The Chicago Tribune is reporting that Kyle Orton will likely miss one month with a high ankle sprain after he was carted off the field during the Bears’ 27-23 win over the Lions on Sunday.

He is scheduled to undergo an MRI on Monday. He suffered the injury at the end of the first half of Sunday’s 27-23 win over the Detroit Lions.

While trying to run for a first down, Orton was tackled by Cory Redding then appeared to get his ankle banged by end Dewayne White, who cleaned up on the play. Orton attempted to stand up but fell back to the ground. He was carted off the field with 26 seconds left before halftime.

Being out a month could keep Orton from facing Tennessee, Green Bay, St. Louis and Minnesota. Rex Grossman replaced Orton against the Lions and scored the game-winning, 1-yard touchdown.

Let me see if I can take a stab at how things will play out next week in Chicago when the Bears host the Titans:

1. Rex Grossman throws 40-yard touchdown pass to Marty Booker in the first quarter. Fans go nuts, Rex supporters unleash 37 I-told-you-so comments in a one-minute span. Bears go into halftime up 17-16 and everyone is thinking massive upset.

2. Grossman throws pass off his back foot and is intercepted by Michael Griffin. A low smattering of boos fill Solider Field, but there’s still hope.

3. Grossman stripped in the pocket because he can’t feel the pressure. Titans recover, go up by 10 late in third.

4. Grossman throws his second pick of the day why throwing across his body. Titans put the game away in the fourth quarter and now boos are raining down like fire and brimstone from the sky. Grossman haters are now throwing Grossman supporters off the top deck of the UFO-looking Solider Field.

Rinse and repeat as necessary.

There are sometimes when Bill Belichick is too smart for his own good. Case in point, the Colts’ 18-15 win over the Patriots on Sunday Night Football.

Three weeks ago the Pats drummed the Broncos in front of a national audience on Monday Night Football. Belichick was so aggressive that he was even instructing Matt Cassel to run the no-huddle offense up by three scores in the second half. Belichick wanted to make the point that the Patriots weren’t done even though Tom Brady had been lost for the year, and that they could still shove the ball down their opponents’ throats if they wanted to.

Fast forward to Sunday night. Instead of taking advantage of an inexperienced Indy secondary that was starting a street free agent at one of its corner spots, Belichick decided to play things close to the vest and stick to the running game. It made sense considering Indy has struggled mightily against the run and he also wanted to keep Peyton Manning and the explosive Colts offense on the sidelines. But Indy sold out to stop the run last week against Tennessee and also was getting back safety Bob Sanders – their best run-stuffer.

Why run the no-huddle three weeks ago to prove a point against Denver, but play ultra-conservative against a secondary begging to be attacked? Belichick continuously stayed with draws and screens, which had some success, but ultimately played into a smaller, quicker Colts’ defense that flies around to the football. It’s mind-boggling.

Belichick and stone-hands Jabar Gaffney cost the Pats a victory last night because once again, the Colts weren’t too impressive and could have easily been had.

Perhaps no team in the history of the NFL needs their bye week more than the Dallas Cowboys do right now. After suffering a 35-14 blowout at the hands of division rival New York on Sunday, the Cowboys need to regroup before this season continues to slip away from them.

Brad Johnson was once again horrific while completing just 5 of 11 passes for 71 yards and two interceptions. Brooks Bollinger replaced him at halftime, who promptly threw an interception himself on his first pass attempt in the second half. Without the threat of the pass to beat them, the Giants loaded up against the run and stuffed Marion Barber, who only finished with 54 yards on the ground.

What’s worse for Dallas is that the defense that played so well against Tampa last Sunday disappeared again. The Cowboys surrendered 23 first downs, 319 total yards and 35 points. They certainly didn’t get any help from the offense, who constantly put them in poor field position all game, but still, the G-Men essentially did whatever they wanted.

Once again, the Cowboys are in serious trouble. The backup quarterback position remains unsettled and it’s not going to get any better until Tony Romo returns. The idea that Johnson could manage games and keep the team afloat until Romo was healthy again has blown up in their face and Wade Phillips continues to have no clue on how to fix the defense. Phillips better do something over the bye week or his seat will only continue to get hotter throughout the second half of the season.

No team, not even the Jaguars or Rams, played worse than the Oakland Raiders on Sunday. No team.

In the Falcons’ 24-0 win in Oakland, the Raiders managed just three first downs. Total. Three total first downs. They also mustered only 77 total yards, turned the ball over twice and held the ball for only 14 minutes and 45 seconds compared to the Falcons’ 45:15.

The Raiders finished with 10 passing yards. Ten passing yards…the entire game. At one point, JaMarcus Russell attempted a pass and threw the ball behind him like on those football follies videos.

This game was so bad that once Atlanta took a 24-0 lead with six minutes remaining in the second quarter, they ran out the rest of the game clock. Seriously, I don’t know if the Falcons felt bad for the Raiders or what, but they almost looked like they were purposely trying not to score.

Al Davis is getting what he deserves. He never allowed Lane Kiffin to run the team the way he wanted to and now he’s stuck with a team that clearly doesn’t want to play hard for Tom Cable.

How snake-bitten have the Kansas City Chiefs been this year? They just can’t catch a break despite playing hard the past couple weeks. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers overcame four turnovers and a 21-point deficit to beat the Chiefs 30-27 in overtime on Sunday.

The Chiefs rolled out to a 24-3 first half lead but the Bucs kept chipping away until they got within striking distance in the fourth quarter. Jeff Garcia hit Antonio Bryant on a 24-yard touchdown to cut KC’s lead to 27-25, then found Alex Smith between multiple defenders on a successful two point conversion to force overtime. Tampa then won the game on a Matt Bryant 34-yard field goal in OT.

For a team criticized for not being explosive enough offensively, the Bucs turned it up when they had to in this game. It was a gutsy performance by Garcia (339 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) and Tampa’s offense, which had to overcome an Earnest Graham fumble in the end zone late in the game that could have cost them the opportunity to win.

On a day when Monte Kiffin’s defense looked unusually bad, the Bucs’ offense stepped up big time.

The Tennessee Titans might be the most boring team in the NFL. But they’re also the best team in the NFL and remain undefeated on the season after beating the Green Bay Packers 19-16 in overtime at LP Field on Sunday.

As been the case all season, you look at the Titans’ game stats and nothing stands out. Kerry Collins only threw for 180 yards and zero touchdowns, but he also didn’t throw an interception. Rookie Chris Johnson scored a touchdown, but finished with a relatively quiet 89 yards on 24 carries. Tennessee’s defense allowed Aaron Rodgers to throw for 314 yards but only gave up 16 points and forced three turnovers.

This is exactly the way things have been all season for the Titans. This isn’t a flashy team and they’re not very impressive, but the bottom line is they get things done. They’ve also had to scratch and claw for every win this season because every week they’re in tight ballgames. But that will only serve them down the road when they get into dogfights late into the year and in the playoffs.

Almost every team in the NFL can match up with the Titans on paper. But as their record indicates, no team can figure them out this season.

The Buffalo Bills have been one of the more surprising teams this season, so it’s easy to forget how relatively young they still are. But their 26-17 loss to the Jets on Sunday is an example of how the Bills are starting to show their inexperience.

With the Bills up 7-3 early in the first quarter, Darrelle Revis stripped quarterback Trent Edwards, which New York eventually turned into a field goal. Edwards then drove Buffalo into the red zone on their next possession, but his pass intended for Roscoe Parrish was intercepted by A Elam and returned 92-yards for a touchdown.

The Bills never recovered after that as Brett Favre and Thomas Jones expanded on the lead and eventually walked away with a sound victory.

This was the second game in row where Edwards struggled with turnovers and it again cost the Bills a chance to build on their early season success. Edwards is a good young quarterback, but he has lapses in focus and the Bills will go nowhere this year until he stops being so careless with the football. He needs to rely more on the help around him and not try to do too much.

This was an impressive win for the Jets. They survived last week against Kansas City despite Favre’s brutal play and if they continue to get great defensive efforts like they did Sunday, there’s no reason to think that NY can’t continue to compete in the AFC East.

Chicago quarterback Kyle Orton was carted off the field at the end of the second quarter in the Bears’ 27-23 win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday. Lions’ defensive end Dewayne White fell on Orton on a scramble and the signal caller’s ankle snapped back awkwardly on the play.

It’s uncertain at this point how long Orton will be out, but the replays didn’t look good. Rex Grossman took over in the second half and threw for 58 yards and a touchdown while also running for a score as well. He wasn’t overly impressive, but he did rally Chicago from a 10-point deficit and allowed them to avoid embarrassment in losing to a winless Detroit team.

If Orton is out for an extended period of time, it would be a huge blow to the Bears’ postseason hopes. Grossman is a liability every time he drops back to pass and while he has shown signs of being an NFL-caliber quarterback, he’s just way too inconsistent to be counted on to lead Chicago to the playoffs, especially with the amount of injuries this team has on defense.

Speaking of Detroit, if they’re looking for a positive, Dan Orlovsky did throw for almost 300 yards and two touchdowns. Of course he did it against a banged up Bears’ secondary and did throw two costly picks but hey, the Lions have to take good news where they can get it.