It's the biggest game in Houston Texans franchise history. Admittedly, we're not talking about decades of legend here -- the team has been in existence since 2002 -- but at two games over .500 for the first time ever and facing a Colts team they've never beaten in Indianapolis, the Texans now have the opportunity to make a very large divisional (and potential postseason) statement. In beating the Bengals, 49ers, and Bills in the last three weeks, Houston's formerly porous defense hasn't allowed 100 yards rushing or 300 yards passing, and linebacker Brian Cushing(notes) looks like the leading Defensive Rookie of the Year candidate. That's all well and good, but we know that the 7-0 Colts will test that defense to its limits.

It's on the other side of the ball where you might find the surprises. Peyton Manning(notes) doesn't lead the league in passing yards; that would be Texans quarterback Matt Schaub(notes) with 2,342 to Manning's 2,227. Schaub won't have tight end Owen Daniels(notes), out for the season with a torn ACL. But he will have receiver Andre Johnson(notes), among the toughest receivers to stop in the game. And with the Colts' injury situation, expect the Texans to spread things out with multi-receiver sets.

In the last week, the Colts have found out the following: Safety Bob Sanders(notes) will be out for the season with a biceps tear, cornerback Marlin Jackson(notes) is out for the year with a torn ACL, and cornerback Kelvin Hayden(notes) will be out for up to a month with his own knee injury. Sanders hasn't played much in the last few years, and the Colts like replacement Melvin Bullitt(notes) enough to have people wondering about Sanders' future with the team. Rookie corners Jerraud Powers(notes) and Jacob Lacey(notes) have stepped up in recent weeks, but the depth situation is pretty woeful. And the challenges for that young secondary only increase as the season progresses -- in the next month, Indy faces Houston twice, as well as New England, and Baltimore. All high-octane passing offenses, and all will be ready to tee off on the kids.

Enter the Texans. At 5-3, this team could make some serious hay even if they split the season series with the Colts, and there's never been a better time to get that done. Look for head coach Gary Kubiak and offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan to force matchups away from pressure, leaving the corners on an island and pass-rushers Dwight Freeney(notes) and Robert Mathis(notes) as the only real threats to Schaub's potential statistical dominance.

Last Sunday, Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson destroyed the Jacksonville Jaguars defense for 228 rushing yards on 24 carries -- 9.8 yards per carry, and a long run of 89 yards. An amazing 40 percent of the Titans' yards on the ground come after 10 yards this season, and that's just about all on Johnson, who leads the NFL in rushing with 824 yards. He also leads the league in big plays from a back -- 10 runs for over 20 yards and five runs for over 40. Once he gets past your front four, Johnson is a major problem to bring down -- especially when he's facing a team like the Jaguars, whose defense is emblematic of the NFL's current trouble with tackling. It seemed that every time Johnson hit the edge against the Jags, there was safety Reggie Nelson(notes), ready for another whiff. And Tennessee's underrated offensive line pushed Jacksonville's front four around all day.

However, Johnson's got a bigger challenge this week -- the days of "four-lane highway" rushing lanes and missed tackles might be over in the short term. The Titans face the San Francisco 49ers today, and this is a defense primed to stop the big play on the ground. They've only allowed three rushes of 20 yards or more, and no back has gone for 40 or more on them this season. San Francisco has speed on the perimeter and the ability to clamp down on speed backs. According to Football Outsiders, the Niners rank fourth in yards per carry allowed to the left end (2.52) and fifth in runs allowed to right end (2.42). Johnson will face additional challenges in that San Francisco's defense doesn't have much incentive to back into coverage with Vince Young(notes) under center. In fact, because Young rolls out so much, and is so much better as a passer when he does, the Niners have all the reason in the world to guard the edges above all else.

So watch San Francisco's edge defenders -- the always underrated Justin Smith(notes) at end, and outside linebackers Manny Lawson(notes) and Parys Haralson(notes) -- especially on those breakout plays in which Johnson tries to bounce outside. Last Sunday, the Niners negated Indy's rushing attack, and the ubiquitous stretch play, limiting Joseph Addai(notes) to 62 yards on 20 carries. True to the ethos of head coach Mike Singletary, these guys arrive at the ballcarrier in a very bad mood. Can they stop Johnson, the single most dangerous ground threat in the league?

It was hidden beneath the pure organizational debaclizations of the St. Louis Rams and the Detroit Lions, but a very strong candidate for Tackle of the Year occurred in St.Louis' 17-10 win last Sunday. With 13:51 left in the game and a 10-10 tie on the board, the Lions kicked off after a Matthew Stafford(notes) rushing touchdown. Rams receiver Danny Amendola(notes) took the ball at the St. Louis 5-yard line, started upfield, and ... well, as Dan and Keith used to say on the Big Show, "He got the sheep knocked out of him." (Note: Despite the lame video title, Amendola was NOT paralyzed. Sheesh.)

Yeah, that'll leave a mark -- hat tip to Yahoo's own Mike Silver for the link. The tackler, Lions rookie linebacker Zack Follett(notes), has a pretty unique way of looking at the world. I've covered the last three Scouting Combines, and of all the press conferences I've seen, Follett's was the most fun. For one thing, while he's a fan of Brian Urlacher(notes), his real hero is a bit more of a downhill force who plays much better indoors.

"Growing up, Terry Tate, No. 56, the Office Linebacker, he was my hero watching those commercials. I tried to emulate him when I was out there. ... Junior year of high school, I went to Champs Sports and they sold a Reebok Terry Tate number 56 jersey, and I bought one immediately. We watched all his YouTube clips and he's bringing the 'Pain Train' and doing the 'whoop-whoop' sound and I used to do it in high school, and I used to blow the horn. It kind of stuck with me a little bit."

Follett also hopes to get a little side business going.

"I make things out of wood. My dad taught me when I was little ... When I was a senior, I took it to the next level. I started making wood cutouts. I did one of myself, kind of experimenting. My other linebacker partner painted it. It was a life-size replica.

"I did one of (fullback) Lorenzo Neal(notes) because we used to train together (when Follett was at Cal). He's the only pro player I knew at the time. Hopefully, from an investment standpoint, I'm going to open a little wood shop wherever I move and I'll make them of teammates because I know they have a lot of money to waste."

If Follett keeps hitting like he did on the play above, he'll find a place in the NFL in the long term. As for Amendola, maybe he'll remember to put the cover on his TPS report next time!

The recent travails of the American economy have affected just about everyone. But when it comes to the country's interest in the National Football League, people are simply switching allegiances from out-of-pocket to stay-at-home. According to a report by Mark Maske of the Washington Post, television ratings for NFL games are at their highest in 20 years, with an average of 17.2 million viewers watching each game. Those numbers are up 15 percent from last season. Former CBS Sports President Neal Pilson and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft agree that the ratings spike is due to a desire of those whose wallets are lighter these days to stay closer to home.

"I think people are making conscious decisions that their entertainment dollars are best spent watching NFL games free on their television sets on Sunday afternoon and Sunday night and Monday night," Pilson said in the article. Another theory is that most of the NFL's worst teams, like the Chiefs, Rams, and Titans, are in smaller markets.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledges the trend. "Since we continue to be available on free television, our fans can gather around the television sets rather than pursuing other opportunities that are more costly." One wonders if Goodell is tipping his hand when it comes to the thought of a pay-per-view model with that remark -- certainly if this continues and small-market teams struggle in the wake of half-empty stadiums (the Jacksonville Jaguars will suffer their fourth TV blackout this season when they face the Chiefs on Sunday), a pay model might be thrown out there in continued CBA discussions as a way to keep the revenue-sharing model going. Overall, NFL attendance is down about two percent from last year according to Maske's article, but that's far more indicative of those small-market struggles than it is a ding on teams like the Cowboys, Giants, Jets, Redskins, Broncos and Seahawks, who have been selling out their stadiums as a near-automatic proposition.

On the verge of a CBA meltdown, an uncapped year, a possible lockout, and a very different business model, the NFL will have to find new ways to draw viewers and make money from that viewership. As it has many times before, television may be pro football's saving grace.

Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder takes a lot of heat from a lot of people these days, but his harshest critic might be John Riggins, a beloved former Redskins running back. These days, Riggins is a D.C. sports media personality, and he doesn't hold back on the topic of Snyder.

It's like Riggo saw this video of Daniel Snyder being just a tiny bit relatable, sensed that a few people didn't hate Snyder as much as they did before, and immediately wanted to rectify that. Riggins was on Showtime's "Inside the NFL" on Wednesday night and unleashed his coldest words yet. Here are some of Riggo's words, via Dan Steinberg at the Washington Post:

"...This is a bad guy that owns this team. I'll just tell you that upfront. Bad guy. And if the Commissioner is worried about potential new owners and saying some of these guys shouldn't apply, he might want to police his own inside guys..."

Cris Collinsworth tried to maybe easy Riggins in the direction of saying that Snyder is a bad GM instead of a bad person, but Riggins made it clear what he meant.

"Let me put it to you this way, Cris, this person's heart is dark."

His heart is dark. Not a lot of gray area there. It would be hard to say something worse about a person than, "His heart is dark."

To me, that means that this is a person trying to do evil. This is a person who wants to, or doesn't care about, hurting other people.. He's not misguided, he's not trying to do the right thing and failing, it's not his fault because his daddy didn't hug him enough as a child ... he's just a bad person who seeks to spread misery. His heart pumps not with warm, life-giving human blood, but a frigid, black bile that fuels his foul existence.

Is that about what you're saying, Riggo? Because that's how I interpret it, and it's a little messed up, my man.

After the relative peace of a bye week, the Redskins return on Sunday to play the Falcons in Atlanta. 

Apparently, it doesn't take Terrell Owens(notes) to cause a receiver controversy in Dallas -- all you need is a trade in which Jerry Jones got fleeced by the Detroit Lions, one maddeningly underachieving diva, and an undrafted free agent that came out of nowhere to put up two of the finest performances at his position in recent memory.

The diva in question is Roy Williams, the ex-Lions receiver who hasn't come close to fulfilling the price Dallas paid for him -- first-, third-, and sixth-round picks in 2009, plus a seventh back in 2010. Through Week 8 of the 2009 season, Williams has 14 catches for 249 yards and two touchdowns. He's fourth in receiver productivity on the team, behind Jason Witten(notes), Patrick Crayton(notes), and some guy by the name of Miles Austin(notes), who has put up individual-game performances of 250 and 171 receiving yards in the last month. Austin is getting his first starts this season, and he's making the most of it. The same cannot be said of Williams, whose resemblance to Owens is only in sheer disgruntlement.

"I'm the No. 1 receiver," Williams recently told the Dallas media. "But things are just going No. 2's way." No. 2 is obviously Austin, and Williams wasn't done shifting blame away from himself.

"(Austin) gets the ball thrown correctly his way. I'm stretching and falling and doing everything. Everybody who's been here's balls are there. Our footballs are everywhere right now."

What Williams is trying to say, in a convoluted fashion, is that Tony Romo(notes) is throwing footballs with extreme efficiency to everyone else on the team, and hurling Ryan Leaf goatballs to him. That, and not Williams' sloppy routes and alligator arms, is the reason Dallas' "star receiver" has caught 14 of the 37 balls thrown his way, for a pathetic catch rate of 38 percent (as opposed to Crayton's 51 percent and Austin's 62 percent).

Now, it's come out that Michael Irvin offered tips to Williams and Austin during the Cowboys' training camp about anticipating the snap count and using correct catch technique. Irvin recently said that while Austin was a willing and grateful pupil, Williams wasn't interested. Say what you will about Irvin, but there haven't been many receivers in NFL history with his absolutely demonic competitive spirit once he got on the field. Austin understands that every little bit helps. Williams clearly doesn't.

The Cowboys have a major problem on their hands with Williams. His high price forces the team to put him in a lead role he hasn't earned and doesn't deserve, and it may take more bad plays and blamescaping before this sad experiment comes to an end.

Priest Holmes(notes) is currently the all-time leading rusher for the Kansas City Chiefs, but Larry Johnson(notes) -- recently suspended for "conduct detrimental to the team", i.e. using a nasty gay slur twice in a 24-hour period -- is closing in on that record. If he gets 30 or so more carries, he should get it.

A lot of Chiefs fans don't want that to happen. They love their Chiefs, they respect the franchise's history, and they don't want Johnson's name associated with it. It's not just because of the recent suspension, either. If you're looking for them, you'll find no shortage of reasons to dislike Larry Johnson.

So fans are taking matters into their own hands and circulating a petition asking the Chiefs to deactivate Johnson before he can claim the record. The petition reads, in part:

We are asking you, as fans of this team, this organization, and of the pride that this city has in the Chiefs, please deactivate Larry Johnson. Please do not let his name sit atop the all-time rushing leaders in Kansas City Chiefs history. He needs a mere 80 yards to surpass Priest. He doesn’t deserve that opportunity. He has never represented anything close to the values that we have for our Chiefs and it would be another dagger to the fans that continue to support this proud franchise.

If you'd like to add your name to the almost 10,000 that have already signed it, you can do so here.

It's a nice notion, trying to protect the record book from someone who isn't believed to have the character of others in there before him. It's easy to see where petitioners are coming from, and their devotion to a proud Chiefs history is commendable.

If it were my team, though, and some disreputable character was about to put his name in my team's record book ... I don't think I'd sign a similar petition. At the end of the day, what's most important to me is that the team is doing its best to win football games.

I believe there's one thing that should always be true about an organization. As Herm Edwards (sorry, Chiefs fans) once said, You Play To Win The Game. The fans who play to watch their team deserve the best effort to win. The rest of the guys on the team deserve the best effort to win. If that happens to come in the form of a not-so-nice guy running the football, then so be it.

I like the Dalai Lama. I don't like Larry Johnson. I'd rather have Larry Johnson running the football for me.

The nice thing about this particular case, though, is that Johnson is neither a nice guy or a productive running back, so his benching would seem to suit everyone. He's currently picking up 2.7 yards per carry and has no touchdowns. Backup Jamaal Charles(notes), meanwhile, has averaged a 5.0-yard gain on his 23 carries this year. So whether you see it my way, or the way of the petition signers, benching Larry Johnson seems to be the right thing to do.

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On the very special 30th podcast here at Shutdown Corner, we take a look at arguably the AFC's most interesting team, the Denver Broncos. To help us do so, special guest Kyle Montgomery of BroncoTalk.net swings by to drop some Broncos knowledge.

We talk, of course, about last week's disaster in Baltimore, why it happened, and what it means for the Broncos going forward. We talk about the evolution of the Josh McDaniels era, and how much fun it's been if you're a Broncos fan. There's Kyle Orton(notes) talk, Brandon Marshall(notes) talk and plenty of talk about this week's key matchup against the Steelers.

Danks and I also have the standards: the abusive e-mail of the week, the Hot Routes and I try to protect my one-game lead in the Picks Segment. Here are the games we pick this week (home teams in CAPS):

Baltimore Ravens -3 vs. CINCINNATI BENGALS
INDIANAPOLIS COLTS -9 vs. Houston Texans
NEW ORLEANS SAINTS - 13½ vs. Carolina Panthers
NEW YORK GIANTS - 4½ vs. San Diego Chargers
Pittsburgh Steelers -3 vs. DENVER BRONCOS

You can listen right here:

Or download the MP3 right here. MP3, 38:31, 18.1 MB.

Is Hines Ward(notes) simply a guy who likes to play hard or a cheap shot artist? According to NFL players, it's the latter.

Sports Illustrated asked 296 players who they thought was the dirtiest player in the league and the Pittsburgh Steelers receiver was a resounding victor, earning nearly double the votes of the next highest player. 

I was always on Ward's side when it came to the dirty/hard argument, but his block on Keith Rivers last year swayed me to the other side. It's a gray area though; if Ward was on my favorite team I'd defend him to the death.

Below is a partial list of vote-getters, their percentage of the vote and a brief description of their dirtiness. You'll find that there is literally nothing surprising about the results of the poll, other than that Vince Young(notes) got a vote. (What, he throws his clipboard at people?)

1. Hines Ward (11.6 percent): One of two players on this list to have a rule informally named after themselves, Ward is known for lighting up defenders with a bit too much gusto after an interception or fumble.

2. Albert Haynesworth(notes) (6.0 percent): We can safely assume that Haynesworth earned the vote of Andre Gurode. 

4. Roy Williams (5.1 percent): Even though the horse collar rule was made to protect the league's quarterbacks from the former Dallas Cowboys "star", I had never really thought that Williams was dirty. I just figured he did it because he couldn't tackle.

7. Richie Incognito(notes) (3.7 percent): You know that famous baseball-related bar trivia question that asks how many ways a batter can reach first base? Incognito's dossier reads like a list of all the possible ways to accrue a personal foul.

Even though he retired last spring, former Chargers safety Rodney Harrison(notes) received three votes, thus showing that dirtiness can live on in perpetuity. 

Tennessee running back Chris Johnson broke a 52-yard touchdown run on Sunday, which is the kind of thing you can't do without excellent foot speed. That kind of speed, Gus Johnson calls "Gettin' away from the cops" speed.

As you might imagine, Gus took some criticism for the comment. Consequently, he has apologized:

"If there is a perception of racism in this analogy, it is not coming from me. People of all races have run from the law. However, to those who are offended, I apologize."

Gus is right, I guess. Have you ever seen "Cops"? There are black people, white people, Latino people, all running from the police. Unfortunately for them, it seems that very few have "Gettin' away from the cops" speed. Or shirts.

True or not, though, the issue isn't that cut and dry. I accept that Gus Johnson made the remark without ill will for anyone, but that's not the point. The point is that remarks like that one, or "He's running like he stole something" are often used in a harmful way, implying that a black man has stolen something and/or has developed his speed while evading the police. Regardless of the intent behind it, it's not something that's completely harmless to say about a fast black man.

Clouding the issue, though, is that I think the expression is used differently in some parts of the black community. One guy might say about a fast guy, "He's got speed like he's running from the cops," not implying that the guy stole something, but that, you know, cops chase black people, whether they've stolen something or not.

It's not a simple thing that I can sort out myself. Context matters. Culture matters. This particular issue will vanish soon, but we'll have to deal with about a million more like it in the future. It's not going to get any easier.