So Michael Vick slipped a little on Tuesday night, which makes us feel better about keeping Tommy Brady (as Charlie Weis calls him) in the top spot.

1. Tom Brady, New England Patriots—Amazingly, Brady has thrown for an NFL record 319 pass attempts without an interception, going back to Week 6. So let’s review—3701 yards, 34 TDs (NFL high) and just 4 picks, and his team is 13-2 and in the fast lane in the AFC. Damn.

2. Michael Vick, Philadelphia Eagles—Look, we can’t disregard what Vick has done this season, because it’s phenomenal. But he looked mortal against the Vikings, and also for 52 minutes against the Giants before that.

3. Matt Cassel/Jamaal Charles/Dwayne Bowe, Kansas City Chiefs—This trio has led the Chiefs to the AFC West crown. Cassel has 27 TDs to 5 picks/Jamaal has 1835 all-purpose yards and Bowe leads all NFL receivers with 15 TDs. The league won’t view this as one person, but that doesn’t mean we can’t.

4. Drew Brees, New Orleans Saints—What, did you think the Saints were just going to go away? Not with this guy leading the team. But the 21 picks may hurt him in the voting.

5. Arian Foster, Houston Texans—This kid is just a beast week-in and week-out.

6. Matt Ryan/Roddy White, Atlanta Falcons—Sure, the Falcons are impressive, especially some of the late-game heroics, but losing at home to Saints hurt.

7. Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers—Rodgers admitted that sitting out with a concussion allowed him to come back fresh in Week 16—to the tune of 404 yards and 4 TDs.

8. Clay Matthews, Green Bay Packers—Do you get the feeling you have to account for this dude as if he were Lawrence Taylor?

9. Donte Whitner, Buffalo Bills—136 total tackles (92 solo) with a sack, an interception, a forced fumble and 7 passes defensed. I know the Bills suck, but Whitner is a one-man wrecking crew.

10. Peyton Manning, Indianapolis Colts—Look who’s back, and he even showed he can run—in slow motion, but he can run.

I’ll be the first to admit that I thought the Chiefs would have collapsed by now and the Chargers would have overtaken the top spot in the AFC West. Kansas City has been in control of the division for most of the year but I’ve patiently waited for disaster to strike.

But it hasn’t. Perhaps I should have considered that their win over the Chargers in Week 1 wasn’t a fluke and this team is for real. But I didn’t. And they are.

Matt Cassel was brilliant in the Chiefs’ 34-14 win over the Titans on Sunday. He completed 24-of-34 passes for 314 yards and three touchdowns, all while showing no ill effects from the appendectomy surgery he had three weeks ago. It’s amazing to think that at the start of the year, many people believed KC would have to search for a new quarterback in 2011 and now it appears that the Chiefs will only go as far as he takes them. Understandably, it took a while for him to get comfortable in Charlie Weis’ system but now that he is, the skies the limit for both him and KC. (It also doesn’t hurt that he has a couple of great weapons around him in Jamaal Charles and Dwayne Bowe).

Granted, things could still turn sour for KC next week and seeing as how I have deemed them “for real,” the jinx has probably been set.

But as of this writing, the Chargers are losing at halftime to the Bengals, so it looks like the Chiefs are in good shape. If Cincinnati holds on, KC would win the AFC West for the first time since 2003. If San Diego mounts a comeback and wins, then the Chiefs would have to beat the Raiders next week or have San Diego lose at Denver.

Let’s assume for a second that the Chiefs do win the division and wrap up the No. 3 seed in the AFC. How far could this team go? Well, given how bad the Jets’ (who will have the No. 6 seed) defense has looked in recent weeks, it’s not a stretch to think that KC would move to the Divisional Round of the playoffs. And then, who knows? Nobody outside of the Patriots looks indestructible in the AFC so there’s a chance that this pesky Chiefs team could be the dark horse of the conference.

But first things first: they need to get in and then they can worry about seeding and opponents. Either way, the Chiefs continue to make noise.

“This series is brought to you by T.G.I. Friday’s, where every Sunday means Food, Fun & Football! Hut, hut, hut!”

The Scores Report has teamed up with T.G.I Friday’s to promote the action in Week 15 of the NFL. Here’s a look at Sunday’s top games.

The Top-5 Games of Week 15:

Eagles (9-4) @ Giants (9-4), 1:00PM ET
It’s gut-check time for Eli Manning. The Giants’ defense is playing extremely well of late and their running game is picking up major steam. But Manning has been terribly inconsistent this year and has reverted back to some old habits (i.e. throwing off his back foot, releasing the ball late, etc.). The Giants are averaging –0.2 turnovers per game this year and that’s a trend that will have to halt over these next three weeks if they don’t want to miss the playoffs. On the other side, the Eagles must figure out how to better protect Michael Vick because he’s taking too many hits. The Giants’ front four will be relentless on Sunday, just as they were in Philadelphia a couple of weeks ago. The winner of this game holds its own destiny in the race for the NFC East crown.

Jaguars (8-5) @ Colts (7-6), 1:00PM ET
One would have thought the records for these two teams would be reversed when they met in Week 15. And actually, nobody expected the Jaguars to have eight wins at this point and the Colts to have six losses but here we are. The Jags are in control of their own destiny in the AFC South. If they can beat Indy on Sunday, they’ll win the division and then they can use these next two weeks to try and gain better playoff positioning in the AFC. If they lose, then the division will be flipped on its head and then it becomes a foot race over the next two weeks. In terms of a game plan, you couldn’t find two teams more on the opposite side of the spectrum. The Colts want Peyton Manning to take advantage of Jacksonville’s vulnerable secondary, while the Jags will run Maurice Jones-Drew at the soft interior of Indy’s defensive line. But if the Colts jump out early, will they force the Jags to throw?

Saints (10-3) @ Ravens (9-4), 1:00PM ET
Both of these teams are expected to make the playoffs but that doesn’t make this game any less meaningful. The Saints are still one game behind the Falcons in the NFC South and the Ravens are one game behind the Steelers in the AFC North. Baltimore would love to prove that Houston’s fourth quarter rally on Monday night was a product of a complacent offense and a tired defense, but you know Drew Brees and Sean Payton will attack the Ravens’ secondary early and often. Baltimore needs to get Ray Rice and its running game going in order to leave Brees and the Saints’ explosive offense on the sidelines. Even though Joe Flacco has posted good numbers this season, the Ravens don’t want to turn this game into a track meet because they’ll lose. We should find out a lot about these two teams on Sunday.

Jets (9-4) @ Steelers (10-3), 4:15 PM ET
Nobody expects Matt Flynn to beat the Patriots on Sunday night so there’s not much sense talking about that game. Plus, the Jets-Steelers matchup offers more storylines anyway. Can Mark Sanchez reclaim the confidence that he’s lost over the past couple of weeks? How will Troy Polamalu’s injury affect a Pittsburgh defense that has played lights out recently? Can the Jets’ defense drum up enough of a pass rush to take advantage of a thin Steelers’ O-line? Can Ben Roethlisberger continue to play well despite having broken bones in his foot? One would expect the Steelers to roll this weekend but more than likely, this is going to be the best defensive matchup on the Week 15 schedule.

Chiefs (8-5) @ Rams (6-7), 1:00PM ET
The Chiefs are still in first place in the AFC West but with the Chargers winning on Thursday night, their margin for error is now razor thin. The Rams were helped by the 49ers losing and could be helped even more with a win and a Seahawks’ (vs. Falcons) loss. But Sam Bradford and Co. need the win first. Matt Cassel is expected to play after missing last week due to an appendectomy and he couldn’t come back a moment sooner. Kansas City was shut out last weekend at San Diego and will need their offense to find its balance again. Jamaal Charles is an emerging star but he needs Cassel and the passing game to help take the pressure off his shoulders. The Rams have been tough at the Edward Jones Dome this year, winning four of their six games at home. They’ll look to take advantage of a Chiefs team that is just 2-5 on the road this season.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Chiefs and running back Jamaal Charles have agreed to a five-year, $32.5 million contract with $13 million guaranteed. Charles’ 1,137 rushing yards this season tie him with Chris Johnson and rank him third behind Arian Foster and Maurice Jones-Drew for most rushing yards in the NFL.

The new deal works for both sides, as the Chiefs lock up one of the league’s most dangerous runners and Charles is now able to hit free agency at 28 (two years before the dreaded age of 30 for running backs). Now the Chiefs can turn their attention to locking up outside linebacker Tamba Hali, who is an impeding free agent.

In other Kansas City-related news, quarterback Matt Cassel is listed as doubtful for Week 14. That means Brodie Croyle will start under center for the Chiefs in their important battle with division rival San Diego on Sunday. Croyle hasn’t seen action since Week 13 of last season.

The RBBC in Kansas City has been a hot topic for debate in the world of fantasy football. Actually, no it hasn’t. Fantasy owners are pretty much united in the belief that Jamaal Charles is the best, most explosive running back in Kansas City, yet Thomas Jones continues to start and eat into Charles’ fantasy production. Head coach Todd Haley is nothing if not stubborn (most NFL coaches are), so we weren’t going to see him tinker with what was ‘working.’

Now with the Chiefs’ loss to the Colts on Sunday, will we finally see the 60/40 or 65/35 (Charles/TJ) split that we were expecting when we drafted Charles in the 2nd, 3rd or even 4th round this summer?

The signs are encouraging and discouraging at the same time.

On one hand, Charles got 16 carries (for 87 yards, a 5.4 ypc average) to TJ’s eight (for 19 yards, 2.4 ypc). Charles was also targeted six times in the passing game (3-14), so he received 19 touches to Jones’s eight.

But what’s worrisome is that even after an 11-carry, 66-yard first half, Jones still started the third quarter. On the Chiefs’ first drive in the quarter, he had a 3-yard carry followed by a 6-yard carry before being stuffed for a 2-yard loss on a 3rd-and-1.

Time to punt.

At this point, Jones had 22 yards on six carries, which isn’t great, but it isn’t terrible either. (Charles was averaging 6.0 ypc at this point, so the disparity was clear.) On the Chiefs’ next drive, Charles rattled off carries of 14-yards and 7-yards before being pulled on a 2nd-and-5 from the Colts’ 12-yard line. Jones got the carry and lost five yards. One incomplete pass to Dwayne Bowe later and the Chiefs had to kick the field goal.

Charles played most of the rest of the way, but the Chiefs started throwing the ball more. In the final quarter, Charles had 11 yards on four carries along with two catches for 11 yards. Jones had one carry for two yards.

It appears that Haley realizes Charles is the better back, but he simply refuses to start him. This gives Jones an opportunity to get going early, and if he does have success on that first drive in each half, he’ll continue to vulture more carries from the Chiefs’ best offensive player.

They say that it doesn’t really matter who starts, but whoever is given the first opportunity is given the first opportunity to succeed. If Jones gets the running game going early, then Charles isn’t going to see as many carries over the course of the game. If Charles were starting, he’d have the first crack (and at 6.5 ypc, he probably wouldn’t give up the ball). And it’s not like Charles hasn’t proven he can carry the load. Over the last eight games of the 2009 season, he averaged 23 touches for 141 yards. With Jones on the roster, there’s no need to wear Charles down, but 18-20 touches is a good blueprint for offensive success.

In that respect, this week’s game is a good sign for Charles owners. But Thomas Jones is still the starter in Kansas City.