- Somehow, Drew Brees makes 296 yards and three TDs seem pedestrian.

- Aaron Rodgers (180 yards) picked a bad time to have his first zero TD game of the season.

- The Bills have a good pass defense, but Matt Cassel’s performance (224 yards, 4 INT) was downright pitiful.

- Carson Palmer (94 yards, TD) and the Bengals’ passing game was surprisingly unproductive against the Vikings’ sketchy pass defense. Minnesota did get a boost from Antonie Winfield, who returned from a six-week absence.

- Tony Romo (249 yards, 2 TD) stayed hot. It has helped that the Cowboys have trailed in the second half, because he’s racking up some stats in garbage time.


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- Pierre Thomas (19 touches, 100 yards) got even more work with Mike Bell out, but Reggie Bush (12 touches, 79 yards, 2 TD) vultured a couple of pass TDs.

- Kevin Smith (23 touches, 88 yards) suffered a “gruesome” knee injury and Rotoworld is saying that his season is “unquestionably over.”

- Ray Rice (13 carries, 166 yards, TD) and Willis McGahee (12 carries, 76 yards, 2 TD) destroyed the Lions rush defense. Rice also went for 4-53 in the passing game.

- Ryan Grant (20 carries, 137 yards, 2 TD) had a very nice day running the ball. He started the scoring with a 62-yard TD run. He wasn’t even touched on the play.

- Julius Jones (11 touches, 43 yards) and Justin Forsett (13 touches, 73 yards) pretty much split the work out of the Seattle backfield. Forsett is more productive, but Jones continues to start.

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- Calvin Johnson (4-37) had a rough game against a good Ravens defense, though he’s a lot better off when Matt Stafford is under center.

- With Devin Hester out, Johnny Knox (5-83-1) and Devin Aromashodu (8-76-1) both had nice days.

- Andre Johnson (11-193-2) went nuts against a bad Seattle pass defense.

- You better hope you weren’t playing Brandon Marshall (21-200-2) in a PPR league. (I did.) Marshall set the record for most catches in a game. Eddie Royal had one catch for three yards.

- Davone Bess (3-22) no longer looks like a starting caliber fantasy wideout. Greg Camarillo (7-110) got most of the work.

- Mike Sims-Walker (1-6) was a surprise start (calf), but he was terribly unproductive.

- Way to go, Randy Moss (1-16). Wes Welker (10-105) is far more dependable.

- After a couple of semi-quiet weeks, Vincent Jackson (7-120) went off against the Cowboys.

Check back in a few minutes for the RB and QB positions.

- Jermichael Finley (5-70) continues to be a big part of the Green Bay passing game.

- Dallas Clark (5-43-3) will probably carry a few fantasy teams to victory this week.

- Ben Watson (3-37-1) caught a TD, so he’ll be on the fantasy radar this week. Don’t fall for it.

- Dustin Keller (1-3) was brutal, as was the entire Jets passing game. They didn’t have to throw it much because they ran the ball at will on the Bucs.

- Fred Davis (3-50-2) continues his nice run. He has posted 12-146-4 over the last three games.

- Jason Witten (4-49) outgained Antonio Gates (4-44-1) but Gates found the endzone.

Check back in a bit for the WR, RB and QB positions.

Texans fans are going to read the title and want to dropkick me in the mouth. But let me clarify: I want the Texans to win. I want the Texans to win because they drafted Andre Johnson and both player and team deserve to win in this situation.

That said, Johnson is a superfreak and if the Texans aren’t going to eventually win, I’d like to see the 28-year-old receiver play in a meaningful game once in my lifetime.

Johnson racked up 193 yards and two touchdowns on 11 catches in Houston’s blowout 34-7 win over the hapless Seahawks in Week 14. The Texans did an outstanding job moving the wideout around so that Seattle couldn’t double-team him and the results were obviously outstanding. The only reason Johnson didn’t have 20 catches for 300 yards was because Houston was up so much in the second half that it didn’t need to put the ball in the air.

There was an article in one of the recent ESPN The Magazines that stated Johnson could ask out of Houston if the Texans fail to make the playoffs this season. He doesn’t seem like the type to demand a trade, but losing has an affect on people so it’ll be an interesting story to follow in the offseason.

Either way, this guy deserves to play in the postseason once in his career. Could you imagine what he would do in an offense like the Saints and the Colts? Granted, you could say that about any great receiver in the league but…ho…lee…crap. That would be fun to watch.

The Bengals haven’t gotten as far as they have this season by accident. They’ve won nine games by not killing themselves with mistakes, by running the ball and by playing solid defensive.

But are they relying too much on their running game?

On Sunday in Minnesota, the Bengals attempted 24 runs and 28 passes. That’s a nice, balanced offensive approach but it got them nowhere in a 30-10 loss to the Vikings.

Marvin Lewis had to have known that the Bengals weren’t going to line up and just run the ball at will against the stout Minnesota front four. Granted, Cincinnati did manage to gain 119 yards on the ground, but Carson Palmer threw for just 94 yards despite completing 15-of-25 pass attempts. The Bengals had zero vertical passing game whatsoever.

Following the loss, Chad Ochocinco hit the nail on the end when he summed up his team’s offensive game plan coming into Sunday:

“I am not sure if we were really focused on getting the passing game going today,” Ochocinco said. “I think what we wanted to do was establish the run like we have been doing all year. We wanted to pass, as needed.”

The Bengals shouldn’t change their identify based on their opponent, but that doesn’t mean that they also shouldn’t make adjustments in order to win the game. Yes, they had some success running the football against the Vikings. But it was apparent that the running game alone wasn’t going to help them beat Minnesota and yet Lewis and his coaching staff never adjusted.

The Bengals are a damn good team and they played a great opponent in a tough environment. But in order for them to become elite, they need to find a way to beat teams through the air or else they’re going to have a tough time advancing in the post season.