Indianapolis Colts 30, Green Bay Packers 27

Last week I predicted that this game would be much closer than anyone anticipated. Indianapolis, still reeling from the news that new head coach Chuck Pagano was going to miss the remainder of the season while undergoing cancer treatment, the Colts definitely played with passion against a more talented Green Bay team.

I guess we could say that Andrew Luck had his coming-out party Sunday as well. He outplayed reigning MVP Aaron Rodgers, bringing Indianapolis back from a 21-3 halftime deficit. In total, Luck threw for 362 yards and two touchdowns.

Reggie Wayne looked like the player we came to know about a decade ago. He went off to the tune of 212 yards on 13 receptions. What makes Wayne’s performance so amazing is that he was targeted just one time less than the amount of passes that Rodgers completed on the other end.

In the end, Indianapolis pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the early season. They improved to .500, while dropping the packers to 2-3 and two games out of first place in the NFC North.

It remains to be seen if Green Bay is going to rebound from losing three of their first five games, but I can tell you they are nowhere near the team that won 15 games last season. If the Packers don’t get it straightened out quickly they could actually fall out of the NFL playoff picture in the coming weeks. They have to take on another AFC South opponent in the Houston Texans this week.

Chicago Bears 41, Jacksonville Jaguars 3

Jacksonville really didn’t put too much of a fight up in this one. While the score was just 3-3 at half, you could tell that they just weren’t on the same level as the Bears and that showed in the second half. Chicago outgained the Jaguars 310-47 in the latter half in route to 38 unanswered points.

Blaine Gabbert seemed to regress a great deal in this game too. He completed just 17-of-33 passes with zero touchdowns and two interceptions.

Defensively, it was much of the same for Jacksonville’s struggling unit. They allowed over 500 total yards and scores in scores in all four of the Bears second half drives.

Minnesota Vikings 30, Tennessee Titans 7

Tennessee is a complete and utter mess right now. No one gave them much of a chance of going into Minnesota and beating a vastly improved Vikings team, but this game wasn’t even close from the start. Minnesota scored the first 23 points of the game as Chris Johnson struggled following a stellar performance against the Houston Texans the week prior. The enigmatic running back gained just 29 yards in 16 touches.

Matt Hasselbeck, in his first start replacing the injured Jake Locker, didn’t even finish out the game as Rusty Smith came in during mop-up time.

Issues remain on both sides of the ball for this team.

Meanwhile, Minnesota won their fourth game in five outings and now have one more win than they did all of last season. Despite throwing his first two interceptions of the season, Christian Ponder led a potent offensive attack. They accumulated 25 first downs and over 430 total yards on offense. NFL’s receiving leader Percy Harvin continued to progress as he put up 108 yards on eight receptions.

Minnesota is now in a first-place tie with the aforementioned Chicago Bears in what has been a completely different NFC North than most people expected coming into the season.

Houston Texans 23, New York Jets 17

What a costly win for Houston here. Brian Cushing tore his ACL and will miss the remainder of the season. That is a major loss for the Wade Phillips-led defense. Additionally, the Texans let a bad New York team hang in until Mark Sanchez, once again, crumbled down the stretch.

Arian Foster became third quickest running back in NFL history to reach 4,000 total yards joining an elite group that included Edgerrin James and Eric Dickerson.

Houston is now 5-0 for the first time in franchise history after winning their first Monday Night game. They now have a stranglehold in the AFC South and could have the division wrapped up by Thanksgiving, depending on how Indianapolis fairs moving forward.
Meanwhile, New York did keep this game closer than most people anticipated. However, Sanchez continues to get booed by the home fans and just doesn’t seem prepared to take this team anywhere. It doesn’t help that the Jets have been hit by a rash of injuries, which has definitely impacted their ability to compete on a consistent basis.