In a week of surprises in the NFL, perhaps the biggest was the Panthers extending their winning streak by beating the 49ers in San Francisco by a score of 10-9, with Carolina holding Colin Kaepernick to just 91 passing yards and 16 rushing.  It marked only the second time the 49ers had been beaten at home this year, but the other team who had prevailed there, the Colts, lost in Indianapolis 38-8 against the St. Louis Rams, who were propelled to victory by rookie Tavor Austin, who had two receiving touchdowns for 57 and 81 yards; and also returned a punt 98 yards for another score.  The other big shock of the weekend was that the two previously winless teams from Florida – the Buccaneers and Jaguars – both recorded their first “W” of the season, after beating the Dolphins and Tennessee Titans respectively.  Following that defeat for Miami, it was probably a good thing that Jonathan Martin and Richie Incognito had both already left the team, since who knows what kind of bullying the former would have experienced at the hands of the latter, after a loss to 0-8 Tampa Bay.

At the top of the NFC standings, the Seahawks continued their march towards the number 1 seed by winning it Atlanta 33-10, a defeat that leaves the Falcons on 2-7 and almost certain to miss the playoffs for the first time since 2009.  Just behind Seattle in the race for home field advantage are the Saints, who racked up 49 points in their Sunday night rout of the Cowboys in New Orleans, dropping Dallas to 5-5 for the year.  They still have a share of the lead in the NFC East however, alongside the Philadelphia Eagles who took advantage of the absence of Aaron Rodgers to beat the Packers 27-13, with Green Bay also being forced to replace their backup quarterback after the first series, as Seneca Wallace had to exit the game with a groin injury.  For Philadelphia, Nick Foles has thrown 16 touchdown passes and no interceptions this season, but strangely enough the team is 5-1 in their last six away fixtures, but have lost their last 10 at home.

Elsewhere, the Ravens gave up a last minute hail mary touchdown to the Bengals, but rallied to beat Cincinnati 20-17 in overtime; Calvin Johnson had two touchdown receptions but the Lions still needed to foil a two point conversion at the end of the game to prevent the Bears forcing an extra period; the Giants, who started 2013 0-6, won their third straight against Oakland and get to face Green Bay’s third string quarterback this weekend; San Diego hit Peyton Manning hard, but could not stop the Broncos from moving to 8-1; the Bills were beaten in Pittsburgh, 23-10 by the Steelers; Wade Phillips took charge of Houston while Gary Kubiak recovered from a mini-stroke, but the Texans lost in Arizona, 27-24; and Washington came inches away from tying their Thursday night game against the Vikings, but Santana Moss had one foot out of bounds and so Minnesota won for just the second time this year.

Power Poll

As always, the working behind this poll can be found in the first post found here.  

(Last week’s position in brackets)

1. (1) Kansas City Chiefs

2. (2) Seattle Seahawks

3. (8) New Orleans Saints

4. (5) Denver Broncos

5. (=6) New England Patriots

6. (3) San Francisco 49ers

7. (9) Detroit Lions

8. (4) Indianapolis Colts

9. (=6) Cincinnati Bengals

10. (17) Carolina Panthers

11. (14) Arizona Cardinals

12. (10) Green Bay Packers

= (12) New York Jets

14. (11) Chicago Bears

15. (16) Dallas Cowboys

16. (13) Miami Dolphins

17. (18) Cleveland Browns

18. (20) Buffalo Bills

= (26) St. Louis Rams

= (22) Philadelphia Eagles

21. (15) Tennessee Titans

22. (24) Baltimore Ravens

23. (21) San Diego Chargers

24. (23) Houston Texans

25. (27) New York Giants

26. (28) Atlanta Falcons

27. (29) Pittsburgh Steelers

28. (19) Washington

29. (25) Oakland Raiders

30. (30) Jacksonville Jaguars

31. (32) Tampa Bay Buccaneers

32. (31) Minnesota Vikings

Week 11 Predictions

Last week, 6-8; Season, 76-70

Home teams in bold

Colts -3.5 over Titans

Buccaneers +1.5 over Falcons

Bills -1.5 over Jets

Ravens +2.5 over Bears

Bengals -6.5 over Browns

Lions -2.5 over Steelers

Raiders +6.5 over Texans

Washington +3.5 over Eagles

Cardinals -6.5 over Jaguars

Chargers -1.5 over Dolphins

Packers +6.5 over Giants

Seahawks -13.5 over Vikings

Saints -3.5 over 49ers

Chiefs +8.5 over Broncos

Panthers -2.5 over Patriots