've been there, but they still have linebackers Peter Boulware and Ray Lewis."

Holmes was an undrafted free agent from Texas who rushed for 1,008 yards in 1998, his second season with the Ravens. He was limited to nine games in 1999 because of a knee injury, and the Ravens took Lewis in the first round of the 2000 draft.

Holmes rushed for a combined 3,170 yards in 2001 and 2002.

BEAR DOWN: Chicago linebacker Brian Urlacher spent his bye weekend in Las Vegas with socialite-model Paris Hilton and "friends" and didn't apologize for the stir it created in the tabloids.

"I get to meet a lot of cool people," Urlacher said. "It was a coincidence that I got to meet - I think everybody knows who I got to meet - so we got to hang out a little, and that's about it. That was how it happened."

Urlacher filed for divorce from his wife, Laurie, July 14. The Urlachers married in June 2000 and have a 2-year-old daughter.

UNHOLY DEFENSE: The Saints have allowed 20 or more points in 21 of their last 23 regular-season games. During coordinator Rick Venturi's tenure, they have allowed 20 or more points in 29 of 35 games.

GROWIN' UP: Kerry Collins' transformation from mistake-prone gunslinger to smart vet continues. In his past eight quarters, including two overtimes, he has six TD passes, no interceptions and 441 yards.

ANOTHER GOOD QB: Seattle's Matt Hasselbeck has won six starts in a row. He now owns the two largest fourth-quarter comebacks in team history (14 points at San Diego in the 2002 finale, 13 points vs. St. Louis on Sunday). Hasselbeck has six touchdowns and one interception.

ANGRY RAIDERS: Oakland's Rod Woodson was a surprise starter at Denver, 13 days after the 38-year-old safety had arthroscopic surgery to clean torn cartilage from his left knee. Woodson's psyche was more beat up than his knee. Frustrated by secondary breakdowns in the loss at Denver, Woodson threw his helmet near the team bench in frustration.

PICKED OFF: Since 1970, teams that return an interception for a touchdown in a game are 905-269-3 (.770). Since 1990, clubs with an interception return for a touchdown in a game are 432-159 (.731).

DECLAWED CATS: The Carolina Panthers (2-0) are coming off a bye week and face Atlanta at home today. The Falcons beat Carolina by a combined 71-0 last season and have swept the past three years' series and won nine of the last 10 games.

LIGHT UP: Hurricane Isabel caused hundreds of thousands of homes in the Washington area to go dark a little more than a week ago, but Dan Snyder's Bethesda, Md., home wasn't one of them. The Redskins' owner had a generator working overtime, upsetting many of his neighbors, according to the Style Section of the Washington Post.

NUMEROLOGY: The Jaguars are 0-3, but their losses are to teams that are a combined 7-1. ... The Vikings are 3-0 but are even better than their record shows. They're 3-0 in the NFC North, and two of the victories have been on the road. ... Teams with 100-yard rushers are 16-2 (.889). Teams with 30 or more rushing attempts are 34-2 (.944).

AFC NORTH: After torching the Browns for a record 295 rushing yards, Jamal Lewis roughed up the Chargers for 132 on 23 carries. That sum gives him 427 yards for two games, the fifth-best two-game total in NFL history.

Steelers coach Bill Cowher hates to lose and tends to take it out on those around him. "Oh, yeah, I'm sure you guys know that," cornerback Dewayne Washington told a handful of writers. On a Monday after a loss, "He screams louder," Washington said.

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Compiled from notes submitted by NFL beat writers.

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