$.01--In a weekend full of unexpected results, the biggest surprise to me was the ease of which the Giants hammered the Texans here in Houston. Like the rest of the area, I expected the Texans defense to be invigorated with the return of Brian Cushing. But the Houston offense came out flat and Cushing?s return did little to help the wretched Texans pass defense. Mario Williams disappeared once again, notching just one QB pressure and somehow getting credit for two tackles where he was the third defender on the pile. The Texans stubbornly clung to rushing just the front four and dropping the LBs into coverage, a strategy that clearly wasn?t working, until it was far too late. A lot of the credit deserves to go to the Giants coaching staff, who won most of these battles before the first shots were fired. OC Kevin Gilbride installed a set of plays that picked apart what just might be the worst secondary in NFL history, correctly ascertaining that 2-2 personnel (2 backs, 2 WRs) could get open and protect Manning capably. Tom Coughlin pushed the right buttons for the second week in a row with an inspired defensive front, which took over the game right away and completely muzzled Arian Foster. The Giants are a tough book to read; in their wins they?ve looked like Super Bowl material, in their losses they look like belong in the top-3 of the draft. I never expected them to come out and push around these Texans, who were not-so-quietly confident and appeared ready to print playoff tickets already. It was a harsh lesson for the Texans and a demonstration by the Giants that respect is forged over time and not overnight. $.02--Brave gamblers cleaned up if they had the cojones to bet on the Cardinals over the Saints. It seemed like the lead pipe lock to end all plumbers: defending Super Bowl champs with an aggressive defense facing an undrafted rookie QB behind a shaky OL, and the Cards defense surrendering 41 points and copious yardage a week earlier. There are a few things to take from this one: --Cards coach Ken Whisenhunt knew what he was doing in promoting Hall. The rookie wasn?t great but his teammates rallied around him, sensing he wasn?t going to lose the game for them. --Arizona still has a defense worthy of far more respect than they get nationally. It would help if they brought their ?A? game more often, but when they do the Arizona D is as dynamic as Baltimore?s or Pittsburgh?s, defenses on which they are modeled. --New Orleans misses Reggie Bush a lot more than his numerous critics could ever envision. It?s not just his ability to create with the ball in his hands. Bush forces defensive reactions, and without him the Saints lose a lot of flexibility and positioning advantages. --It helps to be lucky. Arizona fumbled four times, recovering all four and getting a TD and a long gain in the process. New Orleans lost a fumble that got returned for the game-winning TD, and committed 5 offensive penalties, all of which wiped out first downs. $.03--It?s getting awfully crowded in the Green Bay training room. Already down both starting ILBs and a starting safety for their game against Washington, the Packers saw pretty much every recognizable name on the roster that doesn?t play WR go down in the overtime loss. Aaron Rodgers (concussion), Jermichael Finley (knee), Donald Lee (shoulder), Clay Matthews (hamstring), and Ryan Pickett (ankle) all left the contest without returning, though Rodgers was injured on their final offensive play. The Pack can ill afford any more extended personnel losses, as RB Ryan Grant, LB Nick Barnett, and S Morgan Burnett are already lost for the year and CB Al Harris has yet to return from a blown out knee suffered in the playoffs. Green Bay cannot afford any sort of lost time to Rodgers or Matthews. Even though Rodgers has been woefully overrated by many commentators (too many INTs and not enough playoff wins for earning my unadulterated adoration), he?s the ringleader of a potent attack that is largely made possible by his arm and legs. Concussions and quarterbacks are always a dicey proposition, and we?ve all seen QBs that have rushed back too soon and not been up to their standards. That is exacerbated in Green Bay by the porous OL, which leaves Rodgers vulnerable to body-thumping hits, and by the lack of a legit ground attack to ease the pressure. Defensively, Matthews is the straw that stirs Dom Capers? drink, and with all the other normal starters already gone, that drink is tasting a lot more like happy hour well drinks than top shelf potent potables. At 3-2 they are still in the thick of the muddled NFC playoff mix, but their next four games before the bye are crucial. The ongoing rash of injuries threatens to make these games (MIA, MIN, @NYJ, DAL) that all figure to be fairly evenly matched contests into ugly attrition losses. They will not go better than 1-3 without all those bodies at full strength, and they won?t make the playoffs if they don?t win at least 2. $.04--Congratulations to my beloved Detroit Lions for breaking through in a huge way, annihilating the Rams 44-6 in a game that wasn?t that close. The catalyst was Stefan Logan?s 105 yard kickoff return that followed the Rams tying the score at 3, which revived the Ford Field crowd and answered what had been a miserable question for the Lions all year. Detroit?s D forced a quick 3-and-out on the next drive and the Lions really started rolling. It had to feel awesome for long-suffering Lions Jeff Backus and Dominic Raiola to be on the winning end of a mismatched blowout. Detroit was garnering respect for visible improvement but had nothing to show for it until Sunday, when everything finally clicked together. Getting Jahvid Best and Nate Burleson healthy finally provided the offense with real punch, and the OL played better than they have in years. Matt Stafford will return soon, and that should provide real substantive hope. The team has played generally well in his absence, and the Lions management deserves credit for upgrading the backup QB position with Shaun Hill. The veteran lacks Stafford?s big arm and charismatic presence, but Hill capably ran the short-handed offense and kept the team competitive. That builds confidence internally, something that has been in short supply in Detroit for a very long time. This is still a team that has some big holes (LB, OL depth, the secondary) and isn?t going to win more than 2-3 more games this year, but you can see and feel how the team is coming together and envision a legit shot at the playoffs in the near future. The fact that most fans, pundits, and other NFL teams don?t think that?s crazy anymore is an important step forward. $.05--Just when you thought it was safe to hand the AFC West title to the Chargers after the Colts put the previously undefeated Chiefs in their place in an early game, the Oakland Raiders pulled off a stunning late-afternoon upset. After pissing away an early 12-0 lead, the Raiders defense came up huge down the stretch. Well, as huge as any unit that got gashed for over 500 yards can possibly come up. Tyvon Branch?s clinching fumble return for a TD, set up by a great individual play from Michael Huff, capped off one of the more improbable victories of the season. Oakland has made a millennium of losing home games to division opponents, often in humiliating and excruciating fashion. They hadn?t beaten San Diego since 2003, and there was a palpable sense of ?here we go again? in the Black Hole. Oakland should revel in the win but not draw false positives from it. Much like they did in the Seattle loss, San Diego gave this one away with atrocious special teams and untimely mistakes. I?ve never been one to pile on Coach Norv Turner, but his inattention to such critical details has followed him from his Washington days. The Chargers surrendered two blocked punts in this game, just as they gave up two returns for TDs to Leon Washington two weeks ago. But Turner isn?t the only culpable person for these special teams problems. A decided lack of depth and the decision to let special teams ace Kassim Osgood depart fall squarely on GM AJ Smith. Having two prominent holdouts means unworthy players are bumped up the depth chart, and where that really shows up is on special teams, where the team now plays guys that normally wouldn?t be on the team. Somewhere Marty Schottenheimer, a guy who forged his career on special teams, is smiling broadly. $.06-- There is no way possible that David Carr could do any more damage to the 49ers than Alex Smith does as the starting QB. I was watching the Sunday Night game with my wife, who is no football novice but doesn?t know a lot of the personnel subtexts. She asked me a few times if Smith had ever played before and guffawed when I told her he was in his 6th season as a starter after being the #1 overall draft pick. The inexcusable fumble/TD where Smith fled a good pocket for no reason and then failed to throw the ball away should have been the last snap he ever takes in San Francisco. Smith?s complete inability to handle any sort of pressure is an abject lesson for all draftniks that there is far more to playing QB than being a great athlete with a good arm (Jake Locker fans are you listening?!). For Mike Singletary to hitch his wagon to Smith is career suicide, though I do think the fans chanting for Carr so enthusiastically probably convinced the steel-headed Singletary to keep Smith in just out of spite. No way should a team with that much talent be so hamstrung by Smith?s ineptness and continual failures at the most critical junctures. It?s even more frustrating when Smith comes back and flashes such talent like he did on the late TD drive, because it only fosters hope that will inevitably be shattered--just as they were on the pitiful INT that ended their chances. Trust me, I?m from Cleveland, the land of eternally crushed sporting hopes: it?s better to not be so talented but respected by the fans than it is to be so close to being great but failing in the clutch. $.07--I?m not normally a huge fan of all the pregame show chatter, but I thought Michael Strahan?s impassioned plea for teams to make trades was spot on. There are simply too many potential deals that haven?t been made that teams are going to regret. Strahan highlighted two: San Francisco being afraid to go after Donovan McNabb and Green Bay shying from Marshawn Lynch. There are some players that are in varying degrees of availability that have the potential to really help some contenders: Vincent Jackson, Mike Sims-Walker, Logan Mankins, Jerome Harrison. But the two that should be most intriguing are in Carolina: Steve Smith and DeAngelo Williams. The Panthers vehemently deny that either is available, but GM Marty Hurney would be wise to listen, especially on Williams, who will demand far more money this offseason than the Pittsburgh Pirates of the NFL will even consider paying him. Having three strong RBs (don?t forget Mike Woodson) is a luxury the Panthers simply must convert into something to help them pass for more than 150 yards, or stop the run outside the tackles, or have any realistic hope of winning a game. Make ?em an offer they cannot refuse! $.08--5 NFL quickies: 1. Not to beat this dying horse, but the Bengals lost once again because of Carson Palmer?s ineffectiveness at QB. Teams have figured out he simply cannot throw the downfield strike, and he continues to bounce shorter throws off the hands of his receivers and stare down his primary target. When listing team needs for CIN, it starts squarely at QB. 2. Best game I?ve seen from Vince Young from start to finish in a long time. It helps that the Dallas secondary was real rusty, but Young looked more comfortable than he has all year. He?s still not perfect, but on this team he doesn?t need to be. 3. I rip Mike Martz quite a bit, and I?m far from alone in that regard, but he dialed up a smart, opponent-specific game plan. Chicago won despite QB Todd Collins having one of the worst days in recent history, as Martz found a way to consistently get Matt Forte free. 4. Kudos to Colts RB Mike Hart for being the first Indy runner since Edgerrin James to run with power between the tackles. As my good friend Jason McIntyre has long insisted, Hart should be an ideal short yardage/3rd down back for the Colts, and Hart proved it today. The Colts would not have won without him. 5. In the Jaguars three wins, David Garrard is 49-for-63 with 8 TDs and 1 INT, and sacked three times. At least half the incompletions were deliberate throwaways, which makes those numbers even more impressive. In their two losses, the numbers are starkly different: 28-for-53, 1 TD and 5 INTs, and sacked 7 times. Up next is a toastable secondary but very strong pass rush from Tennessee in Jacksonville next Monday night in a battle for the division lead. $.09--5 college/draft (not so) quickies: I attended the Texas A&M/Arkansas game at Jerry?s Palace in Dallas (technically Arlington) as the guest of an NFL scout. There were at least 10 other scouts in attendance and I got to talk extensively with a couple for their impressions on all sorts of things. Here are 5 quick ones. For a more in-depth breakdown of the discussions, check back Wednesday! 1. Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett gets very similar evaluations to a couple of recent draftees now starting in the NFL: Chad Henne and Joe Flacco. Scouts were impressed with his more assertive leadership during this game, but he got knocked for some poor throwing decisions. On one play Mallett didn?t put any arc on a 25-yard corner and it got picked by a DB who was beaten by a good 5 yards. An easy throw with just a little more arc would have been a TD that would have salted the game much earlier. But his early red zone TD throw into a very tight window drew oohs and immense praise. 2. A pair of junior wideouts got a chance to show off as well. TAMU?s Jeff Fuller and the Razorbacks? Greg Childs are almost identical physically (both are 6?3? and in the 210-215 range) but they are used very differently. Childs spent his day running intermediate routes, often playing off TE DJ Williams much in the way the Colts use their #2 WR off Dallas Clark. He?s leggy in his routes and not real quick, but his hands are strong and he threw some great blocks all afternoon. Fuller showed much more downfield prowess, impressively changing speeds and using his shoulders to get position and separation. He reliably got open despite over/under LB/safety help coverage and even straight double-teaming. He doesn?t have the elite top-end gear of many likely draft peers, but he could really blossom under the radar if given a more reliable QB. Speaking of that QB, TAMU?s Jerrod Johnson once again looked undraftable with accuracy that makes Derek Anderson look like Chad Pennington and consistently poor decisions with the ball. 3. In a league chock full of future NFL wideouts, South Carolina?s Alshon Jeffery just might be the cream of the SEC crop. His one-handed stab while being held made all the highlight reels, but there is a surprising depth and completeness to his game. One scout favorably compared him to Terrell Owens, but Jeffery has little diva to him. He?s just a true sophomore, which means he won?t be in the 2011 draft, but he?s got Larry Fitzgerald-like Top 5 ability in 2012. Assuming there is still a draft... 4. Want to get scouts to argue? Just say two words: Marvin Austin. The suspended UNC DT has often been a man among boys on the field, looking a lot like Tommie Harris or Kevin Williams. But his on-field play was inconsistent, and he is embroiled in the mother of all eligibility controversies, which he hasn?t exactly handled as well as hoped. One NFC South scout suggested Austin would be better served to not play at all this season and frame himself as a Dez Bryant-like victim of overzealous NCAA authorities so that the holes in his game are diminished, but an AFC North scout told me ?if he doesn?t play we?re not interested?. That contrast in team attitudes towards character fascinates me, because the AFC North team in question sure could use Dez Bryant right about now. 5. Two players I haven?t spent much time on evaluating got very good buzz from scouts: Tulsa FB Charles Clay and Oklahoma State DE Ugo Chinasa. Clay can play FB, TE, RB, and is even getting action as a pass rushing DE, a la Connor Barwin. He?s not the freakish athlete that Barwin (2nd rounder in 09) was, but one scout told me Clay ?is a 5th round pick that will play for a decade and make your team better?. Chinasa is shedding his rep as an underachiever, apparently adding some base strength but also getting quicker. I have never seen much from him, but I?ll watch a little closer the rest of the way. $.10--Brett Favre once again muscled his way into the sporting news spotlight, once again in a less than positive light. His unfortunate sexting to a Jets employee has taken Favre?s reputation to a new low, and dragged sports talk radio right down the drain with it. I?ll avoid the easy targets and shame (ful?)less cheap shots of so many and focus on something a little more serious here. What Favre did--and make no mistake he did it--is reprehensible conduct in the workplace. In almost any other line of work he would be terminated immediately without a second thought. Go ahead, I dare you to take pictures of your genitals and suggestively send them to a coworker of the opposite sex. This isn?t 1958 anymore; there are very strict laws against this sort of lewdness in the workplace. I know most of you guys think that?s probably too severe, but imagine if that woman getting lewd advances was your wife, or daughter, or mother. Them?s fightin? words if that ever happens to any of my kin (sorry folks, I?m adapting to Texas quickly!), whether you are Brett Favre or my 14-year old paperboy. The NFL just suspended Big Ben for (allegedly) very similar actions that took place well away from the workplace. If Favre doesn?t get at least two games for this, Roger Goodell?s favoritism shines through and his Judge Landis-like arbitration of personal conduct penalties is a disgraceful joke. Jeff.Risdon@RealGM.com