We want to thank the St. Louis Rams for participating in “Suck For Luck” this year. However, they are no longer in the running. The Rammies put a beating on the New Orleans Saints to win their first game of the season and did it without starting quarterback Sam Bradford. But the top two contestants in “Suck For Luck”, the Miami Dolphins and Indianapolis Colts, did a fantastic job at keeping their hopes alive. The Dolphins gave away a late lead to the NY Giants, allowing them to score 10 points in the 4th quarter to keep Andrew Luck in their sights. The Colts were down 20-0 before the first half was over and cruised to a 17-point loss to the Tennessee Titans.

Check out this throw from Luck in Stanford’s overtime victory over USC on Saturday. He picks on a freshman linebacker on a fade to his basketball player sized tight end.

Not hard to see why the Colts and Dolphins are still in the running.

1. I also want to thank Dez Bryant for deciding to not show up last night, giving my fantasy football team a nice 2.5 points. Thanks Dez.

2. Speaking of Dez’s team, the Dallas Cowboys were beat up pretty badly by the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday night game. The Eagles were up 24-0 early and never looked back. Lesean McCoy rushed for 185 yards and 2 touchdowns in the win. Both teams now sit at 3-4 along with the Washington Redskins, behind the Giants in the division. They both need to get on rolls to jump back into the playoff hunt.

(I’ve seen both the Cowboys and Eagles a couple times and I still think they are both talented enough to both get on big rolls in the second half of the season. The Eagles are just filthy on offense and will give anyone a run if they can just get in the playoffs.)

3. The Pittsburgh Steelers took care of business at home against the New Englad Patriots. The Steelers held one Thomas Brady to just 198 yards passing, his lowest output of the year. On the flipside, Big Ben threw for 365 yards and 2 touchdowns. The Steelers are now 6-2 and have the best record in the AFC after a slow start to the season. Are they the two best teams in the AFC? If so, we could see the rematch in January.

4. Batten down the hatches (I have no idea what that means, but I liked writing it), the Cincinnati Bengals are 5-2, right in the thick of things in the playoff hunt. The key to the Bengals so far has been taking care of business against teams that they should beat. Four of out their five wins are against Seattle (2-5), Indianapolis (0-8), Jacksonville (2-6), and Cleveland (3-4). The tough part of their schedule is coming up with games against Baltimore (twice), Pittsburgh (twice), and Houston. They may not survive it well enough to make the playoffs, but they’re doing good things out there.

(By the way, Cam Newton is going to get all the rookie QB praise, and for good reason because the kid is a star. But Andy Dalton has his team at 5-2 right now. Not bad. Not bad at all.)

5. The 49ers pushed their NFL 2nd best record to 6-1 with a win over the Cleveland Browns. The offensive and defensive line were the keys for the 49ers as they rushed for 174 yards and only gave up 66 on the ground to the Browns. They had 4 sacks as a team verses giving up just 1. They’ve won 5 in a row and own the NFL’s 3rd best scoring differential, outscoring other teams by 80 points this season. More impressively, they’ve given up the least amount of points this season, with just 107 through 7 games (though, some teams have played one more game, so maybe that stat isn’t AS impressive knowing that).

6. The Detroit Lions hurt Tim Tebow’s feelings. They hurt his pride. But don’t worry, Tebow will rise again. The Lions were up big early and by the time the 4th quarter rolled around, they were up 38-3. It got so bad for Tebow that Stephen Tulloch sacked him and started to Tebow. Yes, Tebowing is the new planking. After scoring last week, Tebow dropped to a knee as if in prayer.

7. Speaking of the Lions, Ndamukong Suh is a great young player. I’m not sure anyone can deny that. But he’s been hit with his fair share of penalties in his young career and has now developed a rep of a player who doesn’t really respect his opponent. His latest offense last week was shouting something at Matt Ryan after Ryan was hurt and on the ground in play. I watched him play against the 49ers and they took care of him for most of the game, but he wasn’t going to be denied his freedom of trash talking. But that’s no offense in the NFL. He’s a damn good player and should be able to talk as much as he wants, as long as he’s playing dirty. He’s meeting with Roger Goodell and his staff to talk about what exactly he’s doing wrong. The staff includes Merton Hanks, who used to do his fair share of trash talking and head bobbin’. Remember Mert’s dance?

8. ESPN’s AFC West blogger Bill Williamson thinks the Tebow experiment is failing and that John Elway needs to think post-Tebow. And post-Tebowing too.

9. And the rest … the Buffalo Bills won for their Toronto fans, beating the Redskins 23-0. Cam Newton makes an unwatchable team watchable, but it still wasn’t good enough to win. He threw for 290 yards and rushed for 53, but Ryan Longwell kicked a field goal late in the game to help Christian Ponder get his first NFL win. The Arizona Cardinals were up 24-6 at halftime over the Baltimore Ravens and were looking ready to secure their biggest win of the season. But Ray Rice scored on three straight short touchdown runs in the second half and Billy Cundiff kicked a field goal with no time remaining to win the game. The Houston Texans made life tough on Blaine Gabbert in their victory over the Jags. How hard? He completed 30% of his passes and threw for under 100 yards. That hard.

10. The Kansas City Chiefs at one time looked to be participants in “Suck For Luck”, but they’ve fought back and are now 3-3, just one game behind the 4-2 AFC West leading San Diego Chargers, who they host tonight. Momentum is on the Chiefs’ side and they benefit from having one of the best home crowds in football. I think the Chiefs will play well, but I don’t think they’ll have enough in the end. I see Ryan Mathews having a big game and the Chargers eking out a close game on the road.