$.01--For the third Detroit Lions' game in a row, I had to have my cardiologist on speed dial. And for the third time, Detroit pulled out a thrilling comeback victory in the game’s final minute. This time they upended a very solid Miami Dolphins team 20-16 when Matthew Stafford (don’t call him Matt) found Theo Riddick from 11 yards out.

This win answered a lot of lingering doubts about Detroit. Miami came in red hot, smoking the Chargers 37-0 last week and winning four of five. In a battle of the top two defenses in the league entering the week, Detroit’s proved far superior.

It started from the get go. Miami lost yards on four of its first six plays, as Ndamukong Suh and Ezekiel Ansah terrorized the Dolphins line and QB Ryan Tannehill. Miami finished with 50 rushing yards on 19 carries, one of which was a nifty Damian Williams run for 19 yards. Seven different Lions hit Tannehill, as Detroit registered seven tackles for loss and broke up 5 passes.

Detroit’s offense found some vitality with the return of Calvin Johnson. Megatron erupted for 113 yards on seven catches in his first game in a month, including a 49-yard TD and a juggling fourth-down catch to keep the Lions alive. Stafford had a strong game, efficiently producing 280 yards on 25 completions and peppering in several smart throwaways.

Once again, the Lions were preternaturally calm when the pressure was highest. They are doing a great job of emulating last year’s Colts, finding ways to win with improbable comebacks. Stafford is even outdoing Andrew Luck’s impressive heroics; he’s the first QB to ever lead three consecutive last-minute comebacks in a row. The difference is the Lions continue to have an outstanding defense.

Now the Lions are 7-2 for the first time since 1993. This is definitively no longer the Same Old Lions. He won’t win, but Jim Caldwell deserves strong consideration for Coach of the Year for getting this talented but enigmatic group to play to its considerable potential and win games they’ve made a habit of blowing for years and painful years.

$.02--The NFC North quickly became a two-team race on Sunday night. The Green Bay Packers annihilated the Chicago Bears 55-14 in a game that truly was not that close.

The Packers led 42-0 at halftime thanks to six Aaron Rodgers touchdown passes. In the first half. He found Jordy Nelson completely uncovered for the signature TD, a 73-yard pitch and catch behind a hapless Bears defense. Jay Cutler, on the other hand, had to rifle several throws away under heavy pressure. Two of those wound up in Packers hands, the later one a pick-six. Chicago actually ran the ensuing kickoff back for a touchdown to narrow the margin to the final score.

The Bears became the first team in the modern era to allow 50+ points in consecutive games. As bad as the defense is, the offense is little better and perhaps even more disappointing. Jay Cutler continues to have issues with pressure behind a leaky line. He’s frequently not on the same page as stud wideouts Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery, which was painfully evident in this game.

The fall guy is likely to be Bears head coach Marc Trestman, a man I like very much. He’s a brilliant offensive schemer and had great success in the CFL, but running the whole show in the NFL is proving too much for Trestman. While many of us probably overestimated their talent level, there is no excuse for this team to be this awful. Other teams find ways to help out terrible safeties like Chicago has, or hideous right sides of the offensive line like Chicago has, or clueless linebackers like Chicago has. Their coaches are not making them any better, and that’s something that has to change before any improvement can come in the Windy City.

$.03--The Cleveland Browns are 6-3. I’ll let that sink in for a second or two…

Cleveland clocked Cincinnati 24-3 in the Thursday night game, picking up its first divisional road win since before Barack Obama was elected President. The Browns went old school on the Bengals, running the ball a stunning 52 times on a windy night in Paul Brown Stadium. Brian Hoyer didn’t make any mistakes and hit some big throws to Gary Barnidge and Miles Austin, efficiently spicing up the sledgehammer rushing attack.

On the flip side, Andy Dalton’s night was one big mistake after another. Dalton completed 10 of his 33 passes to Bengals and 3 to Browns. Cleveland dropped two others. How bad was Dalton?

His QB Rating of 2.0 is comically awful. Johnny Manziel registered a QB Rating of 39.3…and he didn’t play. The Bengals had 14 drives in the game, one of which netted more than 25 yards. Cleveland’s defense was solid but not doing anything great; Dalton simply stunk as badly as any quarterback you will ever see on any night.

The Browns will take it. The win moved them into first place in the AFC North, the latest they’ve been in that position since 1994. Their 6th win in just 9 games tops any season win total since 2007, the year of Derek Anderson’s freakish greatness. Their style translates well to the impending winter weather, too. As crazy as it might seem, these Browns could stick around a lot longer than expected.

$.04--One of the reasons the Browns are in first is the Pittsburgh Steelers' unmitigated disaster of a game against the lowly New York Jets. Rex Ryan’s Jets had not won since the opening weekend, looking progressively more inept (grammatical tangent--why is inept a word but ept is not? How can you be inept if you cannot be ept?) every week. Some fan with way too much money even hired a plane to fly over Jets practice with the banner “Fire John Idzik”, the team’s embattled general manager.

The ineptitude shifted to Pittsburgh in this one. Two Antonio Brown first-half fumbles facilitated New York surging out to a 17-0 early lead. Two Jaiquawn Jarrett interceptions helped stymie the Pittsburgh comeback, not bad for a guy who doesn’t normally play and had no prior picks in his first three seasons. All the momentum from Ben Roethlisberger’s 12 TDs over the last two weeks washed away in a sea of turnovers, bad special teams and a steady barrage of solid Jets running.

Once again, Mike Tomlin did not have his team ready to play. This keeps happening to Pittsburgh more frequently than it should. Sure, they’re still 6-4 and firmly in the AFC playoff picture. But when they’re bad, they’re astonishingly bad. They’re the only team to lose to Tampa Bay, and now they’ve lost to 2-8 New York. The other two losses were blowouts in Baltimore and Cleveland, their two biggest rivals. It’s hard to take these Steelers seriously when they’re so terrible in 40% of their games.

As for the Jets, I like Rex Ryan’s postgame comments. Everything gets a little better after a win, but it’s smart to not get too carried away. Pittsburgh lost this game far more than New York won it, though Mike Vick played decently at QB and the defense finally created some turnovers. There aren’t many (any?) more wins on the schedule, so relish this one, Jets fans.

$.05--The Arizona Cardinals locked up quarterback Carson Palmer to a shiny new 3-year, $50M contract extension, with $20.5M guaranteed and an average salary of just over $16M. It’s a nice reward for the 34-year-old Palmer, now in the middle of his second season in the desert. He’s an ideal fit for Head Coach Bruce Arians’ vertical offense, and he entered the weekend as the highest-rated passer on third downs. That’s no small part of the reason why the Cardinals hold the league’s best record.

The early return on investment is not pretty. Even though the Cardinals vanquished the visiting Rams 31-14, Palmer suffered what appears to be a significant knee injury.

The fiduciary hit is probably a lot worse than the impact on the field. While Palmer has been very good, the dropoff to backup Drew Stanton isn’t as dramatic as it might appear. Stanton has much better mobility and proved he too can uncork the deep ball. His bomb to rookie dynamo John Brown looked eerily reminiscent of a Palmer pass. The key for Stanton going forward is to limit the mistakes and to complete the easy passes. His accuracy has always been an issue, just 53.5% in his career and below 50% in three starts earlier this year when Palmer was out for an unrelated injury.

His first test is a formidable one: Detroit and the Lions’ top-ranked defense. His task is to not lose the games for an opportunistic defense and a supporting cast of real playmakers. If Stanton can do that it will help ease the pain of paying Palmer all that cash just before suffering what could very well be a career-ending injury. 

$.06--Just when I thought it was safe to write off the San Francisco 49ers, they go and pull out a dramatic overtime win against the New Orleans Saints in the hostile Superdome. Sitting at 4-4 with a must-win game at a place where the home team rarely loses, the Niners accomplished their mission.

It was not easy.

New Orleans took the lead with under two minutes left when Drew Brees found Jimmy Graham. Just like that, the script was true to form. The injury-ravaged Niners put up a good fight but just couldn’t hang on. Except the story took an unexpected plot twist, courtesy of a gutsy fourth-down bomb from a distressed Colin Kaepernick to a diving Michael Crabtree. That led to a Phil Dawson field goal to tie the game, but the Saints still had over 40 seconds to author the dramatic victory.

It looked like they had it, too. Brees lofted a beaut of a Hail Mary, and Graham came down with it in the end zone as time expired. The only problem was Graham pushed off and was flagged for pass interference. While many question the call, it was an obvious infraction--especially in light of an earlier OPI call on San Francisco’s Anquan Boldin for much less of a push-off. Onto overtime.

After the teams traded punts, San Francisco’s defense stepped up. Rookie linebacker Chris Borland, playing for injured star Patrick Willis, capped off one heck of a day (17 tackles!) by recovering a Brees fumble forced by a great pass rush from Ahmad Brooks. Coach Jim Harbaugh didn’t waste any time, sending out Dawson to kick the game-winner on first down.

Instead of falling to 4-5 and well off the Wild Card pace, the Niners perhaps salvaged their season. While they’re still two games behind Dallas and one back of Green Bay and Seattle in the playoff race they do have a chance to get on a run here. They have winnable games at the Giants and home for the Raiders in the next two weeks before a showdown with Seattle that sure looks like a playoff elimination game.

The Saints are 4-5, yet their playoff hopes still look pretty strong. If the Eagles beat the Panthers--as expected--on Monday night, the NFC South remains the property of New Orleans. They have home games with slumping Cincinnati and inconsistent Baltimore in the next two weeks, good chances to get on the right side of .500. None of its final four opponents (CAR, CHI, ATL, TB) has more than 3 wins.

$.07--One of the more interesting aspects of progressing as a football writer is that I now get to vote on a lot of awards. Though I’m not a Heisman voter, I do have ballots for several NCAA awards. I also voted this week for the College Football Hall of Fame, an honor and responsibility I take quite seriously.

Voters could select up to 11 candidates out of 75 former players. I am old enough to have seen all but a handful play, and with apologies to Jim Otis, Jackie Walker and Bob McKay I eliminated those from consideration.

The 11 I chose were, in alphabetical order:

Brian Bosworth, LB, Oklahoma. C’mon, it’s the Boz! He was arguably the most recognizable college football player of the entire 1980s. Even though his NFL career was an injury-ravaged bust, as a Sooner he was the guy every linebacker wanted to be.

Jerome Brown, DT, Miami. A whale of a disruptive talent with the big personality that helped lay the foundation for the greatness of The U. I was young but remember him dominating in big games.

Keith Byars, RB, Ohio State. I was lucky enough to be at the game against Illinois where he ran out of his shoe on his way to a long TD. He scored five that day, and he remains the best blocking and receiving running back I’ve ever seen in person.

Tom Cousineau, LB, Ohio State. He was a Buckeyes star when I was just learning about football by going to Ohio State games with my dad. It’s a bit of a self-serving vote, but he was good enough to be a two-time consensus All-American.

Troy Davis, RB, Iowa State. The Cyclones were a doormat in the early 90s, so for Davis to be the first player to ever break 2,000 yards rushing twice, that says a lot about how awesome he was.

Eric Dickerson, RB, SMU. His high-striding gallop for those amazing, corrupt Mustang teams is one of the lasting college football memories of my childhood. I loved that he wore glasses while he ran, too.

Jumbo Elliott, T, Michigan. Elliott was one of the first dominant offensive tackles I remember, blasting open holes and intimidating defensive linemen.

Tony Franklin, K, Texas A&M. Still the only kicker to ever make two field goals from 60+ yards in a game, and I remember watching his 63-yarder in the Sun Bowl against Florida vividly. Did it barefoot, too.

Ray Lewis, LB, Miami. Just as Bosworth defined his position in the 80s, Lewis did that in the 90s. The “fame” part of the Hall of Fame requires Lewis’ presence.

Simeon Rice, LB, Illinois. Arguably the best pass rushing collegian of the last 25 years. Still holds the B1G record for sacks and tackles for loss.

Ricky Williams, RB, Texas. Won a Heisman while on his way to setting the NCAA record for rushing yards, and did so with panache as a runner.

It was hard to choose. Some of the guys I didn’t vote for include Warren Sapp, Steve Wisniewski, Lorenzo White, Rocket Ismail, Tim Dwight and Kirk Gibson.

On the coaching front, I voted for Kansas State’s Bill Snyder. 

$.08--NFL Quickies

--Justin Forsett ran for over 100 yards for Baltimore, helping lead the Ravens to a 21-7 win over the lifeless Titans. He’s now averaging over 5.5 yards per carry for a Ravens team that has struggled to run for a couple of years. To think that the 2012 Houston Texans had a RB corps of Arian Foster, Ben Tate and Forsett. That’s a lot of talent in one backfield.

--I know Dallas really needed a win, and the London fans wanted to see teams at their best, but there is no way I would have played Tony Romo if I were Cowboys coach Jason Garrett. The QB with the broken back played quite well in leading Dallas over 1-9 Jacksonville, but it still wasn’t worth the risk.

Side note: at what point will all the offseason praise heaped upon the supposedly improving Jaguars evaporate in lieu of Jacksonville still being an absolutely terrible football team?

--From the NFL Network, the AFC North is the first division to have all its members above .500 after 9 games since the 1935 Western Division. I decided to look that up at Pro Football Reference. The Detroit Lions finished 7-3-2, one of three Western teams finishing with two ties. They beat the Giants for their first NFL championship that year.

--CBS committed a terrible gaffe in mistakenly airing Ravens coach John Harbaugh’s postgame address to his team, in which he ripped the rival Steelers. It’s nice of CBS to apologize, but that doesn’t put toothpaste back in the tube.

--Seattle ran for 350 yards on 45 carries in their 38-17 romp over the Giants. The Lions have not given up 350 rushing yards in any four-game stretch this season. It almost doesn’t seem possible New York’s run D can be that bad.

--If you haven’t seen it, google Brent Grimes one-handed interception in the end zone. It’s one of the most impressive catches you’ll ever see.

$.09--College/Draft Quickies

I’m planning on doing a draft piece later this week, so for now here’s a quick mock draft for the first 10 spots with the current draft order:

1. Oakland--Leonard Williams, DT, USC

2. Jacksonville--Randy Gregory, Edge, Nebraska

3. Tampa Bay--Marcus Mariota, QB, Oregon

4. New York Jets--Connor Cook, QB, Michigan State

5. Tennessee--Jameis Winston, QB, Florida State

6. Atlanta--Vic Beasley, Edge, Clemson

7. Washington--Landon Collins, S, Alabama

8. Chicago--Shawn Oakman, DE, Baylor

9. New York Giants--Andrus Peat, T, Stanford

10. St. Louis--Amari Cooper, WR, Alabama

$.10--The season of political ads is finally over! Tuesday’s election brought a hasty conclusion to the saturated overkill of one person or group speaking badly about another, using twisted logic and providing no context for the unmitigated assaults.

If you’re like me, you probably found at least a few ads that genuinely offended your good sense. Here in Michigan we had opposing sides flinging circumstantial poo at one another in a gubernatorial race between incumbent Rick Snyder and challenger Mark Schauer. One side claimed--factually--that Snyder cut over a billion dollars in school funding. The other side countered--also factually--that education expenditures actually increased by a billion dollars. (For more on this debate read here).

I’m reminded of a line from a song by one of my favorite bands, Queensryche. In Revolution Calling, Geoff Tate angrily asks, “Who do you trust when everyone’s a crook?” Good question, Mr. Tate.

For the vast majority of us residing in the middle of the political spectrum, this election was downright depressing. The Republican’s essential strategy was to proclaim “We know you hate Obama so vote for us to punish him”. Democrats countered with “You might think Obama is bad but the alternative is even worse”. Those aren’t platform which engender much confidence or goodwill. They make us loathe you both even more.

How about telling us what you can do for us? Give me a legitimate reason to vote for you other than “I’m better than the jackass I’m running against”. Don’t speak in broad platitudes, either. How are you going to lower taxes, or fix our embarrassingly dilapidated water, sewer and power infrastructures? Tell me about how you personally would handle border security, or the threat of invasive species, or fixing college funding? Heck, take a discernible position on public funding for sports venues or the criminal hypocrisy of the NCAA!

Hopefully these are the lessons the micromanagers and internal pollsters learn from this midterm election. I won’t hold my breath on that, though.