Don’t call Matthew Stafford a bust.  Although injuries limited him to just 13 games played in his first two seasons after being the #1 overall pick, and although he hasn’t exactly taken the Lions to the promised land, Stafford is a much better quarterback than most people generally think.

In his last two seasons where he was healthy, he threw for just over and just under 5000 yards each time, and is on pace to do it again.  He also made a gutsy play to win the Lions a crucial game over the Cowboys on Sunday.

The Lions have had crappy defenses, no running game and in some cases just some bad luck, but basically none of it is Stafford’s fault.  This guy’s on his way to being an elite QB.

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RG3 is back!  RG3 is back!  Is he?  Was he?  Sure, he had a good game against Oakland and a great game against Chicago, but sandwiched in between was a pretty poor performance against the Cowboys.  And he was downright atrocious against the Broncos this week before getting replaced in the 4th quarter after an injury.  As I see it, the Redskins have a problem whether Griffin’s injury keeps him out or not.

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This Week’s Sucked And Won:  Jacoby Ford, WR (OAK).  Ford touched the ball twice on Sunday – on a punt return and on a reception for -4 yards.  He fumbled both times.

Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill is having a just OK kind of season, but imagine how much better he might be if he didn’t spend half the game on his back.  Tannehill was sacked 6 more times today, bringing his ignominous league leading total to 32 in 7 games.  That’s a dreadful failure to the guys up front who are supposed to be blocking for him.

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Shocking realization of the week:  Calvin Johnson’s incredible 329 yard receiving day was only good for 2nd all time in the NFL.  The Rams’ Flipper Anderson once had 336 yards receiving in a single game.

Looking for the NFL’s most underrated team?  What about the Panthers?  They’re point differential of +74 puts them just ahead of San Francisco and just behind New Orleans and Seattle, the three best teams in the NFC.

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This Week’s Great But Lost:  Jason Campbell, QB (CLE).  Why hasn’t this guy played until now?  Yeah they lost, albeit to the undefeated Chiefs, but Campbell went 22 of 36 for 293 yards with 2 touchdowns and no picks, good for a passer rating of 105.4.  These were the best numbers posted by a Browns QB all season.

It might be easy to look at Shaun Suisham’s two misses from inside 40 yards and conclude he was the goat of the Steelers loss to Oakland, but there’s blame to be shared, especially, once again, by Pittsburgh running backs, who averaged 1.8 yards per carry in this game.

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Thursday Pick:  Cincinnati (-2) @Miami (Wynn Las Vegas)

The Bengals are red hot right now, while the Dolphins are ice cold.  There’s no way I’m picking against Cincinnati, but remember the adage – whatever I pick in the Bengals game, take the other side.  I can’t pick their games to save my life.

Cincinnati Bengals 27 Miami Dolphins 21

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NFYell

“We still believe.” – Giants QB Eli Manning, after his team improved to 2-6 with a win over Philadelphia.

“We can’t choose to defer a kickoff and allow them to explode and spotting 7 on the first play of the game.” – Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, after Pittsburgh surrendered a 93 yard touchdown run to Terrelle Pryor on the game’s first offensive play.

“We needed 97 yards.  We got 96.” – Rams QB Kellen Clemens, on his team failing to finish off their comeback drive at the end of the game.

“We want to be the best.  That was Coach’s message today.  We’re not going to settle for being bowl eligible.” – Saints LB Junior Galette.

“It’s a lot more fun when you’re 4-4 and you win than when you’re 3-5 and you’re starting from scratch.” – Cardinals coach Bruce Arians, after his team got itself back to .500.

“The Jaguars showed they can stink on both sides of the Atlantic.” – Tagline appearing in the Florida Times-Union recap of Jacksonville’s 42-10 loss to the 49ers in London.

“It was a blur, you know?  I looked up at one point, 21-7, felt good, everybody’s smiling.  Turned around and all of a sudden it was 38-21.  I don’t know what went wrong.” – Redskins CB DeAngelo Hall, on the Broncos massive comeback against the Redskins in the second half.

“I’m going to find out where you live and come and get you.” – Bengals CB Adam “Pacman” Jones, whose had a long history of disciplinary problems with the NFL, to Jets WR David Nelson.  Jones claimed Nelson was “playing dirty.”

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