It aint easy being brilliant...

Colts 21, Jaguars 9

Giants 24, Bengals 21

Dolphins 19, Titans 17

Lions 31, Vikings 26

Patriots 41, Bills 12

Saints 27, Falcons 26

Buccaneers 20, Chargers 17

Broncos 28, Panthers 16

Ravens 23, Raiders 13

Seahawks 24, Jets 23

Eagles 23, Cowboys 20

49ers 24, Rams 7

Texans 17, Bears 16

Steelers 35, Chiefs 6

RECORD: 79-49 overall after a 12-2 Week 9.

Follow me on Twitter @FreeNash17

Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ rookie back, Doug Martin was in absolute BEAST MODE with 251 yards and 4 TD’s on 25 carries against the Raiders on Sunday.

Martin is now 3rd in the NFL in rushing.

A new Rookie of the Year candidate, possibly?

Drew Brees completed 21 of 27 passes for 239 yards and 2 TD’s, and despite allowing 447 yards of offense to the Philadelphia Eagles, the Saints’ awful defense made a couple of big plays, including a 99 yard Patrick Robinson interception return for a TD for the game’s first points.

Michael Vick, who despite only making the one mistake on the interception throw to Robinson will almost certainly, and unfairly get all of the blame for this one, but despite the loss, the Eagles are only a couple of games back in their division.

The Saints are now 3-5, and are winners of 3 of their last 4 games.

Matt Ryan completed 24 of 34 passes for 342 yards, Michael Turner ran for 102 yards and a TD, and the Atlanta Falcons remained undefeated at the expense of the now 3-5 Cowboys.

For the Cowboys, Romo actually played pretty well, throwing for 321 yards, a TD, and no interceptions.

Good thing for the Cowboys NOBODY in the NFC East appears to have any interest in creating any kind of lead in the division…

Eli Manning is an elite, top 5 quarterback in this league.

At this point, nobody disputes that.

But he certainly didn’t look like it on Sunday.

10-24 for 125 yards and an interception is far more reminiscent of Rex Grossman than the 2 time Super Bowl winning QB that Eli is.

The Steelers outgained the Giants 349 to 182, Ben Roethlisberger threw for 216 yards and 2 TD’s, including a 51 yard TD strike to Mike Wallace, and the Pittsburgh Steelers improved to 5-3 on the season.

Despite a performance by Adrian Peterson worthy of all out BEAST MODE status, the Minnesota Vikings lost to the Seattle Seahawks, and continue their slide down the NFC North after a promising 4-1 start. The Vikings now sit at 5-4, losers of 3 of their last 4.

The BEAST MODE performance by Peterson consisted of 17 carries for 182 yards and 2 TD’s, but a mere 63 yards passing from Christian Ponder, along with 3 TD passes from Russell Wilson and 124 yards and a TD from Marshawn Lynch were clearly the causes of the Vikings’ 4th loss.

The Seahawks now stand at 5-4, 2nd in the NFC West.

Bucccaneers rookie running back, Doug Martin was in absolute BEAST MODE against the Oakland Raiders on Sunday.

The former Boise State player toted the rock 25 times for an unbelievable 251 yards and 4 TD’s against an obviously clueless Raiders’ defense.

Halfway through the season, Martin now ranks 3rd in the NFL in rushing, and is in the conversation for Rookie of the Year.

For those of you that think that statement was ludicrous, and that either RGIII or Luck has the award locked up, Martin is clearly 3rd behind those two.

That clearly puts him “in the conversation.”

Matt Schaub threw for 268 yards and 2 TD’s, Arian Foster ran for 111 yards and 1 TD, and Andre Johnson made 8 catches for 118 yards as the Houston Texans improved to 7-1 on the season.

Is it just me, or have people seemingly forgotten about the 7-1 Texans?

The Falcons and Bears appear to be getting all the press at the moment, but the (in my opinion) AFC Championship front runner Houston Texans have an opportunity to fix that in a battle of dominant defenses with the Chicago Bears on Sunday.

Matt Stafford threw for 285 yards, Calvin Johnson caught 7 passes for 129 yards, Mikel Leshoure ran for 3 TD’s, and the Detroit Lions improved to 4-4 on the season.

Despite Calvin Johnson’s big game yardage wise, he failed to score a TD, and has only one for the season. The Madden Curse leads to more than just injuries, folks.

As far as the Jags are concerned, a good friend of mine told me that I was crazy after I predicted that the Jags would finish the season 3-13.

NO WAY they finished 3-13, he told me. They were a 7-9 team at the very worst, he said.

To “him” I would just like to say….do you want to concede defeat now or do you want to pull a Mitt Romney and wait and wait and wait even though everyone on Earth knows that it’s mathematically impossible for you to win?

It’s all good though, man.

Homer fans are often blinded to the obvious things that outside fans see so easily. Kinda like I was when I picked my beloved Los Angeles Lakers to go 66-16 this season….

FINALLY!

FINALLY Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers pick up their 2nd win of the season.

After 5 consecutive losses, 4 of which were by 5 points or less, Newton and the Panthers got a monkey the size of the Queen City skyline off of their backs against RG3 and the Skins.

And for those of you that have enjoyed comparing RG3 and Newton to one another, despite the fact that there are very few similarities (at least to me), on this day, Newton outplayed Griffin.

Newton completed 13 of 23 passes, including a beautiful 19 yard TD pass to Steve Smith, for 201 yards.

Newton also ran for 51 yards, including a 1 yard TD run in the 4th quarter that gave the Panthers a 21-6 lead.

You wanna know one stat that will tell you everything about the Panthers’ season you need to know up to this point?

The 19 yard TD reception Steve Smith made in the 1st quarter was his first touchdown of the season.

Have the Panthers put the losing behing them?

Can a winning season still be savaged?

Carolina Panthers’ fans, and head coach Ron Rivera can only hope so…

Andrew Luck set the new NFL single game record for passing yards with 433, and set the rookie record for 4 300+ passing yard games.

Luck completed 30-48 passes for 433 yards and 2 TD’s and the Indianapolis Colts won their 3rd consecutive game and 4th in their last 5 to improve to 5-3 on the season.

For all of you RG3 advocates, guess what?

RIGHT NOW, Andrew Luck is the Rookie of the Year.

EASILY.

Jay Cutler threw for 229 yards and 3 TD’s, Matt Forte ran for 103 yards and a TD, Brandon Marshall caught each of Cutler’s TD passes.

But the real story was the Bears dominant defense.

The Bears’ D bitch slapped the Titans to the tune of one Brian Urlacher interception returned 46 yards for a TD, one blocked punt recovered for a TD by Corey Wootton, 4 forced fumbles, and 5 total turnovers in a dominating Bears’ victory.

With the win, the Bears are now 7-1, and it’s looking more likely by the week that the perennial NFC North powerhouse Green Bay Packers are going to have to settle for a Wild Card spot…

Ray Rice toted the rock 25 times for 98 yards and a TD as the Baltimore Ravens beat the Cleveland Browns and improved to 6-2 on the season.

The Ravens’ victory was their 11th consecutive against AFC North rivals.

The Browns suck, but I would sincerely like to thank Trent Richardson for his 25 carries and 105 yards.

They were certainly a nice boost to my Fantasy team this week…

Peyton Manning completed 27-35 passes for 291 yards and 3 TD’s as the Denver Broncos improved to 5-3 on the season.

With the victory, Manning improved to 8-0 in his career against the Bengals.

Wanna hear something interesting?

If the playoffs started today, Manning’s Broncos would face Andrew Luck’s Colts in the Wild Card round.