NFL Week 9: Steelers surprise, Doug Martin breaks out on a wild Sunday

Sproles was expected to miss Monday’s game after undergoing surgery to repair a broken hand. He had surgery on Monday and could possibly return as soon as next week. Hawthorne has not played since Week 3 due to a hamstring injury, but is inactive Monday despite participating fully in practice all week. Hawthorne started the first three games of the year for New Orleans and was listed as probable on the injury report.

Here is a complete look at the inactives for both teams.

The center of a kinder, gentler universe shifted this weekend. Neighbors were still helping neighbors in the wake of the ravaged streets of Hurricane Sandy in the tri-state area, but America’s beating Hallmark heart moved to Indianapolis. Two feel-good stories collided. Exciting football was played. New history was written.

Every week, Luck leads a game-winning drive or makes some monster play to add another check in the win column for the Colts. It seems like that, anyway. The first overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft now has four game-winning drives, the most in the league so far this season. The Colts are 5-3. You are free to draw your conclusions as to what’s happening here.

Just another Sunday.

For once, the draftniks got it right. Andrew Luck was touted as the greatest prospect in the history of the NFL draft just six months ago. It was one of those situations where it seemed the hype had to outweigh the actual production. But in eight games since then all he’s done is prove everyone right.

Following the game, Chris Pokorny of Dawgs By Nature said whether justified or not, the loss will create questions surrounding the future of Browns head coach Pat Shurmur. Shurmur is now 6-19 in two season in Cleveland and could find himself on the hot seat with new ownership taking over.

While Cleveland struggled in a few ways on Sunday, it wasn’t all negative. Pokorny expects Weeden to bounce back and with a favorable schedule and signs of progress, he said it’s only a matter of time for the Browns.

Got any idea what to make of this?

Eli hasn’t been doing it all against the Steelers with a mixture of his lack of distribution on Sunday. The Steelers do lead the league in passing yard allowed, but obviously Eli doesn’t seem to care with the way he and Offensive Coordinator Kevin Gilbride are slinging it.

Giants fans, never stop being yourselves.

The hit in which the injury occurred didn’t initially look bad, but as he was walking towards the sideline Rainey collapsed, and spend several minutes on the ground as the trainers tended to him. In solidarity, both the Steelers and Giants joined in prayer mid-field as Rainey was assisted off the field.

After spending some time on the bench, being further evaluated by the training staff, the Steelers carted Chris Rainey to the locker room for further evaluations. There has been no update on his status at this time.

However, in the second half, the Vikings have inexplicably decided against using Peterson like one would think they should. With seven minutes left in the fourth quarter, Peterson has only racked up 38 second-half yards, a far cry short of 144. A lot of this has to do with the fact that the 11 men on the field for the Seahawks have likely been told that Peterson is priority one and he must be stopped and it also may have to do with the fact that he has only carried the ball five times so far in the second half.

Seattle currently leads the Vikings by a score of 27-20 and while the Vikings are still in the game, you have to wonder why they wouldn’t feed the rock to the “hot hand” and ride the Peterson train to victory. It has worked so far. Maybe they’re worried about how his knee will hold up if every single Seahawks defender is focused on stopping him and they want to limit his carries or maybe they have the Seahawks defense cheating up so far in the box to stop Peterson that they think they can burn them deep with the pass. Either way, if they want to win this game, it would likely be best to give the ball to the guy who has kept the game close in the first place.

The Oakland Raiders will have to try to come back from a 14-10 deficit against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday without running back Darren McFadden. McFadden left in the first half after suffering a leg injury, and went back to the locker room to have X-Rays, and those reportedly came back negative, but his day is done.

McFadden left the game after compiling 17 yards on 7 carries and 3 receiving yards on two receptions, but he gives the Radiers a threat the defense has to constantly be thinking about, both running and receiving. On the year, he has 455 rushing yards, 193 receiving yards and two touchdowns.

After reading that, Williams must have felt like he “Can’t Hardly Wait” for the game to start. After the win, he told reporters:“That was definitely motivating. I mean, you don’t say you’re gonna have a homecoming in the National Football League. I mean, you do it in college. It’s [against] one of those teams that’s just terrible. You don’t book a good team for homecoming….I don’t know if they had a dance or anything...”

After the Carolina win, Williams can safely feel like “He’s All That.”

He would recover his own fumble, but...yeesh. Maybe next time you try to fake punt pass, don’t rely on third-string running backs making up 10 yards after the catch.

The speech, found here, talked about the Colts as a football team who ‘refused to live in circumstances’ as Pagano spoke of the organization’s triumph against the odds. From there the speech got extremely personal, as the coach talked of his dual-desire to ensure he sees the Indianapolis Colts hoist multiple Lombardi Trophies, but also to see his two daughters get married, and dance at their weddings. It was a powerful speech that clearly resonated with the Colts.

The ball wasn’t knocked out until after Tate had crossed the goal-line, and the Seahawks lead 20-17.

Pete Carroll is known for being an excitable guy, so you can’t blame him for being excited to see Tate score his second touchdown of the game and for surviving his Rod Tidwell moment.

Oakland Raiders running back Darren McFadden has left his team’s game against the Tampa Buccaneers with a leg injury and his return is questionable, the team announced. The Raiders were trailing 7-3 and McFadden is by far their best offensive player, so his injury would make coming back all the more difficult. However, the team responded with a nice drive capped by a touchdown by Rod Streater, so they now lead 10-7

McFadden was taken to the locker room and reportedly had his leg X-rayed, after which he was downgraded to doubtful. Taking his place is likely to be Mike Goodson, supported by Taiwan Jones, but you have to figure that Carson Palmer will be throwing more while McFadden is sidelined.

There’s just one problem -- it’s still the second quarter.

Most of Peterson’s yards came on the Vikings’ first drive -- an impressive 74-yard run to the 1-yard line. He would punch it in one play later. His second score came in the second quarter, when he pushed the pile four yards.

He has two tackles this season.

Newton finished the day 13-of-23 for 201 yards and a passing touchdown. On the ground he rushed for 37 yards on eight carries.

Newton extended Carolina’s lead with a 1-yard touchdown run with 12:46 left in the game. The score put the Panthers up, 21-6.

Did they cover?: The Texans came into the game favored by 11 points, so they covered, but just barely.

Next on the schedule:

But the Browns couldn’t find the end zone and only mustered five field goals in five trips to the red zone.

Somebody get RG3 a dice in the mirror.