New distribution agreements with companies such as Comcast Corp., the U.S.'s largest cable provider, and DirecTV Group Inc., the U.S's biggest satellite-television provider -- along with interest in the Network's NFL RedZone channel -- has increased the number of homes where the Network is available to 53 million from 42 million.

The NFL Network represents one of the areas where the NFL can increase its $8 billion-a-year revenue in a market where it already is the No. 1 sport.

Last Thursday the network showed the first of eight live games this season, a matchup between the Chicago Bears and the San Francisco 49ers. The game kept the viewers riveted the network broadcast to literally the last second as the Jay Cutler and the Bears were driving the filed for the win in the final seconds. On 2nd and 10 Cutler took the snap with :08 from the 49ers 12 yard line and threw the ball into the end zone intended for his tight end Greg Olson (81) only to be picked off by 49ers safety Michael Lewis (32). It was Cutler's 5th interception of the night and the touchback was the game's final play.

Tonight, the Dolphins will swim up the coast to play the Carolina Panthers without their dorsal fin on the NFL Network.

The Dolphins travel to Carolina tonight to play the Panthers but they will be without their offense. Literally. Ronnie Brown is out for the season having his season end with an injury once again.

Miami finds themselves ranked 16th in the BlogPoll NFL Power Rankings with a 4-5 record and are actually ranked ahead of two teams with 5-4 records, but you can be certain that will drop after this announcement.

The Miami Dolphins' leading rusher was placed on injured reserve Wednesday because of a right foot injury suffered in Sunday's victory over Tampa Bay. Brown missed the final nine games of the 2007 season with a right knee injury.

For a team ranks 4th in the NFL in rushing and 30th in passing this will prove to be an insurmountable task.

Ricky Williams, the 2002 NFL rushing champion, will replace Brown in the starting lineup. Williams has rushed for 558 yards. He's coming off his first 100-yard game of the season and is averaging a career-best 5.3 yards per carry, but he's 32, and it's uncertain whether he can handle a workhorse role.

Brown was on pace for the best year of his career with 648 yards rushing and eight touchdowns, and he threw for another. He was the triggerman in the wildcat, and it's uncertain how much the Dolphins will use the package with Williams taking snaps.

If they are going to continue to run the Wildcat (they have to at this point don't they?) Pat White is going to be thrust front and center. It's not that Pat White isn't a pain and the butt to tackle, but White's strength is operating in space. If White gets in the open field, he's in control and the tackler is screwed. Ronnie Brown on the other hand could run in open space, a little space, no space, negative space etc. They guy could flat out play. If you were a tackler he might go around you or into you and over you, you had no idea. Pat White couldn't run over the kids on my son's Pop Warner team.

The Doctor is in...

Question #1: I can play 4 of the following 5, who do you recommend?  Devin Hester, Roddy White, Owen Daniels, Sims-Walker, Deshaun Jackson.  What one player should I sit in a no tight end league? - Ryan

Ryan: Didn't you get the memo? Owen Daniels is out for the year. You might want to bench him...

Question #2: Polamalu is out. Do I sit the Steelers ‘D', I can pick up the Pats? - Michael, South Portland, MA

Michael: Are you worried that the lowly Chiefs will score on Pittsburgh now that Polamalu is gone? The Chiefs stink! The Patriots play the Jets this week...should be a good matchup for them, but I would rather play the Chiefs any day.

Question #3: I've been offered Andre Johnson for the two Steve Smiths, should I take it?  That would leave me with Johnson and Ochocinco as my receivers. - Walter, Fairbanks, AK

I looked at the stats and I did a double take. Is it possible that Brett Favre has matured as QB in his 18th year as a starter?

Like him or not Brett Favre after his revengeful antics in orchestrating ending his playing career with his previous teams most hated rival, is a sure shot first ballot Hall of Fame inductee. However, Brett's last two years have ended on a somewhat sour note.

Favre's last pass for the Packers was an interception that kept his team out of the NFC Championship game. After Starting 8-3 with the Jets last year and talks of a storybook trip to the Superbowl, an injury to his arm caused him to play poorly and the Jets ended up 9-7 and out of the playoffs. Let's face it, his record got in the way. If he couldn't play well he should have let Clemens have a go at it, but no one ever accused Brett Favre of being a team player.

This year the Favre-led Vikings are 8-1 and steamrolling through the NFC for what seems like an inevitable meeting with the Saints in the NFC Championship game. In many ways Favre's performance this year can be considered the best of his career. That's saying a lot.

Favre won the league MVP an amazing three years in a row from '95-'97. In those three years he amassed 122 TD and 12,179 yards of passing and only had 2.6% of his pass attempts picked off. The knock on Favre from his detractors has always been that he was a gun-slinger and while he would make a spectacular play from time to time that no one else could make, he would also throw the untimely pick to cut your heart out that no one else would throw.

The Cincinnati Bengals have stunned just about everyone in the NFL, winning every divisional game so far. They have swept the defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers. They have swept the smash-mouth Baltimore Ravens with that new high-powered offense. They have won on the road in Green Bay and in Cleveland. And if it weren't for a freak 87-yard touchdown reception by Denver receiver Brandon Stokely with 11 seconds left, the Bengals would be 8-1. The resurgence of the Carson Palmer-Chad Ochocinco connection, the surprising defense and the rising of running back Cedric Benson brings me to one conclusion: The Cincinnati Bengals are one of the most complete teams in the NFL.

But as everyone knows, anything can happen in the NFL. As fast as one team can rise to the top, that team can plummet just as fast (The Redskins were 6-2 at the halfway point last season. They finished 8-8.)

So here are three things to keep in mind before drawing any more conclusions about the Bengals of 2009.

1. Seven More Games: Easy Street - The next three games on Cincinnati's schedule go like this: At Oakland, Cleveland and then Detroit. I know the players and coaches always say the cliché, "just take it one game at a time." But that is a very easy three-game stretch in the second half of the season.

Under Jauron, the Bills have gone 3-6 this season, including last Sunday's 41-17 loss to the Tennessee Titans. The Bills visit the 5-4 Jacksonville Jaguars this Sunday.

No word on a replacement as of the time of this post however it is believed that defensive coordinator Perry Fewell is the most likely candidate to become Buffalo's interim head coach.

If you haven't voted in our poll on the site yet please do so. We are trying to get a feel for how our readers are looking at the game of NCAA Football so we can write about things they want to hear. The poll question is, "Do you think the NCAA should have a Playoff to determine the National Champion rather than the BCS / Bowl System?" - Please vote.

Have a Fantasy Football or Rotisserie baseball question? Want to know who to pick up, who to activate and who the hot prospects are? Ask Dr. Roto. Let Dr. Roto guide your team to a league championship.

I don't know why I am so upset and bewildered about this because I am not a Cleveland Browns fan but if you stay with me through the conclusion of this post, I'm certain that you will be scratching your head too. If anyone can shed some light on exactly how this situation came to be, I would really like to hear about it. I know I'm not an idiot, perhaps I'm just missing something. But no matter how I look at this, it just doesn't make sense.

First off, last night's game between the Ravens and the Browns was perhaps the least entertaining NFL game I've ever seen. A perfect example of why the NFL should just have the Colts and Pats play every weekend.

Did anyone tune in for the game last night or was ‘Dawg Pound Mike' able to not only get fans to not be in their seats for the opening kick-off, but people to not watch it on TV either? By the looks of the number of people in the stands in the fourth quarter, I think apathy is a pretty good word for Browns fans these days.

I feel sorry for the Browns fans. You know before Art Model moved the Browns to Baltimore the Browns had one of the best fan bases in all of sport. We are talking football in Ohio here, it's like a religion.

This game was so boring that during the 4th quarter I was able to actually pay attention to the action (if you can call it that) and put together some stats.

The Cleveland Browns defense played fine. Besides the play where Ray Rice scored on a 13 yard TD run in the 3rd Qtr when the coaches failed to get the correct personnel on the field and only had 10 guys defending, you can win an NFL football game with that defensive personnel and Rob Ryan as its coordinator.

But the offense....., oh my. There are only two possible scenarios' here:

If you haven't heard by now, after Sunday's season-killing loss to the Jaguars, in a game that we described at SportingNews.com as the first playoff game of quarterback Mark Sanchez's career, Sanchez showed up for the post-game press availability with a speech.

A speech! Exactly when did he write the speech? We know the guy eats hotdogs while he's on the sideline during games, does he do speech writing too? Did he have two speeches already prepared; one if the Jets won, and on if they lost? Could he have possibly written it in the 15 minutes he was in the locker room before he went to talk with the press?

Did he think he was campaigning for something? (Perhaps he is starting to think he has to campaign for his job.)

Here's what he said:

"I've got a couple of things to say real quick.  You guys will probably have some questions after.  This should hit on everything.  [There] are just some things I'm thinking here real quick.  We'll change it up.  OK?

First play of the game, [I had an] early mistake.  It can't happen.  It put our offense in a tough spot.  [It was] a great read.  J-Co [Jerricho Cotchery] runs an awesome route and it's just a physical mistake and underthrown ball.  The best part about it, the mental side of it, I battled back all game.

[I] played smarter the rest of the game [and I am] proud of my effort.  Second thing [with] the interception, the defensive end makes a pretty good play.  The guy got up there and just spooked me off the edge there and made a great play.  In the big scheme of things, it didn't hurt us.  We got the ball back.  Our defense played their tail off and got us the ball.

Indianapolis Colts (35) - New England Patriots (34)

We'll lead with this one mostly because I'm beside myself, can't believe what I just saw and need to digest it as I think it out and type it on the screen. WOW! Why does the NFL even have any other teams? They should just let the Colts and the Pats play every week.

I had a whole thing ready to post here about how Brady (29/42 for 375, 3TD's, 1 INT) to Moss (9 for 179, 2 TD's) and Welker (9 for 94 w/ a bazillion 1st downs) were just too much for the Colts and how Peyton Manning was "off" throwing duck after duck with 2 INT's and then Belicheck decides to go for a 4th and 2 on his own 28 with 2:08 left in the game.......

A few things about what transpired here.

1. That was the stupidest call I've ever seen in pro football. I understand that you don't want to give Manning the ball back, but going for it inside your own 30! Would he have done that on his own 5 too!
2. By going for it he sent a message to his defense that he had no confidence in them. Even if that were the case you still have almost half of a season left to play and you can't send that message. Play the percentages and make Manning drive 70-80 yards. He was having an "off" night and you had already picked him off twice.
3. Any other coach gets fired on the spot but Belicheck gets a brain freeze pass. He always does everything so right.... and this was so wrong... I'm shocked. And blowing the two time outs for no reason! It's like he's the Jets coach after all, that's what they do right?
4. I understand the official's call about the ball being bobbled, but I'm still not certain that it wasn't a first down.
5. Once Manning did get the ball, it was over. They guy was a shark in blood infested waters. Manning ends up 28/44 for 327, 4 TD's, 2 INT's. Don't you wish your QB would have "off" days like that?
6. Reggie Wayne caught the back end of the ball in what can only be called "clutch." Memo to all NFL receivers who dropped balls today - ‘watch how Reggie does it.'

Indianapolis Colts (9-0)
New England Patriots (6-3)

San Francisco 49ers (10) - Chicago Bears (6)

This past Thursday the NFL Network showed the first of eight live games this season, a matchup between the Chicago Bears and the San Francisco 49ers. The game kept the viewers riveted to the network broadcast to literally the last second as the Jay Cutler and the Bears were driving the filed for the win in the final seconds. On 2nd and 10 Cutler took the snap with :08 from the 49ers 12 yard line and threw the ball into the end zone intended for his tight end Greg Olson (81) only to be picked off by 49ers safety Michael Lewis (32). It was Cutler's 5th interception of the night and the touchback was the game's final play.

• 49ers RB Frank Gore was the lone offensive standout of this game, for either team, rushing 25 times for 104 yards and a touchdown while adding four catches for 21 yards. Gore's 14-yard run in the second quarter was the only touchdown of the game.
• Jay Cutler has thrown 11 interceptions in three nationally-televised primetime games this year.

A recap of what went down and what you should take away from Saturday's college football games.

Lots to convey this week. We have our first lock for a BCS bowl, an ACC team clinched a spot in the conference championship game in Tampa, we saw a top ten team tumble, witnessed a few other ranked teams fall victim to spoilers and got our first primetime look at a running back college football fans should get used to seeing for the next 2 or 3 years. We also saw a Cinderella story in the making come to an abrupt halt in Berkley and another potential Cinderella story is still alive in Fort Worth. So excuse me if I do not delve deeper into a few subjects that certainly warrant a deeper delving.

Recapping the day in 500 words or less, this is what Saturday taught us about the season:

- These days, a touchdown is only a touchdown pending further review. Am I the only one?

- Georgia Tech clinched their spot in the ACC Championship with a huge win over Duke. The Blue Devils had several opportunities to go ahead big in the first quarter, but managed only a 10-0 lead. 49 unanswered points later, and Duke must now win their final two games to become bowl eligible.

- I'll be honest; I thought Michigan was on their way back to relevancy in the beginning of the season. I was wrong. Their offense may be on its way, but the Wolverines defense has some serious catching up to do-they rank 89th in total defense.