Philadelphia, PA -- (Sports Network) - Finally, I've found a way to work Ray "Buzz" Buivid into a story.

Buivid's name was in the news after a mere 72-year-gap on Sunday, when the Lions' Matthew Stafford reportedly became the first rookie quarterback to throw five touchdown passes in a game since said Buivid did so for the 1937 Chicago Bears.

Hopefully for Stafford's sake, his career turns out a bit better than his predecessor in the 5-TD column. Buivid ended his two-year NFL run with a grand total of 11 touchdown passes before fading into obscurity along with the football program of his alma mater, Marquette.

Playing in the NFL was slightly more glamorous than being a carney back then, so maybe Buivid used his Marquette education to get himself a respectable job.

Speaking of former Wisconsin college stars, one-time Badgers Heisman winner Alan Ameche also got some pub on Sunday thanks to Bears rookie Kahlil Bell's 72-yard run. The rush was the longest for a player on his first NFL rush since Ameche recorded a 79-yard blast for the 1955 Baltimore Colts.

Bell could do a lot worse than to turn out like Ameche, who made four Pro Bowls and was the ball carrier on one of the most iconic plays in NFL history, a one-yard run to beat the Giants in the 1958 NFL Championship.

Enough nostalgia...until at least next week, anyway.

I WAS SURPRISED THAT...

...the Cowboys offense did nothing, again. Dallas' 17-7 defeat at the hands of the Packers in Week 10 sure looked like the type of listless performance you would expect in the 'ol "trap game," and much of the world pegged the Cowboys to respond with a much sharper performance at home against the hated Redskins. But for the second straight week, Wade Phillips' club looked up at a fourth quarter scoreboard with a big "0" on it, needing a touchdown pass from Tony Romo to Patrick Crayton with less than three minutes to play to edge the Redskins, 7-6. Romo was a pedestrian 15-of-27 for 158 yards with the TD and a pick for a team that was just 3-of-11 on third-down. The Dallas defense was a bigger credit to the cause but still allowed 140 yards on 20 touches to Washington third-string running back Rock Cartwright. Does this look like a first-place team to you?

...Bruce Gradkowski was a difference-maker for the Raiders. No one in the world expected Gradkowski to be as bad as JaMarcus Russell because, well, how could you? But few who had seen Gradkowski as a Buccaneer, a Brown, or earlier this year in a couple of mop-up outings as a Raider really thought the Toledo product had the goods to lead the Silver and Black past the first-place Bengals in his first start of the year. Gradkowski defied those skeptics, going 17-of-34 for 183 yards, two touchdowns, and just one interception in Oakland's 20-17 upset, leading a gritty 11-play, 80-yard drive culminating in a 29-yard touchdown pass to Louis Murphy to tie the game at 17-17 in the final minute. Moments later, after the Bengals' Andre Caldwell fumbled the ensuing kickoff, Sebastian Janikowski drilled a 33-yard field goal to lift Oakland to an upset that finished the survivor-pool destruction that the Chiefs had begun hours earlier.

...the Steelers came up empty in Kansas City. Pittsburgh seemed to have the perfect antidote for its difficult division loss against the Bengals last week, heading to Kansas City to face a Chiefs club that was averaging just 15.8 points per game and hadn't won at Arrowhead Stadium all season. And though Pittsburgh dominated by a 515-282 margin in yardage, three Steelers turnovers and poor special teams play helped do them in, in a stunning 27-24 overtime loss that ended when Ryan Succop nailed a 22-yard field goal in the extra session. Perhaps bigger news than the loss was an apparent concussion suffered by quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in overtime. Charlie Batch had to finish the game for the Steelers, completing 1-of-2 passes for 17 yards. No word on Roethlisberger's status for next Sunday night's trip to Baltimore.

...Norv Turner won a big game he was supposed to win. Everyone knew that the Chargers were rolling and the Broncos were scuffling, but Turner has (somehow) built a career on failing to deliver when it looks like his team is on the brink of big things. However, for one week at least, Turner lit a fire under his group, which got up 13-0 at halftime and was scarcely challenged thereafter in what would become a 32-3 runaway. San Diego, which had struggled to run the football for much of the year, piled up 203 yards on the ground against a Denver defense that has suddenly lost the plot. LaDainian Tomlinson rushed 20 times for 73 yards and a touchdown to lead the way, as the Chargers (7-3) pulled ahead of the Broncos (6-4) for the first time this season.

...the Jets couldn't hang around for a while with the Patriots. Sure, you might have expected New England to punish the Jets for both last Sunday night's 4th-and-2-fueled collapse and New York's 16-9 supposed statement-maker versus the Pats back in Week 2. But with their season hanging in the balance, it stood to reason that the Jets would answer the bell, which they really didn't in falling behind 24-0 in an eventual 31-14 loss. Quarterback Mark Sanchez was awful again, starting the day's scoring off with an interception that was returned for a 53-yard touchdown by cornerback Leigh Bodden, and ending up with five turnovers (four INT, one fumble) for the day. Meanwhile, Rex Ryan's defense was given something to cry about by Wes Welker, who piled up 192 yards on 15 catches in a game that dropped Gang Green (4-6) three full games behind New England (7-3) in the division.

I WAS NOT SURPRISED THAT...

...the Eagles got back in business. After back-to-back disappointing performances against Dallas and San Diego, and after watching the Cowboys and Giants win earlier in the day, you just knew Philadelphia was going to rebound with a strong effort in Chicago. It was by no means easy for Donovan McNabb and company, as Philly committed three turnovers but received a long fourth- quarter touchdown drive, along with some good defense late, to finish off a 24-20 Sunday night win over the Bears. The Windy City native McNabb was a relatively crisp 23-of-32 for 244 yards and two touchdowns with one interception, with DeSean Jackson (8 receptions, 107 yards, 1 TD) and LeSean McCoy (20 rushes, 99 yards) also adding value in the triumph. A Sean Jones interception off of Jay Cutler (24-of-43, 171 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) ended a final rally attempt for the Bears (4-6), who have lost five of six since a 3-1 start.

...the Lions-Browns tilt was both competitive and entertaining. I love games between bad teams, who always play hard against one another given the golden opportunity for a rare win, and usually look a lot better than they really are while playing against someone on their level. That script held in the Lions' 38-37 win over the Browns, which saw Matthew Stafford (26-of-43, 422 yards, 5 TD, 2 INT) out-duel Brady Quinn (21-of-33, 304 yards, 4 TD) in a game that will feature prominently on both quarterbacks' otherwise brief highlight reels. Stafford's one-yard touchdown pass to rookie tight end Brandon Pettigrew at the final gun, which followed a pass interference call on the Browns' Hank Poteat that gave the Lions one untimed play, allowed Detroit to have the final word. Stafford, who seemed to suffer a serious shoulder injury on the final drive but continued to play, became the first rookie quarterback since 1937 to throw five touchdown passes in a game.

...Brett Favre kept rolling against the Seahawks. Seattle had experienced major problems in getting veteran quarterbacks like Kurt Warner and Peyton Manning off the field earlier this season, so it stood to reason that the Seahawks would have very little clue against the ageless wonder wearing number four. Sure enough, Favre completed a Phil Simms-like 22-of-25 passes for 213 yards and four touchdowns without an interception in Minnesota's 35-9 rout, throwing touchdowns to Sidney Rice, Bernard Berrian, Visanthe Shiancoe and Percy Harvin. The supposed renaissance of the Seattle running game, which was hinted at when Justin Forsett rushed for 123 yards last week, crumbled, as Forsett managed just nine yards on eight carries to chafe all the fantasy owners that made him a waiver-wire pickup this past week.

...the Colts got it done. Indianapolis had flown close to the sun in each of its last three wins, beating the 49ers, Texans and Patriots by a combined eight points, so it was no surprise that a desperate Ravens team gave Indy all it could handle on Sunday. But a critical interception by Colts linebacker Gary Brackett at the Indianapolis 14-yard line and less than three minutes to play prevented Baltimore from attempting a go-ahead field goal, and Peyton Manning and company moved to 10-0 with a 17-15 victory. The Ravens held Manning under 300 yards passing and intercepted him twice, but a dubious decision by coach John Harbaugh to challenge a first-down spot in the waning moments, followed by an errant (and needless) lateral attempt by Ed Reed on a subsequent punt return helped Indy lock up its 19th consecutive regular season victory.

...Eli Manning looked like an NFL quarterback again. Manning had come under fire during the Giants' four-game losing streak, throwing just four interceptions versus six interceptions over that stretch, while failing to finish off critical drives, and displaying some of the inaccuracy and questionable decision-making that had plagued him earlier in his career. But Manning came up big in the Giants' 34-31 overtime win over the Falcons, completing 25-of-39 passes for a season-high 384 yards with three touchdowns and an interception to get Big Blue back into the win column. The Giants defense still had some issues, as it allowed two long Falcons drives in the fourth-quarter that helped Atlanta rally from 31-17 down to force overtime, but Manning bailed out that group by leading an eight-play, 49-yard drive in overtime that ended with Lawrence Tynes' 36-yard game-winning field goal.

IF THE PLAYOFFS STARTED TODAY (WHICH THEY PROBABLY WON'T)

AFC Byes: No. 1 Colts (10-0), No. 2 Bengals (7-3) AFC Playoffs: No. 3 Chargers (7-3) vs. 6 Steelers (6-4); No. 4 Patriots (7-3) vs. No. 5 Jaguars (6-4)

NFC Byes: No. 1 Saints (10-0), No. 2 Vikings (9-1) NFC Playoffs: No. 3 Cardinals (7-3) vs No. 6 Packers (6-4); No. 4 Cowboys (7-3) vs. No. 5 Eagles (6-4)

LET'S GET QUIZZICAL

Easy one this week: the last 1,000-yard rusher on each NFL team. I got 'em all relatively quickly, as will many of you:

http://www.sporcle.com/games/MehdiBluecheese/last_1000_yard_rusher