gives his players a financial incentive to read his tip sheets very carefully each week.Well Womens Kellen Winslow Jersey , at least for the first player to find the bonus Pees hides in plain sight.“All it is is to double-check and see if they’re reading,” Pees says.Pees includes a note to come collect either $50 or $100 to the first player who finds his offer inside notes that can run up to nine pages long. The offer usually is buried in some of the play calls Pees has used on defense from the beginning, and the coordinator says he uses red ink to note any new play calls. Players then typically scan for everything noted in red.Titans coach Mike Vrabel got so good at beating teammates to the hidden bonus when playing linebacker that Pees says he had to rule out him out.“He’d be standing at my door going, ‘$100,'” Pees says. “I’d say, ‘Where’d you find it?’ And he’d tell me.”Pees also has had weeks go by when nobody collected.Writing out the sheets is a habit Pees picked up since his own college days. Each call usually has up to four sentences, and Pees says he better explains himself when writing out each call.“I really think that stems back from starting out as a high school teacher,” Pees says. “When you do lesson plans and you do all that stuff, you really prepare and that’s how I got my start was as a teacher. And I felt that’s what good teaching is, is try to be very thorough, don’t be long, don’t be long-winded, just try to be exact and tell on point. And it helped me to know what I was talking about.”REALLY BIG BENBengals defensive end Carlos Dunlap was talking this week about how difficult it is to bring down quarterbacks such as Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger under the new NFL rules that prevent defenders from using their full body weight in a tackle.“Any time you try to tackle a 300-pound quarterback, it’s going to be pretty difficult,” Dunlap says.Wait, what?How much does Big Ben weigh?The 6-foot-5 quarterback changed his diet in the offseason to drop some weight entering his 15th season. Although he won’t give his official weight, he’s listed at 240 pounds in the Steelers’ media guide — 1 pound lighter than in recent years.For comparison, Jared Lorenzen was listed at 275 pounds when he played for the Giants from 2006-07.Does Dunlap really think Big Ben tips the scales at 300 pounds?“With his equipment and his rib cage (protector) and all the other stuff he has on — sweat, whatever — I’m pretty sure he gets close,” Dunlap says.PRAISING BREESFew star NFL quarterbacks know more about Drew Brees than his former teammate, Philip Rivers.After all, Rivers beat out Brees when the Chargers were in San Diego, sending Brees into free agency in 2006, when he landed with New Orleans.Now, Brees holds nearly every NFL passing record, having surpassed Peyton Manning on Monday night for the lead in yardage.Rivers was watching.“Yeah http://www.thechargerslockerroom.com/authentic-lance-alworth-jersey , it was awesome,” he says. “I certainly was tuned in watching it, counting the yards down. A heck of an accomplishment. It’s crazy when you think about it, how many yards (72,103) that is. That’s a ton of yards.“I think credit to him, obviously, and I heard Drew’s comments of him thanking and giving credit to so many people that have had a hand in it, as you expected him to do. Obviously, he’s a talented player and passer and all those things. I think it was just hard work and preparation – and really probably maybe more than anything, the belief in himself.”San Diego chose Eli Manning atop the first round of the 2004 draft and then dealt him to the Giants for Rivers. Brees was the starter for the Chargers, but he soon began battling shoulder problems.“I wasn’t here during the early times of his first couple years,” Rivers says. “I know it was a bumpy start, and then I get drafted here in 2004, and shoot, he kept me sitting for those two years.“I was able to watch and learn, and he really got it going then, and what he’s done in New Orleans the last 13 years or whatever has been remarkable. So I was happy for him. He and I still keep in touch. It was fun to watch.”SHOW OF HANDSMinnesota wide receiver Adam Thielen turned in his fifth straight 100-yard game last Sunday, but there was no bigger contribution to the win at Philadelphia than his recovery of Jake Elliott’s onside kick for the Eagles with a little more than a minute left in the game and the Vikings leading by two points.Elliott managed to put a plenty of backspin on the ball that made it skip off Thielen’s chest as he dropped to his knees like a catcher in baseball to keep it in front of him before diving forward to smother it just in time as several Eagles converged.“It was nasty,” Thielen said. “It was the best onside kick I’ve ever seen.”For a player who leads the NFL in receptions, the hands team on the kickoff return unit falls in the category of dirty work. But it’s an honor to be picked for it nonetheless.“It’s definitely not my favorite play in the world because there’s a lot of pressure, but at the same time once the ball’s kicked, you’re not thinking about pressure,” Thielen said, adding: “The coaches, they want to put the best people out there for that situation, and you kind of hope your name is called for that. You want to be in those situations. You want to help this team win games Dan Fouts Jersey , and if you’re out there for a hands play, most of the time it’s to help secure a win.”HOMECOMINGOne bright spot in the Miami Dolphins’ dismal loss last week at Cincinnati was the play of young linebackers Raekwon McMillan and Jerome Baker, both from Ohio State.“I was giving them a hard time, saying we’ve got to play in Ohio every week,” Miami coach Adam Gase says.Baker, a rookie, had his first two career sacks for a unit that held the Bengals’ potent offense to one touchdown. McMillan, who missed his entire rookie season last year with a knee injury, had six tackles and graded well at middle linebacker.Credit their Buckeyes background, Baker says.“It’s definitely not to be overlooked,” he explains. CARSON, Calif. (AP) — The Los Angeles Chargers had every reason to be susceptible to a trap game against Cincinnati.The Chargers were coming off an emotional, come-from-behind victory against Pittsburgh last Sunday and a key AFC West showdown at Kansas City was fast approaching.Sunday’s 26-21 victory over the Bengals was not one of Los Angeles’ best-played games of the season, but it does improve the record to 10-3 going into Thursday night’s game against the 11-2 Chiefs for the division lead.Article continues below ...“Everyone wanted to talk about Pittsburgh and if it wasn’t Pittsburgh then it was Kansas City. This team was dangerous and we got out of there with a win,” Chargers coach Anthony Lynn said.The Chargers scored touchdowns on their first two drives and then got four field goals from Michael Badgley — including a team-record 59-yarder — to deal the Bengals (5-8) their fifth straight loss.“We did enough to win. Shoot, they all count the same. We found a way to win, in a different way,” said Philip Rivers, who was 19 of 29 for 220 yards and a touchdown.The Chargers had 160 yards of offense on their first two drives — which ended in a Keenan Allen 14-yard TD catch and 5-yard score by Austin Ekeler — but had 128 the remainder of the game. Three of the last eight drives started at or inside the Chargers 7.Ekeler rushed for 66 yards on 15 carries with Melvin Gordon missing his second straight game due to a knee injury. Allen had five receptions for 78 yards and has a touchdown in five straight games.“Sometimes you just have to play complementary football. Defensively we stopped them when we needed to,” Lynn said. “Offensively we started out, but then slowed down and kicked field goals the rest of the day.”Cincinnati had good field position for most of the day with an average drive start of its 35. Joe Mixon had 111 yards on 26 carries and a touchdown. Jeff Driskel, who was making his second straight start since Andy Dalton’s season-ending thumb injury, was 18 of 27 for 170 yards and a touchdown.“The decisions I made today didn’t work out. We didn’t get to make the break. This or that decision put us in situations, whether it’s fourth down and we’ve got to make the stop, the 2-point (conversion) and so forth, those things today http://www.thechargerslockerroom.com/authentic-derwin-james-jersey , we didn’t get to make the breaks,” Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said.Cincinnati got within two points at 14-12 late in the first half on a pair of field goal by Bullock — one came after an apparent TD run by Driskel was overturned by replay — and Driskel’s 5-yard TD pass to John Ross (the 2-point attempt was no good). The Chargers, though, would take a 17-12 lead when Badgley made his 59-yard field goal on the final play of the first half.The Chargers led 23-15 late in the fourth quarter when Mixon scored from a yard out. The 2-point attempt, which would have tied the game, failed when Driskel was sacked by Darius Philon.BIG OVERTURNDriskel appeared to score a touchdown with about five minutes remaining in the second quarter on a 1-yard scramble that would have brought the Bengals within four, but replay overturned it saying he was short of the goal line.In the past, quarterbacks were safe to go head-first and not be considered to be giving himself up, but that was changed this season.“He dove forward to the goal line and as soon as his knee hit the ground, he was ruled to have given himself up. The ball was short of the goal line,” referee John Hussey said after the game.The overturn meant the ball was spotted inches short of the goal line and brought up fourth-and-goal. Bengals guard Alex Redmond was then called for a false start and Cincinnati had to settle for a Bullock 23-yard field goal that cut the Chargers’ margin to 14-6.BIG LEG BADGLEYBadgley, who had the winning field goal last Sunday at Pittsburgh, now has the longest field goal in Chargers history.The Chargers attempted a Hail Mary with a second remaining, which resulted in Rivers being sacked, but Bengals defensive end Jordan Willis was called for a false start, which brought out Badgley, who said he was very confident about making it.“You got to go out there with that kind of confidence. If you’re going out there thinking you’re going to miss it you probably shouldn’t be kicking it,” said Badgley, who is 14 of 15 on field goals since joining the Chargers last month. “But going out there, it was a way for us to steal momentum from them at the end of the half, go into the second half with more points. It was definitely good for us to get those points at the end of the half.”The former team record was a 57-yarder by Nate Kaeding at Tampa Bay on Dec. 21, 2008.UP NEXTBengals: Host Oakland next Sunday before concluding the season with two straight road games.Chargers: Travel to Kansas City on Thursday night in a matchup of two of the top teams in the AFC.