The Lion king

The next time Roger Goodell floats the idea that fans would like an 18-game schedule, tell him to take a look at the injury list in the NFL right now. There are very few teams in the league right now that have not been hit hard by serious and in some cases, season-ending injuries.

For example, as if the Buffalo Bills recent tailspin wasn’t bad enough, now they are really being hammered by injuries at key positions. The Bills lost cornerback Terrence McGee for the rest of the year with a knee injury. Receiver Donald Jones will miss at least three weeks with an ankle injury.

Vikings running back Adrian Peterson suffered a high ankle sprain in their loss to the Raiders. Meanwhile, Raiders receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey was carted off of the field with a serious neck injury and his status is in doubt.

However far and away the most damaging injury suffered by any team was Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler’s thumb injury. Cutler had surgery on his broken thumb, and if Lovie Smith is lucky, they will get him back by the end of the regular season.

Time now to take a look back at what happened in Week 11:

Star of the week

Packers receiver Jordy Nelson received a lot respect for his game-breaking performance in the Packers win over the Bucs. Far and away the best No. 3 receiver in the NFL, Nelson shredded the Bucs secondary with six catches for 123 yards and two touchdowns. Nelson is averaging almost 19 yards a catch and is second in the NFL with nine touchdown receptions.

As great as Nelson was, Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford was even better. Losers of three of their last four games, The Lions were desperate for a big game from Stafford and he did not disappoint. Trailing 27-14 at halftime to the Panthers, Stafford tossed three of his five touchdowns in the second half and the Lions ended up scoring 49 points to improve 7-3 on the year.

Stiff of the week

I don’t know where to start with Ryan Fitzpatrick. Not only has Fitzpatrick been inaccurate with his passes the last three weeks, he’s thrown seven interceptions and has a quarterback rating of 48.1 in that ugly stretch of games. Fair or not, since Fitzpatrick signed his multi-million dollar contract extension midway through the season he’s thrown eight interceptions to go along with three touchdowns.

But the ultimate stiff of the week was Philip Rivers. In the Chargers loss to the Bears, Rivers had exactly zero yards passing in the fourth quarter. This is what Rivers and the entire Chargers offence did in the fourth quarter: incomplete pass, incomplete pass, interception in the end zone, interception along the sideline when he was trying to throw the ball away. Rivers now leads the NFL with 17 interceptions and the Chargers have lost five straight games.

Tebowmania

He did it again. After a fairly pedestrian first 55 minutes, Tim Tebow led the Broncos on a 12-play, 95-yard scoring drive which was capped off by the man himself running in for the game-winning 20-yard touchdown. The look of utter disbelief on the face of Jets coach Rex Ryan was priceless.

Running what is being derisively referred to as a “college-style” offence, the Broncos are 4-1 since Tebow took over as their starting quarterback. Tebow will try to keep his magical run going Sunday in San Diego as the Broncos take on the dysfunctional Chargers.

Team on the rise

One team in the NFC that has been quietly flying under the radar is the Atlanta Falcons. After stumbling along to a 2-3 start to the season, the Falcons beat the Titans Sunday to improve to 4-1 in their last five games. The one loss in the last five games came last week because of coach Mike Smith’s infamous fourth down gamble in overtime against the Saints. One of the reasons the Falcons are so dangerous is Michael Turner and the power running game.

Turner and the Falcons also have a fairly soft schedule for their remaining six games so they should challenge the New Orleans Saints for the division title.

The Harbaugh brothers

Jim Harbaugh had more reason to smile Sunday as his defense did a number on the Cardinals and his 49ers improved to 9-1 on the season. John Harbaugh was likely a nervous wreck until the bitter end before his Ravens pulled out a tight 31-24 win over the Bengals. The Ravens defence, minus Ray Lewis, was able to sack Andy Dalton on a fourth-and-17 play late in the fourth quarter to seal their seventh win over the year.

The Dream Team watch

They’re alive. Led by back-up quarterback Vince Young, the Eagles beat the Giants in the Meadowlands Sunday night to keep their paper thin playoff hopes alive. Young’s performance was worthy of a game ball after he led the Eagles on a 18-play, 91-yard scoring drive that took almost nine minutes off of the clock. Young capped it off with the game-winning touchdown toss to Riley Cooper.

The Ronnie Lott award

Eagles defensive lineman Cullen Jenkins wins this award for his highlight-reel tackle of Giants running back DJ Ware. Jenkins ran a long way to make the play and unloaded on Ware at the moment of impact.

The catch of the week

There are two catches that really stood out this weekend.

A player quickly becoming a folk hero among Patriots fans is tight end Rob Gronkowski. In the Patriots blowout win over the Chiefs, Gronkowski went above and beyond the call of duty when he scored this third-quarter touchdown.

Gronkowski was a major reason Tom Brady was able to overcome some struggles against the Chiefs defence early in the game.

One of the reasons the Bears are one of the hottest teams in the NFL is catches like this one by receiver Johnny Knox.

The unsung hero award

You can’t get more unsung than the Dolphins’ Lex Hilliard. The third-string running back recovered a Chris Clemons blocked punt in the end zone for his first touchdown of the year in the Dolphins demolition of the Bills. During their three game-winning streak, the Dolphins have outscored their opponents 86-20.

What to watch out for in Week 12

The games kick off Thursday with an American Thanksgiving tripleheader. First up, the Lions host the undefeated Packers, then the surging Dolphins are in Dallas to face the Cowboys. Finally, it is a battle of the Harbaugh brothers as the Ravens take on the 49ers in Baltimore.

On Sunday, the Bears, minus Jay Cutler, take on the Raiders in the Black Hole while the Giants have a must-win game Monday night when they take on Drew Brees and the Saints at the Superdome.

Jim Lang is co-host of Brady and Lang in the morning on SPORTSNET 590 The FAN and a columnist for sportsnet.ca.