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Colts running back Joseph Addai scored the go-ahead touchdown with 7:11 left Sunday, and Houston’s Kris Brown missed a 42-yard field goal as time expired, keeping Indianapolis undefeated and its winning streak intact with a 20-17 victory.

Posted by ESPN.com’s Tim Graham



FOXBOROUGH, Mass. –Somebody call the World Wildlife Fund and propose some protections to save the Wildcat.



For the third straight week, the Miami Dolphins failed to conjure much magic with their specialized offense.



The Dolphins had to employ different tactics to compete with the New England Patriots yet still couldn’t generate enough offense Sunday in a 27-17 loss.



Although the Dolphins managed to squeeze out a 2-yard touchdown pass from Ronnie Brown to tight end Joey Haynos, they gained just 7 yards on their 10 Wildcat tries.



That’s consecutive games averaging less than 1 yard per play. They ran seven Wildcat plays for 6 yards against the New York Jets in Week 8. Over their past three games, the Dolphins have gained 40 yards on 31 Wildcat plays.



But the Dolphins managed to give future opponents something else to worry about.



Rookie quarterback Pat White finally made some positive contributions by running the option, an offense he thrived on at West Virginia.



On an 80-yard touchdown drive in which the Dolphins didn’t complete a pass in the second quarter, White kept the ball for runs of 33 and 4 yards and shoved the ball to Ricky Williams for the final 15 yards.



The Dolphins averaged 13 yards on his four plays in the first half, but the Patriots cut the damage considerably in the second half. White averaged only 2 yards on his four plays in the second half.



White went into the game with four rushes for 2 yards and one failed pass attempt for the season.

Posted by ESPN.com’s Matt Mosley





It looked like the Giants had the game in hand when second-year cornerback Terrell Thomas intercepted Philip Rivers late in the fourth quarter. But the Giants couldn’t punch the ball in and had to settle for a field goal and a shaky 20-14 lead. Given another opportunity, Rivers raced his team down the field.



The Giants defense had stayed in Rivers’ face for much of the game, but they allowed him to deliver the ball to Darren Sproles in space with a minute left in the game. With 21 seconds left, Rivers lofted a touchdown to Vincent Jackson. The Giants will spend the next two weeks wondering how Jackson found himself wide open in the back of end zone.



By the end of the night, the Giants will trail either the Eagles or Cowboys by two full games in the NFC East race. And at this point, the Giants shouldn’t even be thinking about the division race. Tom Coughlin made this matchup out to be an all-or-nothing situation. He wanted his team to have a sense of urgency, and for much of the evening, that was the case.



But when you botch a field goal attempt in the first quarter, it can come back to haunt you. I thought the Giants’ front four was a lot more active in this game, but the Giants lost track of Chargers receivers and running backs at crucial times. At 5-4, the Giants are officially in trouble.



I’m not ready to completely write them off, but this was a crushing loss. That Eagles-Chargers game next Sunday is looking better by the minute.

Philip Rivers capped an 80-yard drive with an 18-yard pass to Vincent Jackson with 21 seconds to play and the San Diego Chargers stunned the Giants 21-20 on Sunday, handing New York its fourth straight loss.

The New Orleans Saints moved to 8-0 for the first time in club history Sunday when Drew Brees overcame two early turnovers to pass for 330 yards and a touchdown in a comeback 30-20 victory over Carolina 30-20.

	AP Photo/Ed Reinke
	Cincinnati running back Cedric Benson ran for 117 yards Sunday against the vaunted Baltimore defense and is a key cog in the resurgence of the Bengals.

Posted by ESPN.com’s James Walker



CINCINNATI — For a majority of the past 18 years, the Bengals were clearly the laughingstock of the NFL.



Whether it was personnel decisions, coaching hires or overall play on the field, Cincinnati football often produced more comedy than athletic prowess.



But you can stop laughing now. The 2009 Bengals are legit.



Cincinnati, one of the NFL’s biggest surprises, pummeled the Baltimore Ravens in a 17-7 victory at Paul Brown Stadium on Sunday. Cincinnati improved to 6-2 and 4-0 in the AFC North, which includes a season sweep of Baltimore (4-4).



“We are for real,” Bengals safety Chris Crocker said. “All the talk, and all the hoopla about teams saying we’re the same old Cincinnati, that just fuels our fire. We don’t talk. We do our talking in practice. We don’t go to the press.”



It’s about time people stop overlooking the Bengals. Here are four reasons why they should be taken seriously:



Bengals built to win in the AFC North



For the second time this season, the Bengals beat the Ravens at their own game: Hard running and a stout defense.



Bengals tailback Cedric Benson (117 yards, 34 carries) pulled off an extremely tough feat by rushing for more than 100 yards against the Ravens for the second time this season. Cincinnati’s defense registered four sacks and held the high-scoring Ravens to 215 yards of total offense.



It was a physical clinic as the Bengals took control on both sides in the trenches. Baltimore ‘s talented defense was caught guessing until it finally caught up to Cincinnati in the second half. On offense, the Ravens, usually the bullies, were 1 of 10 on third downs because they were constantly in third-and-long situations.



Cincinnati’s defense has been better than advertised.



“We can be a pretty darn good defense if we do what we are supposed to do and are consistent,” Bengals defensive end Robert Geathers said.



Palmer once again dominant



After missing 12 games with an elbow injury, Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer is making a strong claim to becoming a top five quarterback again in the NFL. When that’s the case, the Bengals have a chance to beat anyone.



Palmer has had back-to-back 4,000-yard seasons before and it didn’t get the Bengals anywhere. Now, Cincinnati is making Palmer more efficient by throwing the ball less and emphasizing the running game.



Against Baltimore, Palmer threw for 224 yards and one touchdown and had a 91.0 passer rating. He improved to 8-3 in 11 career starts against the Ravens, who were favored to win Sunday.



“I don’t think there was a guy in the room who didn’t think we were going to win,” Palmer said of the Bengals. “But we expect to win by more than one or two touchdowns. Of course we only won by 10 [points], but we expected this.”

(Read full post)

	AP Photo/Tom Strattman
	Indianapolis coach Jim Caldwell’s challenge on Texans’ running back Ryan Moats’ fumble out of the end zone was a crucial decision in the Colts win.

Posted by ESPN.com’s Paul Kuharsky



INDIANAPOLIS — The timing was exquisite. The execution flawless. The thinking airtight.



Yet another Peyton Manning pass play? Nope. Jim Caldwell’s toss of his red challenge flag late in the first half.



Waiting until just before the first play after the two-minute warning to challenge, Caldwell understood the beneficial timing and outfoxed his Houston counterparts with a slow play.



His challenge and referee Jeff Triplette’s determination that Ryan Moats fumbled out of the end zone from the Indianapolis 1-yard line resulted in a touchback. They were pivotal moments in the Colts’ 20-17 win that kept their record spotless and kept Houston (5-4) from doing any dreaming about a scenario where it can challenge for the division title.



“That play turned out to be a perfect play for those guys, not so good for us,” said downtrodden cornerback Dunta Robinson, whose team is now 0-8 in Indy. “A lot of guys on the sideline were saying, ‘Run another play, run another play.’ Obviously our staff didn’t think it was a fumble. Those are things you’re not too sure about. I think it could have gone either way. We’re at their house, and that play went their way.”



For so much of the Manning and Bill Polian era, things have gone the Colts’ way. Good teams make their own good fortune, we hear time and time again on NFL Sundays. And here was a prime example that actually had nothing to do with the team’s stud quarterback or supremely gifted architect.



The Texans turned to Moats to minimize Steve Slaton’s opportunities to fumble and got the same result at a crucial moment.



Colts assistant offensive line coach Pete Metzelaars got a close look at the play which commenced with 2:30 on the clock and believed it could be judged differently upon review. Caldwell casually chatted with officials but ultimately waited until the two-minute break was over and the Texans were starting to line up for second-and-goal at the 1 before dropping the flag and officially getting the crew’s attention.



The Colts’ coach didn’t get it all right. He thought Jerraud Powers had re-established himself in bounds and recovered the ball. But the piece of his interpretation that was wrong didn’t hurt him, while it was a different story on the other sideline.



Gary Kubiak and his people saw no cause for alarm. They could have called for Matt Schaub to run another play before the warning, either washing away the Colts’ chance to challenge or forcing Caldwell into a quicker decision than he would have liked, when he might have hesitated risking a timeout.



“We didn’t even know until the play had been stopped and it got to the two-minute warning that there was even an issue,” Kubiak said. “Then somebody in the press box said, ‘I think they’re looking at the ball right here.’ We thought that Ryan was out of bounds. But the way it was explained to me was that the ball did come out, nobody argued that.



“We felt that players were out of bounds that were touching the ball. And what they said was that Ryan was on top of whoever that player was, so technically he’s not out of bounds, he’s still in the field of play.”



Now as we consider how the challenge unfolded we should note Caldwell and his staff had the luxury of time; Kubiak and his assistants did not.



After the play was over, there might have been 10 seconds until the tw0-minute warning stopped the clock. Is it reasonable to expect communication and decisiveness on such a hard-to-read situation in those 10 seconds, to expect Kubiak to know that the urgings of Robinson and others were not typical player hopefulness but an accurate read and to tell Schaub to run a play? Probably not.



But against the Colts, oftentimes things pan out that way: you get 10 seconds when they get 155. And if you don’t have the insight to make the quick interpretation in a less-than-advantageous situation, well tough luck, it all sorts out the way it so often does: in Indianapolis’ favor.



Antoine Bethea, the safety who jarred the ball free, said he knew it was a fumble and told the officials, but not Caldwell.



Players are always going to think things in a debatable situation went their way. But Bethea had a much clearer read on the situation than did Moats, and that ability to understand what did happen and what didn’t in the flash of an NFL-speed play is the sort of thing that helps make the Colts consistently good and leaves others striving to match them.



“I didn’t know it was an issue,” Moats said. “I thought I was out of bounds.”



Not exactly Bill Bradley’s famous “A Sense of Where You Are.”



And developments that may well have changed the outcome of the game.



“Momentum was going their way, they were moving the ball on us and we had kind of stuttered a little bit on offense,” Indianapolis guard Ryan Lilja said. “Our defense got some big turnovers, that one included. I don’t know if that was the defining moment of the game, but that was huge. That’s seven points for them. That makes it a whole different ball game. We lucked out on that one. That’s the bottom line, we lucked out.”



Nice of him to say. But it was a whole lot more than that.

Posted by ESPN.com’s Bill Williamson





Eli Manning may have his Super Bowl ring but Sunday more proof was presented that the San Diego Chargers got the better of the 2004 draft-day trade with the Giants.



Philip Rivers is simply a better player than Manning.



You want evidence?



How about Rivers’ brilliant 80-yard drive in the final moments to lead San Diego over the Giants on Sunday?



Rivers capped the drive with a touchdown toss to receiver Vincent Jackson in the final seconds. It was the first time Rivers and Manning played against each other since the trade that sent Manning to New York and Rivers to San Diego. The Chargers also got draft picks that turned into linebacker Shawne Merriman and kicker Nate Kaeding in the deal.



Merriman continued his resurgence with two more sacks. He has four sacks in the past two games after being shutout in the first six games.



Rivers was the star of this game. He completed 24 of 36 passes (several balls were dropped) for 209. Rivers was brilliant when he had to.



Not only did San Diego’s comeback help validate the trade, but it kept it in the playoff hunt. The Chargers are 5-3 after three straight wins. If Denver loses to visiting Pittsburgh on Monday night, the Chargers will trail Denver by just one game.



If San Diego ends up in the playoffs, Sunday’s last-minute drive engineered by Rivers, will be remembered as a crucial moment of the season.

Posted by ESPN.com’s Kevin Seifert





Seattle gave Detroit a rare opportunity to win a game at Qwest Field. Detroit, however, wasn’t ready to accept the gift.



That’s the way I saw the Lions’ loss Sunday evening to the Seahawks. Detroit actually took a 17-0 lead in the first quarter after Seattle committed turnovers on its first two offensive plays. But you’ll rarely, if ever, win a game when your quarterback throws five interceptions in one game.



Rookie Matthew Stafford did just that. Josh Wilson returned the final interception 61 yards for a touchdown, scuttling the Lions’ two-minute drill as they attempted to overcome a 25-20 deficit.



Stafford had thrown two interceptions over his previous three starts, and Sunday was clearly a setback. He’s now thrown 12 on the season, eight of which have come at notoriously loud stadiums in New Orleans and Seattle. His reaction to those environments doesn’t bode well for next Sunday’s game at Minnesota.

Posted by ESPN.com’s Mike Sando





Niners president Jed York punctuated Mike Singletary’s hiring by declaring that the team would no longer be sitting home come playoff time.



Singletary punctuated a Week 3 defeat at Minnesota by saying the 49ers would see the Vikings in the playoffs.



More recently, Singletary said he had “no doubt” about his team’s status as a playoff team this season.



Four consecutive defeats and a 3-5 record suggest the 49ers are fooling themselves.



They have changed quarterbacks and flashed signs of improvement, but they’ve also forgotten how to win games. Talking about the playoffs will not deliver them there. Winning games will.



The season is slipping away for the 49ers. Alex Smith tossed three interceptions against the Titans, which should stifle talk about any need for offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye to open up the offense. The Titans’ Chris Johnson topped 100 yards rushing against a proud 49ers defense. Vince Young also played efficiently, averaging 9.1 yards per attempt. Those are bad signs for San Francisco.



It’s desperation time for the 49ers and Bears when they meet at Candlestick Park on Thursday night. The Bears have the better quarterback. They were humiliated Sunday, which could strengthen their resolve on a short week.



This division is the Cardinals’ to lose.