Sure, it cost the Steelers 15 yards, but safety Ryan Clark had one of the biggest hits we've ever seen on Sunday, laying out Patriots receiver Wes Welker. We mentioned the hit in Sunday's Best, but here's the footage:

Colts 10, Browns 6

The Colts have been playing good football for quite a stretch, but they once again got a little lucky on Sunday. Sure, they deserved this one more than the Browns, who have now scored a total of 12 points in their last two home games, but Indy was sluggish in Cleveland, and might not have left town with a win if not for Robert Mathis’ touchdown off a fumble recovery.

With a healthy Brady Quinn, the Browns pull off the upset Sunday.

Panthers 35, Panthers 31

If the Colts are getting a lot of breaks, karma is balancing itself out with the Packers, who have now lost four games this season by four points or less. Green Bay fell behind early, and simply wasn’t able to complete the comeback. The Panthers didn’t really play that well at Lambeau, but the Packers just couldn’t get the job done.

Steelers 33, Patriots 10

There were a lot of great things to take away from this one if you’re a Pittsburgh fan, but the highlight of the game, by far, was Ryan Clark’s jaw-dropping hit on Wes Welker. Unfortunately, Welker didn’t have the ball and a flag was thrown, meaning one of the biggest hits we’ve ever seen won’t get as much pub as one like that would under normal circumstances.

49ers 10, Bills 3

How do the Bills muster only three measly points against a bad San Francisco defence, at home, only a week after scoring 54 in Kansas City? There’s no excuse for a loss like that, especially when the running game was really starting to roll.

One positive thing from this gloomy game: Patrick Willis and Justin Smith both had great games for the 49ers, who proved they may have a brighter future on defence than what is expected.

Buccaneers 23, Saints 20

Jeff Garcia struggled badly against the league’s worst defence. That’s a bad sign. The Bucs still won the game. That’s a good sign. This one went exactly as expected, but Tampa’s passing game will have to be better than that if this team wants to make a run.

Falcons 22, Chargers 16

Rookie Matt Ryan, on the road, against a team that last year was in the AFC Championship Game, in a city where road teams go to die: 17-for-23, 207 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, no fumbles, no sacks allowed, and a win.

Watch out, Dan Marino. Not only is your single-season passing yards mark under fire, but so is your status as the best rookie quarterback of all time.

Broncos 34, Jets 17

These Broncos have to be giving Vegas absolute fits. One week, you get crushed by the worst team in the AFC at home. The next week, you crush the best team in the AFC on the road. Are you good or bad? Pick a damn side!

Giants 23, Redskins 7

The Giants proved our point that they don’t need Plaxico Burress to be successful on offence. In fact, Eli Manning and the passing game was once again the key on Sunday, as New York piled up 305 yards through the air while Brandon Jacobs was held in check most of the day.

Ravens 34, Bengals 3

Joe Flacco continues to prove that he has the ability to help this Ravens team make a January run. Flacco has been pick-less in six of his last seven games and the offence continues to role, no matter who’s at running back.

Remember when these guys were boring? John Harbaugh has mixed things up and taken more chances than Brian Billick ever did, and it has paid off. Just ask Mark Clayton.

We plan to take a closer look at Baltimore’s offensive revival in Rear-View Monday.

Dolphins 16, Rams 12

See the difference Steven Jackson makes? Sure, the Rams lost again Sunday, but they were significantly more competitive with their best player in the lineup. Jackson didn’t score, but he at least gave St. Louis a new tool.

It was Marc Bulger who let the Rams down on this day.

Chiefs 20, Raiders 13

They kept coming close, but the Chiefs finally have their first win since week 4. In fact that’s their first road win since Oct. 21, 2007.

Guess where that win came …

If it’s possible to go uphill after winning the Super Bowl, the New York Giants have done just that. The 2008 season has been a fairytale follow-up to their XLII upset of the New England Patriots. Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning have to think they’ve been dreaming.

For Plaxico Burress, it’s been a nightmare.

Burress was considered one of the most important members of the 2007 Giants. Most would bet that New York wouldn’t have won the Super Bowl without their top receiver.

Which is why it’s been so surprising to see the G-men have so much success in ’08, in spite of Burress’ unsatisfactory contributions. He caused problems early in the season with constant fines and missed meetings, before the team suspended him for its week 5 meeting with Seattle.

The Giants compiled 267 passing yards in a 44-6 victory.

The team then sat Burress for a good chunk of its week 8 matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Giants won again, on the road, against one of the AFC’s best teams.

Burress missed almost the entirety of last week’s game against Arizona.

They also won that one, again on the road, and with 240 passing yards to boot.

Burress had already been ruled out of Sunday’s game against the Washington Redskins with a hamstring injury. Now, after somehow shooting himself at a Manhattan nightclub, Plax could be out indefinitely.

And although Yahoo! Sports is reporting that Burress could be recovered from the gunshot wound within “a couple of weeks,” there are more variables to factor in here.

Did Burress have a permit to carry that handgun? And why was he in a place or situation that required him to have a gun in the first place?

In other words, his body could recover before the red tape is removed. The NFL will surely have something to say about what happened Friday night.

Accidental or not, who the hell shoots themselves? How do you get into a situation like that? Who knows what the investigation will show, but who cares?

Domenik Hixon, Kevin Boss, Steve Smith and Amani Toomer are able to get the job done in Burress’ stead. The Giants can’t rely on Burress anymore, because he keeps letting them down off the field.

The Giants are the ultimate system team.

Everyone thought they’d take a step backward when Tiki Barber retired, and they went on to win the Super Bowl without missing a beat in the running game.

Jeremy Shockey left. No tears were shed.

In the offseason, Osi Umenyiora went down for the year and Michael Strahan retired. Still, only five teams have more sacks than the G-men this year.

No Burress? No problem.

Let’s pick…

Thursday: 2-1 (1-2-0 against the spread)
Last week: 12-4 (11-4-1 against the spread)
Season record: 109-65-1 (79-79-17 against the spread)

The injury bug has hit the Bills a bit, which is why they’re only a six-point favourite at home against the 49ers. Still, teams that travel three hours eastward still haven’t won a game this year… Buffalo 24, San Francisco 17

Baltimore’s putting teams away like never before. The Ravens have outscored their opponents 77-0 in the fourth quarter of their last five wins. Cincinnati’s playing better lately, but we still expect the Ravens to run all over the Bengals’ 24^th-ranked run D… Baltimore 27, Cincinnati 14

Peyton Manning and the Colts are really starting to hit their stride on offence. They should walk past a Browns team coming off a six-point home effort against the lowly Texans… Indianapolis 34, Cleveland 17

The Panthers are healthy and desperate headed into a matchup with a Packers defence that has been rocked by Minnesota and New Orleans in two of the last three weeks. But both of those performances came on the road. Back at home, the Packers should do to the Panthers what they did to the Colts and Bears… Green Bay 26, Carolina 23

The Broncos’ luck finally ran out last week. Now, they’re running into the Jets at the worst possible time. That 26^th-ranked run defence should have problems all day trying to control Thomas Jones and Leon Washington… New York Jets 34, Denver 20

Eight points is a lot for the Dolphins to be giving in St. Louis, right? Put it this way: If Steven Jackson plays, the Rams get within a touchdown. If he doesn’t, it’s a blowout. It looks like he’ll play, so, for now, we’re going with St. Louis. Ew… Miami 20, St. Louis 14

New Orleans-Tampa Bay is an obvious one (which probably really means it isn’t). You can’t pick against an NFC South team at home, but this one has field goal game written all over it… Tampa Bay 24, New Orleans 21

The Redskins haven’t played a good football game in some time, and we’re beginning to think they peaked too early. With London Fletcher’s status in doubt, watch for the Giants to win big… New York Giants 35, Washington 17

Injuries are quickly becoming an issue with the Falcons, with John Abraham and Roddy White both listed as questionable. San Diego is one of the toughest places to win, especially for a young team. That’s why the Chargers are faves, and they’ll cover… San Diego 30, Atlanta 20

Speaking of injuries killing road teams, the Steelers expect to have Bryant McFadden, Deshea Townsend and Willie Parker back Sunday, but how effective will they be? With those guys less than 100 percent and Brett Keisel out, watch for the Patriots to pile on at home… New England 27, Pittsburgh 16

It looks like the Raiders have finally turned the corner. Watch for Oakland’s running game to come up big again against Kansas City’s 31^st-ranked run defence. At home, the Raiders will prevail… Oakland 26, Kansas City 20

The Vikings are starting to feel good, and they’ve looked damn good in that dome this year. Now they have a chance to send a big message on national TV against a Bears team that hasn’t beaten a decent team on the road since they beat the Colts in week 1… Minnesota 24, Chicago 21

Jacksonville-Houston on Monday Night Football; we can’t contain our excitement. Rule of two bad teams in a meaningless game: go with the home team, especially if they’re as good at home as the Texans are, by a triple. Vegas did it, and so are we… Houston 23, Jacksonville 20

It was an exciting day, with some wild games that came down to the wire. OK, maybe not. But there were still some things we took away from Thanksgiving Thursday. Allow us to elaborate.

• As soon as the Titans-Lions game got into the fourth quarter, we wondered aloud (but to ourselves) if we’d finally see Vince Young. After all, he is the backup quarterback and it’s pretty much courtesy for teams to bring in their backups with big leads in the final frame.

But Young, of course, is no ordinary backup. First, he’s undoubtedly more athletic and arguably more talented than Kerry Collins (notice we didn’t say, “more effective,” or “better”). Second, there’s sort of a shaky history that has led to the 2006 third-overall draft pick being a backup in the first place.

Would Jeff Fisher be risking opening a can of worms by bringing Young in for mop-up duty? What if Young was fantastic? What if he was bad? Would being the caretaker on national television embarrass the ’06 rookie of the year?

It was a bigger decision than you would imagine for Fisher. You stick with Collins and you’re showing an increased lack of faith in Young and proving that his “backup” title is nothing more than that … a title. You go to Young and you risk opening said can of worms.

It worked out just fine. Young looked good, but was mainly just handing the ball off anyway. And now the Titans know they have two legitimate options at quarterback.

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• We’ve been thinking about this for weeks, but are finally able to deliver a definitive verdict on what we think of most NFL colour commentators: Generally, they seem to be significantly stupider (it’s a word) than the general population.

No, we’re not being that fan who whines because a colour guy is somehow “biased” against his team. We mean this genuinely: Colour commentators, for the most part, aren’t very smart human beings.

There’ve been more than a few examples of analyst density over the last few weeks, but we’ll just give you the example that confirmed our suspicions on Thursday.

The Seahawks are in the red zone, trailing by 18 early in the third quarter. A touchdown would be great, of course, but when you’re down three scores, the key is getting it to two scores. You need to score three times anyway.

And then Fox’s Troy Aikman says that this “would be a wasted possession” if Seattle had to settle for a field goal.

Wasted possession? Is this guy nuts? Points are points, especially when they bring you to within two scores. A wasted possession, Troy, would be if Matt Hasselbeck threw one to Terence Newman, not settling for a field goal.

And it got better. After Hasselbeck missed Bobby Engram on third down and the field goal team came marching out, Aikman added that Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren “hesitated” before deciding to settle for three points.

No coach -- not even the ultra-aggressive Sean Payton -- would pass up the automatic points in a situation like that. We’re guessing Aikman wasn’t listening in on Holmgren’s conversation with his offensive coordinator at that moment in time. We’re thinking he simply thought going for it, in his wacky world, was a good idea, and gave it more credence by claiming a head coach with 17 years’ experience was thinking the exact same thing.

We’re betting he wasn’t.

Simple reasoning, common sense and the ability to do basic math -- just some of the tools a colour guy should have. Because a lot of football fans are smart, and it’s obvious when the guy preaching on the screen is lagging.

Aikman, Randy Cross and Ron Jaworski might know X’s and O’s, but they don’t seem to have a grasp on the simple stuff, and it grinds our gears. Unfortunately, Chris Collinsworth can’t do every game.

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• Are you seriously telling us the Arizona Cardinals couldn’t use Edgerrin James right now? Not utilizing James, for what seems to be nothing more than a grudge mixed with some spite, has been the single biggest mistake the Cards have made this season.

Arizona’s lost back-to-back big games, mainly because it hasn’t been able to get things going on the ground.

In Thursday’s loss to the Eagles, Tim Hightower ran the ball seven times for only seven yards.

James had zero carries.

In last week’s loss to the Giants, Hightower ran the ball 11 times for only 21 yards.

James had one carry.

Arizona won the week before that, but no thanks to Hightower, who had 11 carries for 35 yards.

James had one carry.

Headed into Thursday night’s game, no starting running back had a lower yards per carry number than Hightower’s 3.0. No one’s even close.

James hasn’t been much better, but it couldn’t hurt to at least mix things up. Right now, defences barely have to worry about Arizona’s run game, which in turn is hurting the passing game.

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• Of course it never helps when the team’s best player, Anquan Boldin, drops two passes and fumbles the game away when they still had life in the fourth quarter.

We would’ve been surprised to see stuff like that from Boldin after he returned from his face demolition surgery a few weeks ago, but there didn’t appear to be an excuse on Thursday.

Boldin’s been talked about here and there (mainly here) as an MVP dark horse. That went out the window against Philadelphia.

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• Philly fans are considered to be a knowledgeable batch, but even they can’t refrain from whining every time a pass down the sideline falls incomplete.

Do people not believe in good coverage whatsoever? Every time you see a ball go down the left or right sideline, if there’s a receiver and corner in the area, it has to be either a catch or pass interference.

The receivers themselves are bad enough at committing this crime (yes, we consider it to be a crime), but we wish fans would be a little more attentive in this regard. Respect a good play by a cornerback or safety, and keep quiet.

But, naturally, we don’t expect a change. Just like every time a pitcher turns and fires to second base in baseball, we expect at least a smattering of boos every time a defensive player makes a good play on a deep ball.

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• It was refreshing to see the officials actually call intentional grounding the way it should be called on Thursday night. Donovan McNabb was guilty on both infractions he was whistled for against the Cardinals.

Fans probably had the right to be a bit frustrated, because, let’s face it, quarterbacks get away with plays like that more often than not. But they actually got it right in both of these cases.

Still, there are two or three passes every game that are “in the vicinity of a receiver” that are truly blatant examples of the quarterback throwing the ball away to avoid incurring the loss of yardage that comes with a sack.

This offseason, the league needs to re-examine the way the rule is interpreted.

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• It looks like NFL Network picked up that “Puddin’ Pie” for the player of the game at a local Baskin Robbins. If they want to be viewed on level with CBS and Fox, we need to see a more impressive Thanksgiving-related dish and/or trophy.

Happy Thanksgiving to our American readers! Welcome to work day number 228, Canadian readers!

This is the single best day of the year to work in sports media. It was the day we all suddenly became sick in elementary school, the day we all cut in high school and the day we all … well everything stayed pretty much the same in college.

And it has once again arrived! It’s so great it should be a holiday.

Wait. It already is. For some of you. For the rest of you -- be thankful today for NFL.com’s Game Center.

And our picks…

Does Tennessee’s offence have the firepower to cover a double-digit spread in Detroit? Remember, the Lions always put up a fight on Thanksgiving, and the Titans have to be at least a bit deflated coming off their first loss of the year. We wouldn’t be shocked if the Lions hung around for three quarters… Tennessee 24, Detroit 14

The return of Matt Hasselbeck hasn’t done much to help the struggling Seahawks. Hasselbeck’s thrown five picks in two games since coming back from injury. In Dallas, Hasselbeck might not be in better shape against the Cowboys’ ninth-ranked pass defence. On the other side, we expect Tony Romo and the Dallas offence to keep it going… Dallas 30, Seattle 13

Why are the Eagles giving points against the Cardinals? Sure, Arizona isn’t exactly golden on the road, but Philadelphia’s in complete disarray. We’re convinced we’re going to be watching Donovan McNabb’s final start as an Eagle Thursday night. Home-field advantage could help the Eagles keep this from being a blowout, but they aren’t slowing down Arizona’s blazing offence… Arizona 26, Philadelphia 17