• The average number of points scored by the winning Super Bowl team is 30.1 points while the average for the losing team is 15.3 points.  However, those numbers are somewhat skewed by the assortment of rule changes that have favored the offenses.  Before the adoption of the illegal contact penalty in 1978, the average score was 23.4 to 9.6.

• Drew Brees has yet to win a playoff game outside of the Superdome.  If the Saints win the Super Bowl then Brees will become just the 8th QB to have his first career non-home playoff win come in the Super Bowl.  The last to do it was the recently retired Kurt Warner in 1999.

• By the time Super Bowl XLIV starts, it will have been exactly 400 days since the Colts lost a game in which Peyton Manning played into the 4th quarter and 504 days since they lost to a team that plays a 4-3 defense under that same condition.

• Speaking of 4-3 defenses: the Colts will finally play one in the playoffs for the first time since Super Bowl XLI against the Bears.  Indy has not lost a playoff game to a 4-3 team since January 4, 2003.

• If Adam Vinatieri plays vs. the Saints then it will be his sixth Super Bowl which will tie the most ever by a single player (Mike Lodish).  If the Colts win then Vinatieri will have five Super Bowl wins which will tie him with Charles Haley for the most all-time.

• The Colts’ current starting kicker, Matt Stover turned 42 on January 27, 2010 which means he will be the oldest player to ever play in the Super Bowl once the game comes around.

• Jim Caldwell will seek to become the 3rd rookie head coach to win a Super Bowl joining George Seifert and Don McCafferty.  Like Seifert (Walsh) and McCafferty (Shula), Caldwell is following in the footsteps of a hall of fame coach (Dungy) and all 3 coaches had the luxury of coaching a QB that can arguably be considered the greatest of all time.  (McCafferty had Unitas, Seifert had Montana, and Caldwell has Manning).

• Drew Brees has fumbled 6 times in 5 career playoff games and he has fumbled 12 times in 17 games played this season.  That’s not good news especially considering the fact that Robert Mathis leads the NFL with 31 FFs since 2004 and Dwight Freeney is 3rd over that span with 23 FFs.

• If the Saints are to win then Brees will have to overcome his history of poor performances in Miami.  In two career games at Pro Player/Dolphin Stadium, Brees has thrown 1 TD compared to 4 INTs while being sacked 8 times.

• Speaking of playing surface, Brees has struggled when playing on grass this year as compared to turf while Manning has actually played better on grass than turf despite playing his home games in a dome.  Here is how their numbers stack up when playing on grass:

Anyone who’s paid close attention to the offensive alignment of the Colts during the Manning-era knows exactly where the receivers will line up on a given play.  For years it was always Marvin Harrison on the right (now Pierre Garcon) and Reggie Wayne on the left.  In fact it’s almost mind-boggling when you look at the split statistics of Wayne and Harrison: 74.4% of Wayne’s 676 career receptions have come left of the hashmarks and 73.3% of Harrison’s 1102 career receptions came right of the hashmarks.  Since the two were never aligned side-by-side, then on nearly every play at least one of them was left on single-man coverage and Manning could exploit that matchup.  Now that Harrison is presumably retired, Wayne is left as the focal point of the Colts’ passing attack and he is double-teamed much more than in the past and that has affected Peyton Manning’s numbers.

The chart above shows Peyton Manning’s 2009 pass distribution as related to touchdown and interception percentage.  I chose to use these stats instead of raw TDs and INTs due to there being a varying degree of passing attempts among the three directions.  The first thing that jumps out to me in this chart is how close Manning’s TD% is to his INT% when throwing to the left side (i.e. Reggie Wayne).  It was nearly a 1:1 ratio for the ’09 season as Manning threw 12 TDs compared to 11 INTs as opposed to the other two areas in which Peyton threw for 21 TDs compared to 4 INTs.

The double coverage that Wayne gets is one reason why Peyton’s numbers dip when throwing left, but another reason is the fact that since Peyton is right-handed, he is throwing across his body whenever he throws left.  That is something that pretty much every right-handed QB struggles with and it is the same for lefties when they have to throw right.  The other Super Bowl QB, Drew Brees, is another righty who struggled throwing left as compared to every other direction.  Only 4 of his 34 TDs came when throwing left but the difference between the Saints and the Colts is that New Orleans doesn’t designate its receivers as a LWR and a RWR.  You could see Colston, Meachem, or Henderson line up in either one of those positions as well as in the slot.  Thus, Brees can theoretically avoid throwing in that direction since it’s his weakness and instead go to his right where he is more comfortable throwing towards.

There have only been 33 left-handed quarterbacks in NFL history so there is not that great of a sample size to study pass direction.  But there have been a few southpaws that have received enough playing time recently since the NFL started tracking this stat, namely Michael Vick, Chris Simms, and Drew Brees’ backup, Mark Brunell.  In the graph below you can see the split statistics among these three lefties and the first thing I noticed is that unlike Brees and Manning, these QBs’ TDs come predominantly from the left side as opposed to the right side.  It’s just a natural tendency for QBs to prefer to throw to their strong side.  The defensive players all know that, but will they be able to stop it?  We’ll find out on Sunday.

To the fantasy players who started Peyton Manning this weekend, I feel for you, especially if it was your championship. It was the right play. Manning had passed for 33 touchdowns in the previous 14 weeks of the season, and he and the Colts offense looked unstoppable.

They were.

The Jets would not have beaten the Colts Sunday if Manning and the regulars had played a complete game. I’m certain of that. The Colts would be sitting at 15-0 with sights set on crashing the ‘72 Dolphins champagne party with a perfect regular season and a Super Bowl.

Too bad. At least the team can still win a Super Bowl — assuming it hasn’t lost its competitive edge by rolling over and literally throwing a game against the Jets.

Polian said on his blog that, “16 wins in a season was not our issue. It was someone else’s.” Jim Caldwell said as much in his postgame press conference.

One wonders who Polian refers to when he says “our.” Is it he and the coaching staff? Or does he include the players? Certainly he can’t be referring to the fans. It seems we’re “someone else.”

I also wonder whether he infers Peyton Manning didn’t want a perfect regular season. And I wonder what’s just wrong with going 16-0 in the regular season and why an NFL team wouldn‘t make that a goal.

True, the Colts would be risking injuries in the final two games of the regular season. It’s also true that the team had locked up the number one seed in the playoffs, so technically weeks 16 and 17 were and are “meaningless.” Technically.

Was Jim Caldwell and his staff afraid that if Manning played a couple more quarters he’d get seriously injured? Because, remember, we’re talking about the Peyton Manning who hasn’t missed a start in his career and a protective offensive line that had surrendered just 10 sacks this season and hadn’t allowed Manning to bite turf with the ball since week 12.

And all this talk about leaving Manning in too long and risking injury got me thinking: what about the Colts wins earlier this season? The team had an 18 point lead going into the fourth quarter against the Cardinals week 3; a week later against the Seahawks, Indianapolis led 28-3 going into the final 15 minutes; they led 28-9 going into the final quarter week 5 against Tennessee; and week 7 Indy led 28-6 with 15 to play.

Manning never left any of those games. This past week was the first time this season another quarterback threw a pass, and when rookie Curtis Painter took the field against the Jets, Indianapolis led by five with 5:36 left in the third quarter.

Never before had the Colts taken their figurative cleats off the throats of opponents this season. But for some reason, this is the week Manning could get hurt? Why wasn’t he taken out of previous games when the Colts held massive leads?

“Coach Caldwell and I repeated over and over and over again, that, no, 16-0 was not our goal,” Bill Polian reiterated. “It was not something we felt was important. It was not something that we felt we owed anyone.”

When the postseason rolls around, maybe it won’t be important whether the Colts were 14-2 or 15-1 or 16-0 in the regular season. But the franchise had a golden opportunity to make history. Polian and Jim Caldwell chose to tell everyone that Indianapolis is their team, not the fans. Technically, that’s correct. Technically.

• Adrian Peterson set a Vikings franchise record by rushing for his 14th TD of the season vs. the Bengals.  Peterson also joined elite company by rushing for 97 yards to give him an even 1200 for the season.  “All Day” joined LaDainian Tomlinson, Barry Sanders, Eric Dickerson, and Earl Campbell as the only players to rush for at least 1200 yards and score at least 10 rushing TDs in each of the players’ first three seasons.

• Brandon Marshall’s 21 receptions against the Colts broke a record set by Terrell Owens in 2000 against the Bears.  The one common link between those two games is Casey Wiegmann who is currently the center for the Broncos and was the center for the Bears back in 2000.  Since Wiegmann is an offensive lineman he is often overlooked but he has been one of the most durable and consistent players over the past decade.  He is only one of 10 active players who have started every game since the 2001 season.

• As it currently stands, Felix Jones has the second highest rushing average in NFL history.  Jones reached 100 career carries vs. the Chargers and is averaging 6.95 yards per carry.  That mark is highest among RBs with at least 100 carries as Michael Vick currently holds the all-time record with 7.17 yards per carry.

• Peyton Manning threw 3 INTs vs. the Broncos which is his most in a game since throwing 6 vs. the Chargers in 2007.  It was the first time that Manning threw 3 INTs in a home game since he did it against Miami in 2002.  Manning is now 1-11 in the regular season when throwing at least 3 INTs in a game.

• Chris Johnson joined elite company Sunday vs. the Rams.  CJ became only the fourth player to have multiple games in a season with at least 100 yards rushing, 50 yards receiving, and 3 TDs.  He had also done this earlier in the year against Houston.  Brian Westbrook (2006) and Jim Brown (1963) also had done this twice in one season.  LaDainian Tomlinson did it three times in the 2006 season.

• Ray Rice had an amazingly efficient game against the Lions as Rice had 166 rushing yards (and 53 receiving yards) on just 13 carries.  Rice became only the fourth player since 1960 to rush for at least 160 yards on 13 or fewer carries.  The others are Maurice Jones-Drew (2009, Week 8), Michael Vick (2002 and 2006) and Keith Lincoln (1962).

• Just food for thought: While watching the Saints play the Falcons and Chris Redman, it struck me that the Saints have played some pretty inexperienced QBs this season.  Thus, I decided to tabulate the number of career games started by the QBs that the Saints have faced this year and that number came out to 490 starts.  By comparison, the Colts’ opponents QBs have started 818 career games.

• *Gem of the Week* - Against the Vikings, Carson Palmer became the first player in NFL history to attempt at least 25 passes for fewer than 100 yards while maintaining a QB rating of at least 75.  Think about that: he threw the ball 25 times but only managed 94 passing yards while still keeping a respectable passer rating (81.1).

• Drew Brees reached two milestones in the Saints victory over the Falcons.  He threw his 200th passing TD becoming only the 29th player to accomplish that feat.  He also reached 30,000 passing yards for his career which is a milestone that only 32 other players have reached.

• DeSean Jackson showed no ill effects from his concussion two weeks ago as he had 261 all-purpose yards and 2 TDs against the Giants on Sunday Night Football.  Jackson became the first player in NFL history to gain 175 receiving yards and return a punt for a TD in the same game.

• To start off, I want to congratulate Jamal Lewis on a great, yet underrated NFL career.  Lewis was placed on IR last week which ends his career since he said earlier this year that 2009 would be his last season.  He retires as one of the 24 members of the 10,000 rushing yards club but of those 24 players, Lewis is only one of three to make the Pro Bowl just one time.  Lewis, Fred Taylor, and John Riggins are the only members of that club to not receive more than one invitation to Hawaii.

• Another member of that 10,000 rushing yards club, LaDainian Tomlinson, had two milestones against the Browns.  He passed Marshall Faulk and Jim Brown (with Brown in attendance) to jump into 8th place all time in rushing yards.  LT also scored his 150th career touchdown and he’ll have to keep up his current pace for a couple of more seasons to hold off Randy Moss who has 145 touchdowns but is only 32 which is relatively young for a wide receiver.

• With 109 rushing yards vs. the Bills, Thomas Jones now has 1,068 yards for the season which makes him one of only 12 players in NFL history who has two 1,000 yard rushing seasons in his thirties.  The 31-year-old Jones had 1,312 rushing yards last year.

• From 2000-2008 the Patriots were able to overcome a big game from an opposing QB but things have changed this year.  In those first nine years, opposing teams were 5-19 when their QB threw for at least 300 yards against the Patriots’ defense.  This year, after Chad Henne threw for 335 yards in the Dolphins’ win, opposing teams are now 4-0 when their QB throws for 300 yards against the Patriots.

• What Bruce Gradkowski did to the Steelers was simply historic.  Gradkowski became only the second QB in NFL history to throw for 300+ yards and 3 TDs in a road win over Pittsburgh.  The other player was Y.A. Tittle back in 1962.  Gradkowski threw for as many touchdowns in the fourth quarter (2) as JaMarcus Russell had thrown all season.

• With 14 receptions against the Giants, Jason Witten became one of only five players to have at least 14 receptions in a game twice in their career.  The others are Jerry Rice, Marvin Harrison, Jimmy Smith, and Kellen Winslow Sr.

• Wes Welker had 10 receptions for 167 yards against the Dolphins, but he did not score a touchdown.  It marked the sixth time in Welker’s career that he had at least 10 receptions without one of them going for a score.  Only Jerry Rice had more games like this with eight in his career.

• Drew Brees completed 35 of 49 pass attempts for 419 yards against the Redskins.  It was Brees’ fifth career 400 yard passing game and his sixth career game with at least 35 pass completions which is a new NFL record.  Brees broke out of a tie with Rich Gannon and Dan Marino who each had five career games with 35+ pass completions.

• The Colts now have 113 regular season wins in this decade which ties the all-time mark for wins in a decade set by the 49ers in the 1990s.  The only other teams who have reached 100 wins this decade are the Patriots (109), Eagles (100), and Steelers (100).

• Cedric Benson rushed 36 times for 110 yards against the Lions marking the third time this season he has carried the ball at least 30 times in a game.  No other player has done it even once this year.

It’s Tuesday, and with all games having been played, it’s time to get going on our weekly routine of looking at targets from the previous day’s NFL action.

- T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Seattle Seahawks: As our graph shows, Houshmandzadeh has been the recipient of 97 targets this season, including a team-high six in Seattle’s win over the Rams last week. However, he hasn’t done much considering only seven players have gotten more looks than he has. He caught a measly two passes for 14 yards last week, and has only 56 receptions for 632 yards so far in the ’09 campaign. The high number of targets he’s received is just another reason to count him among the biggest disappointments of the fantasy football season.

- Michael Jenkins, Atlanta Falcons: Jenkins received eight targets last week in Atlanta’s win over the Buccaneers, and he came down with seven receptions for 80 yards. While Tony Gonzalez and Roddy White got more looks (12 and 13, respectively), and will continue to do so, Jenkins’ production over his last two games should not be ignored; he had six receptions for 76 yards two weeks ago. His catch totals in each of his past two games have each been season-highs, and his 80 receiving yards are a season-high.

- Terrell Owens, Buffalo Bills: The wideout with the most targets for the Bills last week wasn’t Owens, it was Lee Evans. Evans received six targets, and Owens had five, yet T.O. had far more success, catching all five of the passes thrown his way for 96 yards and a touchdown, while Evans had only two catches for 40 yards. Beware of getting caught in the trap that is Owens’ big numbers of late – he faces the Jets this weekend, and Darrelle Revis has shut nearly every big-time wide receiver down this season.

- Pierre Garcon, Indianapolis Colts: Garcon received seven targets from Peyton Manning last week in the Colts’ come-from-behind win over the Texans. That included a number of red zone looks, and Garcon responded with five receptions for 63 yards and one touchdown. His seven targets were the second-most on the team behind Dallas Clark, and were one more than Reggie Wayne.

- Chris Chambers, Kansas City Chiefs: Chambers was targeted eight times last week as the Chiefs got blown out by Chambers’ old team, the Chargers. He led the team in targets, and wound up with seven catches for 71 yards and a touchdown. He’s unquestionably the No. 1 wideout for K.C. with Dwayne Bowe out due to suspension, and his targets should reflect that.

- Other Week 10 target numbers of interest: Kenny Britt, 11; Sidney Rice, Mark Clayton, Sam Aiken, 10; Laveranues Coles, 9; Michael Crabtree, Josh Morgan, Chansi Stuckey, 8; Jeremy Maclin, Chaz Schilens, Sammie Stroughter, Brian Hartline, 7; Robert Meachem, 6; Chad Ochocinco, 5; Roy Williams, 4; Devin Hester, 2.

Installing Vince Young in your fantasy football lineup during the most critical part of the season isn’t going to make your team turn into the fantasy equivalent of the ’99 Rams or ’07 Patriots – just look at Young’s fantasy points-per-week on the graph below – but that doesn’t mean he can’t be at least somewhat beneficial.

True, he has thrown for over 175 yards just once in his last four starts, and has not thrown for multiple touchdowns in any of them, but at this point in the season, those fantasy owners who are in need of a quarterback for the fantasy playoffs have probably already made due with a lesser player at that position anyway, and instead have leaned on the strengths of their running backs and wideouts. Essentially, if you need a player like Young, you’re just looking for him not to kill you.

And any fantasy football owner who has used Young before is familiar with the pain he can cause. In 2007, for example, in his second season and with fairly big expectations after his rookie of the year campaign in 2006, he didn’t throw for 200 or more yards until Week 10, threw for multiple touchdowns in only three contests, and had more interceptions than touchdown passes in nine different games.

But the 2009 version of Vince Young is a seemingly different player, and one that needn’t be completely ignored by fantasy enthusiasts. Part of the reason for that is his match-ups the rest of the way. First of all, he has four home games over the next five weeks, including three straight at home from Weeks 14-16, which are dates that make up the fantasy playoffs in most leagues. But starting this week, really only two of his five match-ups that remain in the fantasy season could be deemed unfavorable – Week 13 against the Colts in Indy and Week 16 against the Chargers.

This week, however, he faces the Cardinals, who are just 27th in pass defense, and 18th (tied) in passing scores allowed. He follows that up with the Indianapolis game before facing St. Louis, Miami and San Diego. The Rams are 24th in the league in pass defense and 18th (tied) in passing touchdowns allowed, while the Dolphins are 22nd in pass defense and 12th in passing touchdowns given up. However, Miami and Oakland are the only two NFL teams to have given up four rushing touchdowns to opposing quarterbacks, and the Rams are one of just seven teams to have allowed at least two rushing scores to opposing signal-callers. On top of that, St. Louis and Miami are both in the bottom-half of the NFL in interceptions.

So, should you count on Young to single-handedly win you a fantasy championship? Of course not. But will he impede you in accomplishing that goal like he has in the past? Not if you use him wisely he won’t.

• While I have to wait until Super Bowl XLIV to accurately state that New England has held off Pittsburgh as the team of the decade, right now I can undoubtedly say that the Colts and the Ravens have had the decade’s best offenses and defenses, respectively.  But in their recent matchups, both the offense AND the defense of the Colts have overpowered the Ravens.  The teams have met each year since 2004 and Indy has gone 6-0 in those matchups.  The dominant defense in those contests has belonged to Indianapolis as they have allowed four offensive TDs to the Ravens while the Colts’ offense has scored 16 offensive touchdowns on the Ravens’ defense.

• Vince Young has won eight straight starts with the eight starts spread over three seasons.  Although unique, it’s not the first time a QB has won at least eight straight games with the starts spread over more than two seasons.  Trent Dilfer won 15 straight games (including playoffs) with two different teams earlier this decade.  He started the streak in November 2000 with the Ravens, was an undefeated part-time starter with the Seahawks the following year, and didn’t have the streak end until September 2002.

• Tom Brady has not quite been Tom Terrific away from Foxboro recently.  Brady is 0-4 in his last four starts played in American stadiums other than Gillette Stadium with losses to the Giants in the Super Bowl and losses to the Jets, Broncos, and Colts this year.  (The American part is used to distinguish the Tampa Bay game which was played in England and was more of a home game for the Patriots than the Bucs even though it was listed as a “home game” for Tampa Bay.)

• Ryan Fitzpatrick’s 98 yard TD pass to Terrell Owens was the first 98 yard pass completion since 1998.  It was only the third 98 yard TD pass since 1966 and during this 43 year span there have been eight 99 yard TD passes.

• With 103 rushing yards vs. the Patriots, Thomas Jones passed Jim Taylor and Terry Allen to move into 30th all time in rushing yards.  The 31-year-old Jones has averaged 4.6 yards per carry in his 30s as compared to 3.9 yards per carry in his 20s.  Of the 29 players with more career rushing yards than Jones, only four of them also had a better average in their 30s than their 20s (Tiki Barber, Warrick Dunn, Ricky Watters and the still active Fred Taylor).

• Speaking of old running backs; Ricky Williams is on pace for over 1,000 rushing yards despite starting just one game.  If Williams can maintain his current pace, then he will become only the 4th running back in the past 30 years to gain at least 1,000 yards at the age of 32 or older.  Both Walter Payton in 1986 and Emmitt Smith in 2001 eclipsed 1,000 yards at the age of 32 while John Riggins did it at 34 in 1983 and then did it again at 35 in 1984.

• The Kansas City Chiefs only have one rushing touchdown this year.  If they maintain their futility in scoring on the ground for the rest of the season, then they will tie the NFL record for fewest rushing touchdowns in a season.  The 1934 Brooklyn Tigers are the only team in NFL history to only score a single rushing touchdown in a season.

• If Chad Ochocinco can gain 360 more receiving yards by the end of the season, then he will become only the fifth player in NFL history to gain 10,000 receiving yards in that player’s first nine years in the league.  Ochocinco would join Jerry Rice, Marvin Harrison, Randy Moss, and Torry Holt who set the record with 11,864 receiving yards in his first nine years in the league.

• This current Broncos collapse is very similar to the one they had in 2006.  Three years ago the Broncos started off 5-1 thanks to their defense: they only allowed 7 points per game through those first six.  Then from the seventh game on their record was 4-6 and they allowed 26 points per game.  This season the Broncos again started off hot thanks to their defense: they only allowed 11 points per game through the first six.  Then comes game seven and since then Denver is giving up 29 points per game and gone 0-4.  That 2006 team didn’t make the playoffs and I don’t see this current Broncos squad making it either.

• The Raiders’ win against the Bengals was noteworthy for two reasons.  One, it was the game that Oakland had picked before the season even started to honor former player, Marquis Cooper, who died in a boating accident in March of this year.  The other reason that made it significant was the fact that the Raiders scored twice in the final minute for a win for only the second time in their franchise’s 50 year history.  The first time?  You may have heard of it described as the “Heidi Game”.

• After Randy Moss, Ben Watson is Tom Brady’s second favorite target to throw at in the redzone.  But Watson does not make for a good play against Indianapolis on Sunday due to the way the Colts all but eliminate the opposing tight end from the gameplan.  They have only allowed one touchdown to a tight end all year and that was to Vernon Davis who leads the NFL in TD receptions.

• A sleeper defense is the Tennessee Titans.  Though they are statistically ranked last in passing defense, much of that can be attributed to All-Pro CB Cortland Finnegan’s injury.  In the three games Finnegan missed, the Titans gave up 337 passing yards per game along with 12 TDs and just one interception.  They also only had four sacks during those three games.  In the two games since he’s returned, the Titans have collected eight sacks and have picked off the QBs five times during this stretch.  They are also giving up 125 fewer passing yards per game since Finnegan’s return.

• However, with the exception of Chris Johnson, anyone else on the Titans offense is not a good play this week.  If you had any thoughts of starting one of Tennessee’s mediocre wideouts, this should dissuade you: Buffalo has allowed only a single touchdown to opposing wide receivers.  They prefer to give up their touchdowns on the ground (12 on season); thus, Chris Johnson is a no-brainer and LenDale White is a desperation start.

• With all the talk about how the Packers’ new 3-4 defense is failing to create pressure, people are overlooking how dominant the defense has been against the run.  Here are all the running backs that have scored a rushing touchdown against the Packers this year: Adrian Peterson… and that’s it.  If you have any of the three Dallas running backs, this is the week to sit them.

• For those in PPR leagues (and possibly even for those in regular leagues) Chester Taylor is a great play this week.  The Vikings play the Lions who have been torched by opposing RBs in the receiving game this year.  Over the past three games, Detroit has given up 28 receptions, 225 yards, and 1 receiving TD to opposing running backs alone.

• How good is CB Darrelle Revis?  Randy Moss, Andre Johnson, Terrell Owens, and Marques Colston have 105 receiving yards COMBINED while being covered by Revis.  None of the four scored a TD in their game against the Jets and as a team New York is second in the NFL in passing defense.  That doesn’t spell good news for Mike Sims-Walker.

• Another sleeper defense is the Cincinnati Bengals and not so much because of how they’re playing but rather what the team they are facing is doing.  On Sunday, Cincinnati takes on Pittsburgh, who has allowed a non-offensive touchdown in six straight games.  They have given up two interception return TDs, two fumble return TDs, and two kickoff return touchdowns.  The game that started this streak was the first matchup between the Bengals in Steelers in which Jonathan Joseph had a pick-six on Ben Roethlisberger.

• For the IDP folks out there; someone who has been absolutely tearing it up with little recognition is Seahawks’ linebacker, David Hawthorne.  Lofa Tatupu is out for the rest of the year and here is how his replacement has performed in his three starts: 33 tackles (28 solo), 3 interceptions, 2 sacks, 1 FF, and 5 PDs.  That’s 16 fantasy points per start!  Right now only two IDPs are averaging at least 10 fantasy points per game: Patrick Willis and Darren Sharper.

It’s Monday, so it’s time to get going on our weekly routine of looking at targets from the previous day’s NFL action.

- Laveranues Coles, Cincinnati Bengals: Coles was targeted nine times in Cincinnati’s win over the Ravens this weekend. He came up with six receptions for 72 yards in what was his most productive day in a Bengals uniform. His nine targets tied Chad Ochocinco for the team high, and were four more than Andre Caldwell received. It was the most targets Coles had received in any one contest this season, and tied his total from the last three games combined.

- Dallas Clark, Indianapolis Colts: Clark had a whopping 16 targets en route to 14 receptions for 119 yards as Indianapolis eked by the Houston Texans on Sunday. Peyton Manning put the ball in the air 50 times during the contest, and nearly one out of every three of those throws was intended for Clark. The former Iowa tight end vaulted to fourth in the AFC and seventh in the NFL in total targets.

- James Jones, Green Bay Packers: With six targets in Green Bay’s debilitating loss to Tampa Bay, Jones now has 11 total targets in his last two contests, which is easily his highest two-game total of the season. Jones collected season highs with four catches and 103 yards in the game, along with a touchdown. With Jordy Nelson out of the lineup, Jones has taken advantage, and now has a touchdown reception in three of his last four games.

- Davone Bess, Miami Dolphins: Bess’s 14 targets were double the amount any other Dolphins player received in the team’s loss to the Patriots on Sunday. Still, he managed just six catches for 56 yards, and his lack of big-play ability is evident in the fact that he didn’t even have the most receiving yards on the team – Greg Camarillo did, with 71, despite getting the ball thrown his way just seven times.

- Lance Long, Kansas City Chiefs: If you haven’t heard of Long, don’t be alarmed; Sunday’s game was just the third time he suited up all season, and just the second time for the Chiefs. He was with Arizona in Week 1 before getting cut. But people will start to hear more about him now, considering the fact that he was targeted a team-high 11 times by Matt Cassel in K.C.’s loss to the Jags. Long wound up with eight catches for 74 yards in the game.

Other Week 9 target numbers of interest: Derrick Mason, 13; Earl Bennett, Casey Fitzsimmons, 11; Torry Holt, Pierre Garcon, Jeremy Maclin, 9; Michael Crabtree, 8; Maurice Stovall, Dwayne Jarrett, Malcolm Floyd, 7; Kevin Walter, Robert Meacham, 6; Chris Chambers, 4.