The New York Jets re-signed recently released punter Ben Graham in time for him to play in the team’s Monday night game against the San Diego Chargers.

Graham was cut last Tuesday after getting off to a poor start in his fourth season with the Jets. New York signed journeyman Reggie Hodges to replace him, but Hodges injured his left thigh in practice late last week and was ruled out for the game at San Diego.

The Jets waived wide receiver Marcus Henry, the team’s sixth-round draft pick out of Kansas, to make room for Graham. Henry was inactive for New York’s first two games.

Graham, a former Australian Football League star, averaged just 27.3 net yards in the Jets’ 19-10 loss to New England last week. The Patriots benefited from excellent field position throughout the game, starting five of their nine offensive series in Jets territory.

New York then cut the 34-year-old Graham and signed the 26-year-old Hodges, who hasn’t punted in an NFL game in nearly three years.

The Jets also have rookie Waylon Prather on their practice squad, but the team apparently felt he wasn’t ready to punt in an NFL game.

Graham has appeared in 49 career games for the Jets, averaging 43.7 yards with 24 touchbacks and 67 inside the 20-yard line.

Texans

Coach Gary Kubiak reiterated his faith in Matt Schaub, who has thrown five interceptions and one touchdown in Houston’s first two games – both losses.

Kubiak said everyone, including Schaub, needs to improve.

“In this business every person, whether they’re playing or coaching, if they’re not doing their job then there’s a chance they could be replaced,” Kubiak said. “But when I look at the big picture, if I felt like one player was the reason why we were not succeeding, then that would be easy. But I don’t see it that way. I see a lot of reasons we’re not succeeding and we all need to fix those issues.”

Schaub was 17-of-37 for 188 yards and three interceptions, with Cortland Finnegan returning the last one 99 yards for a touchdown in Sunday’s 31-12 loss to Tennessee. He wasn’t the only one who struggled against the Titans, with Andre Johnson having an uncharacteristically sloppy game, dropping passes, including one in the end zone.

“He had his mistakes, but he also did some good things that would have given us a chance to be in position to win the football game,” Kubiak said of Schaub.

Schaub called the Texans problems this season “a couple of bumps in the road,” but is confident he and the team can rebound.

“We’ve got to just rally around each other and come back stronger next week,” he said.

Schaub’s struggles have fans clamoring for Kubiak to go with backup Sage Rosenfels. Rosenfels was 4-1 as a starter last season when Schaub was injured. Schaub won four of his 11 starts last season.

Vikings

After more dominant defense and a steady performance in the passing game by new quarterback Gus Frerotte, it was possible to examine this first win and believe Minnesota is back on track.

But Frerotte’s 15 years in the league have given him proper perspective.

“It takes the pressure off for one day, anyway,” he said. “Once we come back Wednesday, we’re right back at it.”

The Vikings (1-2) might have saved their season of high hopes with that 20-10 triumph over the Carolina Panthers, but the NFL’s competitive setup creates a strictly narrow timeline for savoring these season-saving victories.

“I don’t know if ‘relaxed’ would be the word,” coach Brad Childress said, with typical understatement. “We’re playing a team that’s 3-0 this week. So nothing relaxing about that.”

Minnesota, which began by losing at Green Bay by five points and to Indianapolis by three, faces consecutive road games against undefeated Tennessee and then New Orleans (1-2) on a Monday night.

So enjoy this, boys, but only for a few more hours. In fact, it’s probably already too late.

“It’s always good to come back to work on a Monday after a win,” cornerback Antoine Winfield said. “The last two weeks haven’t been that exciting.”

Bills

Starting fullback Darian Barnes will have tests on his injured right foot, leaving his status uncertain for Buffalo’s next game at St. Louis. Coach Dick Jauron didn’t discuss the nature of the injury, except to say Barnes would have tests later in the day.

Barnes was hurt when he tumbled awkwardly into the sideline after a 9-yard reception midway through the second quarter of Buffalo’s 24-23 win against Oakland on Sunday. Barnes got up favoring his right leg, but stayed in the game for a few plays before limping off the field and did not return.

Barnes was wearing a protective boot on his right foot after the game. He was not in the locker room Monday, but there was a pair of crutches leaning against his stall.

Panthers

Seconds before he was to begin his news conference, John Fox walked off the podium to ask a team official a question. Fitting, really, that 24 hours after the Panthers’ ugly, mistake-filled performance, the coach would have a false start.

“One of many,” Fox acknowledged.

Sunday’s 20-10 loss at Minnesota wasn’t what the Panthers (2-1) expected in top playmaker Steve Smith’s return following his two-game suspension. Instead of giving the new-look offense a boost, the receiver was part of a unit that did an impersonation of the anemic 2007 edition.

Jake Delhomme had little time to find Smith (four catches, 70 yards) because he was on his back much of the day. After engineering comeback wins in the first two games, Delhomme was sacked five times and lost two fumbles, one of which was returned for a touchdown.

Handing it off didn’t work either: The Panthers had only 47 yards rushing.

And the Panthers had trouble just getting plays off. Hampered by the crowd noise and the Vikings’ aggressive blitz package, the Panthers were called for 12 penalties, six of them false starts.

In the past two games, Carolina has jumped the snap 11 times.

“Those are penalties that we have to get fixed,” Fox said. “That has been a problem the last two games.”

Ravens

The Ravens have a new head coach and the same old defense, which helps explain why they’re unbeaten and alone atop the AFC North.

The Ravens have long relied on their defense to win, and that formula hasn’t changed under first-year coach John Harbaugh. Baltimore (2-0) has allowed only two touchdowns, forced five turnovers and surrendered 161.5 yards per game.

In Sunday’s 28-10 win over Cleveland, the league’s top-ranked defense sacked Derek Anderson five times, picked off three passes and kept the Browns scoreless in the second half.

“Ever since the Ravens started playing football in the ’90s, they’ve played great defense,” Harbaugh said Monday. “It’s a tradition, and it’s a challenge to them to uphold that tradition.”

One of Harbaugh’s best moves in the offseason was retaining defensive coordinator Rex Ryan, the lone remaining assistant from Baltimore’s 2000 Super Bowl team. Since 1999, Baltimore leads the NFL in fewest yards allowed, most takeaways and fewest yards rushing per game.

“Why wouldn’t you keep a great coach like Rex Ryan around?” Harbaugh said.

Buccaneers

A 27-24 overtime victory at Chicago was first time the Bucs (2-1) rallied from a deficit of 10 points or more to win since Dec. 12, 1999, when they beat the Detroit Lions 23-16 after falling behind 10-0. They had to throw like crazy to do it.

Brian Griese was 38-of-67, setting a franchise record for pass attempts in a game, He also shrugged off three interceptions to improve to 2-0 since replacing Jeff Garcia’s as Tampa Bay’s starter.

“He was great down the stretch. It’s hard to duplicate that. It’s hard beat what he did the last 25 or 30 minutes of the game,” Gruden said Monday.

“Other than a couple of balls he threw to the other team … I thought he played an outstanding game against a heck of a defense. It was loud, and we weren’t able to run the ball, obviously, very effectively. We put a lot on him and he responded for us.”

Griese’s 38 completions were the second most in team history and his yardage total, including 203 on the last three scoring drives, was third best on the Bucs’ all-time list behind Doug Williams’ 486 at Minnesota in 1980 and Vinny Testaverde’s 469 at Indianapolis in 1988.

“I had no idea how many passes I threw until after the game. … It was a necessity for the style of defense that the Bears have. In the NFL today, you have to be able to adapt and find ways to win, and that’s what we did,” Griese said.

Rams

After another excruciating, embarrassing loss, this time in Seattle, the Rams find themselves again searching for answers to an ever-mounting pile of problems.

“Losing is disappointing and the way our team is playing is disappointing, the way we are coaching and everything,” coach Scott Linehan said. “I would say everybody that’s playing for us is hand-picked by us and so we are at the no-excuse time. It’s time to perform.”

That time would come as a welcome respite for a team that really hasn’t even been competitive save for a few minutes in the second week against the Giants.

When the Rams were 3-13 in 2007, they at least were able to stay in games before folding in the second half. In the three contests this season, the Rams have fallen behind by so much so fast that it’s been nearly impossible to catch up.

In the opening quarter of those three games, the Rams have been outscored 38-0. St. Louis has trailed at halftime by an average score of 20-4.

“You can’t go into any road game in the National Football League or any maybe any league, spotting a team 17, 24, 27 points the first half and expect to win the game,” Linehan said. “I don’t know who in this league is equipped to come behind from those kinds of margins. I’m sure there have been some great comebacks throughout the years but consistently over time, you have got to keep things competitive from a score standpoint.”