Through two and a half quarters of play yesterday, the Tennessee Titans were having a day to forget. The running game was once again getting shut down by the Falcons defense, and Matt Hasselbeck was 13 for 25 for 124 yards and an interception. When Hasselbeck was taken out of the game with a sprained elbow, however, rookie quarterback Jake Locker came in and went 9 for 19 for 140 yards and two touchdowns. Despite the spark he provided to the offense, head coach Mike Munchak was clear about things going forward, “If Matt is fine, he is the quarterback,’’ Munchak said. “There is no doubt about that.” Locker had accuracy problems, but the element that he brought to the Titans offense is some semblance of a run threat that is lacking with Hasselbeck sharing the backfield with Chris Johnson who had 12 carries for 13 yards yesterday. Any time that your lead back gets 1.1 yards per carry, it helps immensely to have a mobile quarterback to keep defenses on their toes.

The blueprint of success for the Miami Dolphins this year was simple; play great defense and control the ball. That didn’t happen consistently through the first seven games which combined with a turnover prone offense resulted in seven straight losses. Lately though, the defense has found their stride which led to their third consecutive win against Buffalo. Safety Yeremiah Bell thought they played such dominant defense that the Bills gave up, “In the first half, when we jumped on them, the way the game was going and the way they were playing, they laid down," Bell said Sunday after Miami's 35-8 victory. "We were putting a hat to them and flying all over the place.” The Dolphins are finally winning the turnover battle which has directly correlated to winning games. The Dolphins have forced 4 but given up only 2 during the three game streak.

The Carolina Panthers are probably more respected that any 2-8 team coming off a 2-14 season ever should be, but the reason is because of how competitive they are in games lost. Sunday they were up 27-14 at halftime but managed to lose 49-35. “We put on a clinic on how to lose a game, simple and plain,” quarterback Cam Newton said after the game. Newton had four interceptions, three of which came in the last 18 minutes of the game. A fundamental flaw the Panthers showed in trying to protect a lead was not running the ball. Despite carrying a lead until six minutes left in the third quarter, Carolina running backs DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart ran the ball just 18 times even though they averaged 5.28 yards per carry. Offensive coordinator Rod Chudzinski decided instead of running the ball he’d have his rookie quarterback who now has a 12/9 touchdown to interception ratio throw the ball 38 times.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Rahim Morris preached a mantra of aggression in the days leading up to the game against the undefeated Packers, but he might have taken his own message too seriously. The Buccaneers attempted and failed two onside kicks in the game, the second one coming with 4:25 left in the game and Tampa Bay down only 28-26. Morris was annoyed with questions of the call after the game, “We're not going to apologize for being aggressive," Morris said. "When you play the Green Bay Packers you've got to play aggressive. You've got to go out, make plays, and you've got to steal possessions." Onside kicks have about a 25% chance of being recovered by the kicking team, and after stopping Green Bay several times Morris put his defense at a disadvatage by giving Aaron Rodgers the ball at midfield. The Bucs showed other signs of poor discipline in the game; the Bucs had nine penalties on the day which brings their total for the season up to 83, good for fourth in the league.