An intriguing game this evening, as the suddenly fearsome Titans travel to Houston to take on the wild-card seeking Texans. The Texans need it to keep pace with the Jaguars in the wild-card race. The Titans need it ... well, for self-esteem purposes, I guess.

Catch Vince Young(notes) 2.0 in action here tonight, as we'll be here all night with running commentary on the game, observations, insights, polls, blatant lies and a high level of interactivity with you, the reader. We'd love it if you joined us. Kickoff is set for 8:30. We'll be here a few minutes prior.

Andre Caldwell(notes), Kick Returner, Cincinnati Bengals. Andre Caldwell has made some big catches for the Bengals this season, but I'm afraid that yesterday's boner trumps them all. Raiders special-teamer Brandon Myers(notes) poked the ball away from him and recovered it. Sebastian Janikowski(notes) came on, buried the winning field goal, and that was that. Of course, if you're the Bengals, there's no reason you should be in a close game with the Raiders to begin with, but being good is new to the Bengals, too. They'll get the hang of it.

Hank Poteat(notes), Cornerback, Cleveland Browns. When Matthew Stafford(notes) scrambled out of the pocket before his desperation heave into the endzone yesterday, Hank Poteat thought, "Hey, I better not let Calvin Johnson(notes) catch this." That part was good. But Hank Poteat also thought, "If the quarterback leaves the pocket, it's okay for me to run around and indiscriminately tackle wide receivers at my own whim. Wheee!" Unfortunately, this rule exists only in Hank Poteat's head. He shoved Calvin Johnson out of the back of the endzone, got flagged for it, and Stafford made the Browns pay.

Chris Simms(notes), Quarterback, Denver Broncos. Kyle Orton's(notes) ankle wasn't healthy enough for football activity yesterday, so the Broncos started Chris Simms. By halftime, Josh McDaniels decided that a one-legged Kyle Orton was a better option than Chris Simms. The Broncos still got pounded, but Simms was bad enough for McDaniels to decide that it was worth risking the long-term health of his starting quarterback. I never understood why McDaniels didn't go back to Simms when it was clear that the game was decided, though.

Mark Sanchez(notes), Quarterback, New York Jets. The up-and-down season continues for the rookie quarterback, with yesterday being his second worst game of the season. Sanchez completely Jamarcus'd out against the Patriots, going 8-of-21, with four interceptions and just one touchdown. When it was all said and done, his quarterback rating in the game was 64 points lower than it was in his first outing against the Patriots.

Brandon Gibson(notes), WR, St. Louis Rams. Gibson dropped a pass in the endzone that would've given the Rams a chance to tie the Cardinals and force overtime. Here's a related stat for you: Tied for the lead this week in times targeted were Wes Welker(notes) and Brandon Gibson, both with 17. Welker had 15 catches. Gibson had five. I'm sure Marc Bulger(notes) shares a lot of the blame on that, but it's still an awful, awful percentage.

Yesterday was a big day for Buffalo Bills wide receiver Terrell Owens. He had his best game as a Bill, by far, with nine receptions for 197 yards and a touchdown. He also learned that there's still at least one Terrell Owens(notes) fan in the world.

Mike Sims-Walker(notes), the Jacksonville Jaguars receiver who had a nice game of his own (eight receptions for 91 yards and a touchdown), celebrated his score by stretching his arms out to make the shape of a "T", and then putting them above his head for an "O", in tribute to Owens.

After the game, Sims-Walker even asked Owens for his jersey.

“When you speak of Terrell Owens, you speak of greatness,” Sims-Walker said. “He’s been doing it for 10 or 11 years. I place him up there with the Torry Holts, the Jerry Rices, those great guys – the Randy Mosses. He’s one of the best in the league.”

Owens took Sims-Walker’s request for his jersey as a compliment.

“Everyone wants my jersey after every game,” Owens said. “I take it as a compliment that I can still play this game.’’

Either that, or Mike Sims-Walker has a lucrative second career as an eBay power seller of game-worn sports memoribilia. One of the two.

I kid, I kid. Sims-Walker is right when he refers to Owens as one of the greats of all time, and he collects the jerseys of great players. It's nice to see a relationship where a young receiver has so much respect for a veteran.

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Matthew Stafford(notes), Quarterback, Detroit Lions. Is there any better scenario for a rookie quarterback? In just one play, he labels himself as tough, clutch, poised, a gamer and possessor of any other vague, non-quantifiable quality a quarterback can have. At the very least, that play earns him a pass from the media for the rest of the year. He can go totally JaMarcus over the next six games, completing 19 percent of his passes, throwing zero touchdowns and 27 interceptions, and everyone will still say, "Yeah, but did you see that Cleveland game? This kid is destined for greatness."

Nnamdi Asomugha(notes), Cornerback, Oakland Raiders. Someone from Oakland deserves to be in here. I could go with Bruce Gradkowski(notes), but I figure JaMarcus Russell(notes) doesn't need another swift kick to the self-esteem right now. I'll take Nnamdi, who shut down Chad Ochocinco(notes) yesterday. Chad had four catches on the day, with only one of them coming against Asomugha. It was a fantastic day all around for the Oakland defense, as Carson Palmer(notes) was held easily in check, and the Raiders got more pressure on the quarterback than they usually do.

Eli Manning(notes), Quarterback, New York Giants. Welcome back, young man. Instead of a big explanation, here's a handy graph illustrating Eli's quarterback performance by game this season:

Graphs are fun and educational.

Andy Studebaker(notes), Linebacker, Kansas City Chiefs. Studebaker's two interceptions of Ben Roethlisberger(notes) yesterday were the biggest factors in the Chiefs' shocking upset of the Steelers. The second-year man out of Wheaton College made the first start of his NFL career yesterday, and I'm predicting that he'll keep his two-interceptions-per-game pace up for the next ten years or so. I don't think that's unreasonable to expect at all.

Leigh Bodden(notes), Cornerback, New England Patriots. His last name might be as fun to say as Studebaker's, but Bodden actually topped him with three interceptions yesterday against the Jets. As a sidenote, how insane was yesterday? This was probably the most talked about game through the week, and we had so much other crazy stuff go down yesterday that no one's even talking about the Patriots' spanking of the Jets.

NFL history is littered with nauseating injuries. Joe Theismann. Napoleon McCallum. Ed McCaffrey. Don't click any of those. They're all just nasty (and yet, perfectly preserved on YouTube forever).

Today, another such injury was added to the list. Eric Wood(notes), a promising rookie lineman for the Buffalo Bills, suffered an injury just as sickening as any of those listed above.

CBS, during the game, refused to show a replay of the injury. The internet being what it is, though, it is available for easy viewing online (unless the video gets pulled, which wouldn't shock me). It is, as promised, gross. You can click the play button, or you can not click the play button. Your eyeballs, your call.

Told you.

I do want to add, too, that I'm philosophically opposed to CBS refusing to replay an injury because they've deemed it too graphic for me. We're all watching football, we're all aware that it's a violent sport and we're all aware that things like this can happen. I'm not saying anyone wants to see it happen, but we know it's a possibility.

The fact of the matter is that an injury to Eric Wood is a major part of the game. Networks are supposed to show major parts of the game. They don't have to show it 50 times, and they don't have to celebrate it, but they should give people a warning that it's graphic and they should show it. It's newsworthy. It's as relevant to the game as any touchdown, field goal or interception.

Wood's leg, as you may have guessed, was broken, and he'll have surgery in Jacksonville. He's done for the season. We all wish him the speediest and quickest recovery.

Gracias, SN's The Trenches.

"Cry, Whine and Moan" is a weekly Sunday evening feature where fans of victory-challenged teams can gather to commiserate. Feel free to vent your frustration with your team's players, coaches or management in the comments below. And please, fans of teams who aren't on the list: Leave those less fortunate alone. This post is a taunting-free zone. The losers deserve that much.

Washington Redskins. It wouldn't feel right to make fun of the Redskins this week, because the guys on the defensive side of the ball all did their jobs, and then some. As for the offense and the coaching staff ...

The following quotes are passed along from Dan Steinberg's DC Sports Bog, your online home for postgame quotes that somehow find a way to further humiliate the Redskins. The Redskins needlessly burned two timeouts in the second half. Here's Jim Zorn explaining the first one:

"Well, shoot," he said. "Yeah. We got caught on a clock, and I really don't know how it happened, because I felt like we got the play in, I felt like we were out of the huddle, and we were down to :01 [on the clock] before we knew it. Absolutely have no idea how that happened. Because we were moving in and out of the huddle pretty well then.

And here's Jim Zorn explaining the second one.

"And then on the second timeout, that use of timeout, that was just so frustrating to me. We hurt Jason on that play. I hurt him, because I didn't have the needed call, and we got caught on time again, where we had a shift and a motion and I had to call timeout because it wasn't gonna be [snapped in time]. It was just totally mine, totally on me. I screwed us out of that timeout. I did everything I could just to maintain my composure, and then it absolutely had an issue at the end of this football game, so it's just on me."

I think we're about two Redskins losses away from Jim Zorn sitting in front of the mic at postgame press conferences, pulling out an acoustic guitar and singing a song he wrote called, "If You Had Any Shred of Mercy in Your Soul, You'd Fire Me Right Now."

Cleveland Browns. You've got absolutely nothing to be ashamed about this week, Browns. Any bad team can be boring. But you and the Lions went out there and made a hell of a football game out of something that should've only drained our collective will to live. That is a contribution. I'm absolutely serious about that. Thank you, Cleveland Browns, for what you did today.

Buffalo Bills. I have no Bills or Jaguars on my fantasy team, I had nothing else riding on the game, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't even have noticed if CBS decided not to send a camera crew down to Jacksonville for this one. I realize that that's unfair since the Jags are 6-4 and a playoff contender, but I think on a subconscious level I see that no one in Jacksonville even cares, so that makes me not care myself.

Seattle Seahawks. Brett Favre(notes) completed 22-of-25 passes for an 89% completion rate to go with his four touchdowns. Is that it, Seattle? You're going to let him leave town with just that? What about his hot oil rubdown, or the personal one-on-one concert from Sir Mix-a-Lot?

Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Josh Freeman(notes) is playing, learning, making mistakes and hopefully learning from these mistakes. That's the good news, slight as it may be.

St. Louis Rams. Way to hang around in the second half and threaten to make a comeback, Rams. Late in that game, you didn't like look like a 1-9 team to me. Somewhere around 3-7, maybe.

Denver Broncos. That makes four losses in a row, and if Kyle Orton's(notes) ankle doesn't get healthy soon, I feel pretty confident that it'll become five on Thanksgiving night. Chris Simms(notes) is a loooooong way away from his 2005 "prime," which wasn't that great to begin with. Orton wasn't himself, either, with the bum ankle. If that doesn't get fixed, a 6-0 start is going to be wasted.

Pittsburgh Steelers. I think Mike Tomlin called Marvin Lewis after last week's game and said, "Listen, that game was tough on both of us. We can keep fighting it out for the division after Thanksgiving, but what do you say we both just take this weekend off?" An agreement was made, and there was joy in Kansas City and Oakland.

Cincinnati Bengals. Honest question: When Bruce Gradkowski(notes) stepped in and won his first game as a starter, do you think JaMarcus Russell(notes) said to himself, "Wow, I've really got a lot to learn" or, "If it had been me in there, we'd have won by 30"?

All four teams in the AFC North lost today in as gut-wrenching a fashion as you could imagine. It'd be bad enough for an entire division to go winless (especially when said division is arguably the best in the NFL), but for each of the four teams to lose games in which they held fourth-quarter leads, well that's a whole new level of disappointment.

Shutdown Corner recounts the carnage, listing the games in order of least to most crushing:

Baltimore Ravens 15, Indianapolis Colts 17 – The box score doesn't look too bad: A two-point loss to the undefeated Colts is nothing to hang your head at. But when you consider that the eventual game-winner for Indy was kicked by Matt Stover(notes), the long-time Ravens vet who was cut in the offseason and that the Ravens replacement for Stover's replacement missed a 30-yarder in the third quarter, then it hurts a bit. Throw in a first-and-goal from the 1-yard line that resulted in a field goal and, ouch.

Pittsburgh Steelers 27, Kansas City Chiefs 30 (OT) – Losing while giving up two touchdown returns of 95+ yards, dropping an interception before the play that put the Chiefs in overtime field-goal range, having another possible concussion suffered by Ben Roethlisberger(notes), outgaining their opponent by 257 yards and holding the ball for 19 more minutes than their opponent would all be bad enough. But when it comes against the woeful Chiefs, that's a whole other level.

Cleveland Browns 37, Detroit Lions 38 – We already recapped this one earlier today on Shutdown Corner. The Browns have the distinction of being the only NFL team to lose this year after the clock hit zero while they had the lead. But a pass interference penalty gave the Lions another untimed down and the rest is another chapter of Cleveland infamy. For any other team this would have rated as the biggest stomach punch of the day. But, for Browns fans, it's just another regular Sunday.

Cincinnati Bengals 17, Oakland Raiders 20 – This game was done. The division-leading Bengals held a seven-point lead with under one minute to go and the hapless Raiders, led by a quarterback (Bruce Gradkowski(notes)) who hadn't thrown a touchdown pass since 2006, were facing fourth-and-10 from near midfield. But, just like that, Chaz Schilens(notes) hauled in a first-down reception and then, on the next throw, Gradkowski hit Louis Murphy(notes) for the game-tying score. So it was going to overtime. Except that Andre Caldwell(notes) fumbled the kick return with 27 seconds remaining and the Raiders recovered and kicked a game-winning field goal 11 seconds later. From one play from victory to one return from overtime to another crushing loss, all in a span of 43 seconds. On the bright side, at least Cincy knows how to deal with late-game disappointment.

In three of the New Orleans Saints' 10 wins this year, franchise quarterback Drew Brees(notes) threw a total of one touchdown and three interceptions. That's the key to making it through an entire season without losing a game -- when the Saints beat the Bills, Jets, and Dolphins in those games, they proved that they could win games in other ways. And now that Brees is back on track, the Saints have continued to roll despite injuries to their secondary. That's a lesson the Indianapolis Colts learned today, when they went to 10-0 on the season despite a sub-par performance from Peyton Manning(notes). Manning threw two interceptions and was held under 300 yards passing (admittedly, by only one yard) for only the second time this season.

Manning also got away with several other throws which were either bad reads or plays in which his receivers were not in the right place. Bottom line is that Manning struggled and the Colts didn't fall apart against a very game Ravens team. In their 17-15 victory, Indy relied on their defense to keep Baltimore out of the end zone, which they did by holding the Ravens to 0-for-4 in red one efficiency. That included a stand when Baltimore had the ball at the Colts' one-yard line and couldn't punch it in with three tries. When Ed Reed(notes) lost a desperation lateral on a punt return with 28 seconds left in the game, the Colts breathed a sigh of relief.

As for the Saints, they kept the "L" column clean in a more typical way -- a productive but conservative day from Brees (who threw for 187 yards and three touchdowns) and great gains from their newly effective running game. Mike bell(notes) scored twice and Pierre Thomas(notes) gained 92 yards on only 11 carries in the Saints' 38-7 walloping of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After the Bucs and first-year quarterback Josh Freeman(notes) impressed with an opening-drive touchdown, New Orleans shut things down and took advantage of Freeman's rookie mistakes. Freeman threw three picks, while Brees didn't have an interception for the first time in five games.

Next, the Saints will welcome the New England Patriots to the Superdome on Monday Night Football, a barn-burner that should leave even Jon Gruden unable to give nicknames to all the primary characters. Meanwhile, the Colts play the Texans in Houston next Sunday. You may remember the Texans as the team that gave the Colts a fairly tough battle with a 20-17 squeaker on November 8. If these two teams are still undefeated after their next games, they'll certainly have earned it.

In the first half of a big divisional game against the New England Patriots, the New York Jets came out sluggish, getting outscored by 17 points and converting just two first downs over the first 30 minutes. Maybe it's because the team is still tired from last night.

Late last night, a fire alarm was pulled in the Jets' team hotel, rousing members of the team out of their slumber and forcing them to vacate their rooms. Except there was no fire and it was the Jets' team hotel. You do the math.

According to the time stamp on a tweet from tight end Dustin Keller, the fire alarm was pulled around 1 a.m.:

So much for a good nights sleep..the alarm just went off in our teams hotel hahaha grown men walking around the hallway in their draws haha

He's pretty good-natured about it. I certainly wouldn't give one "ha" about getting awakened in the middle of the night, let alone three. Especially if I was wearing "draws." 

Cornerback Kerry Rhodes(notes) also posted a tweet about the late-night wake-up call, but he waited until the morning to share:

you know we are playing new england when in the middle of the night when u r sleep somebody pulls a fire alarm to wake u up!! wow!!

The same thing happened to the Buffalo Bills before a Week 1 game in New England. It sounds like there's a fan (or fans) who still like to pull middle school pranks to help support the team. Or maybe it's not a fan at all. Judging by his past history, I wonder if Bill Belichick has an alibi for last night?  

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Over the past decade, the Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns have been the two worst teams in the NFL. This year has been no different, as entering today they were a combined 2-16 on the season. It only stood to reason that their battle today would be one of attrition. Almost everyone figured it would be a snoozer not even worthy of getting attention on NFL Redzone. Instead, it was one of the most entertaining games of 2009.

The Lions scored a touchdown on the final play of the game to earn a thrilling 38-37 victory over the visiting Browns. But, of course, in true Detroit-Cleveland fashion, the game ended with two colossal errors (each by the Browns). 

On the final play of the game, a Matthew Stafford(notes) pass fell incomplete and the Browns began to celebrate their second win of the year. But Hank Poteat(notes) was flagged for pass interference, which gave the Lions another down with no time on the clock.

There's more: On the Poteat play, Stafford was hit when he released the ball and stayed down on the field in obvious pain. The rookie clutched his non-throwing shoulder as he ran off the field and was replaced for the final play by Daunte Culpepper(notes). With a cold Culpepper under center, the Lions prepared to snap the ball from the 1-yard line with the clock reading zeroes to get the go-ahead score. Amazingly, Cleveland called timeout before Culpepper could get the snap. This stoppage allowed Stafford to come back in the game and he promptly hit Brandon Pettigrew(notes) for the game-tying touchdown. A Jason Hanson(notes) extra point sealed the game.

Not that anyone should expect good coaching decisions by Eric Mangini, but that timeout was borderline criminal. Culpepper had to rush onto the field with no warning, having stood on the sideline for the previous three hours. The Lions had no timeouts and were in the confusing spot of having to run another play after having thought the game had ended. Sure, the Browns had to do the same on the defensive side, but the burden is on the offense. The last thing any coach wants to do in that situation is give an unprepared team time to regroup. 

Among the amazing stats from the rest of the game:

• The Browns scored 13 more points today (37) than they had in two-thirds of their other games combined (24).

• Matthew Stafford (five) and Brady Quinn(notes) (four) combined to throw nine touchdown passes. Coming into today the former first-round picks had a total of nine touchdown passes in their careers. 

• Cleveland was averaging 214 yards of offense per game. The Browns gained 439 against Detroit.

• With the win, the Lions avoided becoming the first NFL team in history to go 2-32 over a 34-game stretch.

• Detroit's defense was statistically the worst in the NFL before today. After today: Yeah, they're still the worst. But how about that offense?!

• Unless they were in attendance, most Lions fans couldn't see the victory. Because it wasn't a sellout, the game was blacked out in the Detroit area.