Titanic

Story line: New York hopes to carry its slim playoff hopes through Monday, continuing a soft close to the season that has included victories over Arizona and Jacksonville, with San Diego and Buffalo after this. Titans receiver Kenny Britt caught eight passes for 143 yards last week. Jets said: "I'm not going to guarantee a playoff spot. I think part of that is, look, the fact that we're one game under .500, I think you're probably not in the playoff conversation. " - Rex Ryan, coach Titans said: "It's real special to be amongst some elite company.

The long-running fight between CBS and outdoor billboard company Titan for the right to sell advertising on Los Angeles County buses and trains should finally be decided this week. On Thursday, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Agency's board of directors scheduled a vote to decide between the two companies for a new five-year contract starting in 2013. CBS has bid $110 million for the contract while Titan offered $117 million. Although Titan's bid is higher, the staff of the Los Angeles MTA has twice backed CBS, which has held the contract for more than 30 years.

Matt Schaub owes a debt of gratitude to the New England Patriots. OK, maybe that's taking it a bit far, but the Houston Texans quarterback did launch his career against the Patriots back in 2005 when he was playing for Atlanta. Michael Vick was recovering from a strained knee at the time, so the Falcons started Schaub for the Week 5 game in Atlanta. The Patriots won, 31-28, but Schaub shined in his debut, throwing for 298 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. The following off-season, the Falcons traded Schaub to Houston for a couple of second-round picks, and a big-time career was born.

As in most countries, James Cameron's last two films "Avatar" and "Titanic" top the box-office list of all-time highest grossers in Spain. But that could change if native son Juan Antonio Bayona and his latest film about a family caught in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami "The Impossible" continues its unlikely drive in the European country. Since its Oct. 11 opening, the film has grossed 29 million euros, over $37 million, in only four weeks of release. "Titanic" grossed 41 million euros in the country when it opened some 15 years ago, and only 2009's "Avatar" has beaten it. Currently the film is the highest-grossing film of the year in the country and the highest-grossing Spanish film of all time.

The most curious NFL news Sunday was that the league is investigating the San Diego Chargers for using Stick 'em, the glue-like goop that helps players hang on to the football. The Fox report said an equipment manager was concealing the substance on hand towels. So the Chargers couldn't throw in the towel if they wanted to - and neither could these players and teams on a gripping Sunday: •Tennessee's Chris Johnson, the onetime rushing champion who hadn't scored a touchdown in 10 games, broke loose for 195 yards and two scores in the Titans' 35-34 thriller over Buffalo.

Conner Manning threw four touchdown passes, but it was a pass he caught that he'll remember most in Lake Forest El Toro's 41-31 victory over Rancho Santa Margarita Tesoro on Friday night at Trabuco Hills High. Manning hauled in an eight-yard pass from Jacob Furnari for the decisive score on a halfback option play with 4:54 remaining and the Chargers, ranked 17th in the Southland by The Times, stayed in contention for the South Coast League title. "It was a great call, a great throw, great blocking and I just had to catch it," said Manning, who completed 14 of 27 passes for 281 yards, including a 23-yard scoring strike to Blake Murphy on fourth down that clinched the win with 1:51 left.

PITTSBURGH (2-2) AT TENNESSEE (1-4) TV: NFL Network, 5:15 p.m. PDT. Line: Steelers by 5. Over/under: 42. Sam Farmer's pick: The Titans are giving up a league-high 36.2 points per game. Even with their defensive problems, the Steelers should be able to take advantage of that. Pittsburgh 35, Tennessee 24.

Autumn is a grand time to be a gearhead. By fall, most of next year's vehicles are in dealerships and we can finally compare and contrast them for ourselves. No more idle speculation about how much oomph the new Audi will have. No more flame wars in the blogosphere about whether Chevy or Ford makes the most capable pickup.  We invited a quartet of auto experts to discuss some of the new (and imminent) SUVs, crossovers and trucks that have critics raving and drivers craving.

James Cameron was obsessive in the amount of detail he put into his mega-blockbuster, "Titanic. " But leave it to the "Mythbusters" guys to find one major flaw in the film. On Sunday's episode, the "Mythbusters" team of Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage set out to see if the tragic hypothermia death of Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) at the end of the film could have been avoided. According to the team, Jack didn't have to die. In the final moments of the film, Jack and Rose (Kate Winslet)

I suppose it is not especially strange that in the centenary year of the sailing and the sinking of the Titanic we would see two miniseries on the subject. The first, written by "Downton Abbey" scribe Julian Fellowes, played here in April on ABC, its final episode timed to air 100 years to the night the ship went down; my fellow critic Mary McNamara called it "ill-paced, sanctimonious and overly stuffed. " "Titanic: Blood and Steel," which begins Monday on Encore, is the second and, I feel safe in saying, the last such miniseries we will see this year, or soon.