Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Raheem Morris says don’t call it a comeback, as the Bucs regrouped from a humiliating 48-3 loss in San Francisco in week 6, to beat the first place Saints 26-20. The 45-point margin of defeat tied the worst in the franchise’s history, in a game that looked more like a team out of the Southeastern Conference playing The Citadel. Tampa Bay was penalized nine times, and surrendered 28 first downs to San Francisco. It’s scary to think that out of those 28 first downs, the 49ers only converted two of those on third down. I hadn’t seen a beating like that since the last time Akon let a fan on stage. A week later, and the Bucs held the NFLs second best offense to only 20 points. Sean Payton suffered a Willis Mcgahee 2003 Fiesta Bowl-esque broken leg in the first quarter after a gruesome collision along the sidelines with Saints tight end Jimmy Graham. Payton was able to coach from the sidelines while sitting on a bench, but probably had his mind elsewhere; like how easy “left foot, yellow” is going to be in Twister for now on.

The Giants once again found themselves in a nail-biter down the stretch against another team with low expectations as New York won a late field goal over Buffalo. The Harvard graduate Ryan Fitzpatrick threw a critical interception at the Giants four yard line with just over four minutes to go in the game. The Bills had a first down on the Giants 27, going in for the game winning score until Fitzpatrick severely under threw wide out Stevie Johnson, and paid for it for dearly. If anyone out there thought that maybe Fitzpatrick had invented Facebook, Giants cornerback Corey Webster quickly put those rumors to sleep. Fitzpatrick had been heating up, completing his last eight passes prior to the INT, but succumbed to a Giants defense ranking 3rd in the NFC with 13 takeaways. The Giants have now played Washington, St. Louis, Arizona, Seattle, Buffalo, and Miami at home this week. A schedule of teams that even Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee would appreciate as being labeled “The Little Sisters of the Poor”.

Dallas lost another heartbreaker to New England this week, as Tom Brady connected on a game-winning TD pass to Aaron Hernandez with 22 seconds left to drop the Cowboys below .500. Dallas was looking poised to erase the memories of a week 6 loss vs. Detroit that saw them blow a 20-point halftime lead, but failed to convert on critical redzone opportunities. Dallas had to settle for two short field goals in the second half, and failed to put the Pats away. Every one of Dallas’ games has been decided by four points or less, but I’m sure Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, figures Dallas should have won them all. Even Robert Shapiro would say Jones has some guts sticking with this team. New England has not lost a home game since 2008.

The most talked about moment of week 7 didn’t even occur during regulation, it happened after the final whistle as 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh and Lions head coach Jim Schwartz almost got into a street fight after Schwartz claims that Harbaugh disrespected him during the after-game handshake. Coming off their fourth consecutive victory, Harbaugh ditched the usual bee-line towards the opposing coach, and did his best Jim Valvano routine, parading around the field looking for anyone to hug, like he had just beaten Phi Slamma Jamma. By the time Schwartz got to Harbaugh, the 49er coach seemed to be caught off guard a little bit, and did one of those rough house handshakes that you see guys in fraternities do after they realize they’ve been paired with the Chi Omegas for the Greek Games. Schwartz instantly looked back at Harbaugh like he had just hit him with water from a fake lapel flower. Than Schwartz chased after Harbaugh like he was a Giants fan in the parking lot of Dodger game. After the game, Schwartz said that the Niners rookie coach had failed to follow standard protocol codes for NFL coaches. I guess Schwartz considers yelling expletives you would hear on Iced Tea albums “protocol”.