Posted by Will Brinson

Our affinity for graphs and charts and purty pictures knows no bounds, so (with a nod to the smartypants at NY Mag ), we present our first-ever NFL approval matrix. Suggestions, complaints and intellecutual property lawsuits may be directed to us on Twitter (@CBSSportsNFL).

Click to make larger /embiggen .

Posted by Andy Benoit

In this week’s 10 Stories That Deserve Your Attention, we focused on how LaDainian Tomlinson appears to be handling a much heavier load than expected for the Jets. This is supposed to be Shonn Greene’s backfield. Well, the man Tomlinson essentially replaced, Thomas Jones, is doing the same thing in Kansas City. Jones carried the ball 22 times against the Browns Sunday (83 yards). Jamaal Charles, who is coming off the bench, had 11 carries (49 yards).

Third-round rookie tight end Tony Moeaki led the Chiefs with five catches for 58 yards.

Ndamukong Sun flashed dominance for the second week in a row. Suh recorded a sack against Michael Vick (he may have gotten away with a facemask on the play) and consistently pushed the interior pocket.

How about these rushing statistics for the Cowboys: Marion Barber 11 carries for 31 yards; Felix Jones 7 carries for 7 yards; Tashard Choice 1 carry for -1 yard. Somehow, you can’t help but think this is Tony Romo’s fault.

Trent Edwards was 11/18 for 102 yards and two picks against the Packers. When Marshawn Lynch ran for 14 yards to end the first quarter, that brought Buffalo’s net yardage on the day back to zero.

Jermichael Finley has his second career 100-yard game. Expect at least five more this season for the best tight end in the NFC.

Should we just go ahead and vote for the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Award now? Packers linebacker Clay Matthews had three sacks for the second week in a row. This for a guy who sat out virtually the entire preseason with a hamstring injury.

Actually, we’d better not crown Matthews yet. Mario Williams followed his stellar Week 1 performance with a shimmering outing against the Redskins. Williams recorded three sacks, two tackles for a loss and two pass deflections. It’s safe to say the Texans probably don’t win that game without him.

Adrian Peterson rushed for 145 yards on 28 carries against a fairly-staunch Dolphins D. There wasn’t a cheap yard in the bunch. Peterson put on an absolute show late in the second half, showing his familiar powerful burst and uncanny change-of-direction prowess. However, his show came to an abrupt end on the second to last drive, when the Dolphins kept him out of the end zone on four-straight plays from inside the 10.

Chris Johnson had his streak of 100-yard games snapped at 12 by a Steelers D that has given up just one 100-yard rushing performance in its last 36 outings. Johnson managed just 34 yards on 16 carries. He had an 85-yard touchdown called back because of a Eugene Amano holding penalty (even with nose tackle Casey Hampton out, the Titans center had a rough afternoon).

A week after his impressive return to the NFL, Seahawks wideout Mike Williams had just one catch for seven yards against the Broncos.

Wes Welker and Randy Moss were both held to 38 yards receiving.

The Chargers held Maurice Jones-Drew to 31 yards on 12 carries. Rashad Jennings actually got nine carries, producing 38 yards.

Philip Rivers 334 yards, 3 touchdowns, 2 interceptions and an unofficial 3 screams at his offensive linemen against the Jaguars.

Shawne Merriman got on the field for the first time all season and recorded three tackles.

Tim Hightower was the lone bright spot for the Cardinals. With Beanie Wells still out with a knee injury, the third-year running back carried the entire load Sunday. Hightower rushed for 115 yards on 11 carries, including an 80-yard touchdown scamper in which he showed newfound quickness and acceleration.

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Posted by Will Brinson

Darrelle Revis left the Patriots game following a ridiculous one-handed touchdown catch by Randy Moss and will not return to the game, the Jets announced in the third quarter.

Revis' hamstring was bothering him coming into the game and after Moss beat him for the TD, he pulled up a little lame and went to the locker room. Now it appears as if he won't return.

That puts Antonio Cromartie on Randy Moss -- which is one of the most ridiculously/freakishly athletic matchups you could possibly compose. One would think, however, that Moss would have the advantage and that the Patriots would quickly test him.

They did, but Tom Brady overthrew Moss and Cro picked off a deep ball just short of the Jets end zone.

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Posted by Will Brinson


On Sunday, Randy Moss became the fourth player in NFL history with 150 touchdowns. And he did it in typical Randy Moss form, making an absolutely bananas one-handed catch on a Tom Brady bomb where Darrelle Revis had him blanketed in the end zone. (Revis, by the way, hurt his hamstring again after getting torched by the Freak.)

Moss joins Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith and LaDainian Tomlinson in an incredibly elite group of players who found the end zone an incredible number of times during their career. The screen shot above is pure awesomeness, but watch the video below to understand just how valuable Moss, even at his age, really is; the silly athleticism goes without saying.

Post by Will Brinson

When the New England Patriots and New York Jets meet Sunday, the biggest matchup to watch will be Darrelle Revis and Randy Moss. That's because they're they've been talking it up and they're a pair of elite players.

However, Revis might not be shadowing the unappreciated future Hall of Famer the entire time -- Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports that Revis will also cover Wes Welker, in order to "take away what the Jets perceive to be the Patriots No. 1 offensive threat."

Two things; first, this is a smart move by the Jets. Moss is really, really good, but so is Welker, and if they can successfully use Revis to stop Welker and Tom Brady from moving the chains, it'll be a lot harder for New England to take shots to Moss.

That being said, the real gamble here is leaving either Kyle Wilson or Antonio Cromartie alone on Moss -- if Brady and Co. figure out the coverage and adjust so they're taking shots at Moss when he's not on Revis Island, you'd have to think they stand a better chance of scoring some long TDs.

(Unless, that is, Revis is still not quite in full season shape and dealing with a hamstring . Then this is just "very convenient.")

And of course the notion that "Welker is better than Moss" coming from the Jets' locker room shouldn't motivate Moss to get off said island at all either.

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Posted by Will Brinson

Randy Moss said he wants to feel appreciated (he also said he doesn't feel wanted, but that was the early part of his public contract discussion). Well, the comedy troupe Improv Asylum put together a little video to let him know that he IS appreciated in the city of Boston and among Patriots fans. It's a pretty funny video (the "professional escort" commenting on Wes Welker killed me) -- the only downside is that you'll be singing "Raaaaaaandy!" for the rest of the afternoon.



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Posted by Josh Katzowitz

Jets CB Darrelle Revis has a tight hamstring, and he was limited in New York’s practice today because of it. Considering he’s scheduled to shadow New England WR Randy Moss – a Randy Moss who’s upset with his lack of contract and who’s looking to show Revis he is, in fact, not a slouch – that’s not great news for the Jets.

Revis practiced Wednesday, but on Thursday, he felt a little tightness in his hamstring.

"I'm not overly concerned right now,” coach Rex Ryan said in his postpractice presser. “But anytime it's a hamstring, you get a little nervous"

Perhaps Revis should have taken lessons from San Diego’s Shawne Merriman, who held out from Chargers training camp this year and then immediately went down with an Achilles tendon.

(UPDATE: 5:14 p.m.): Courtesy of the New York Daily News, we have the comments made by Revis today.

"You got to have toughness," Revis said. "You don’t want to hurt your team in any way. If the situation is that severe, I’ll sit out. But it’s not. And I’ll be out there.”

And:

"It could be a training camp thing," Revis said. "I wasn’t here. I was working out. It wasn’t like I was just sitting down being a couch potato. … My teammates have had a month of organized football… I haven’t been doing it. I got a little bit of tightness because I’m still trying to get my football legs under me."

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Got a link for the Hot Routes ? Follow us on Twitter (@CBSSportsNFL) or drop it in the comments.

• My pal Dan Levy has an interesting poll running over at Press Coverage , which you should vote on -- it involves the NFL releasing video clips (embeddable ones, mind you) to the public. Would you like that? Because I would.

• Kissing Suzy Kolber has the best football meets internet memes of the summer. It's beyond hysterical but, obviously, be careful for language reasons if you're clicking through.

• Larry Fitzgerald, according to Darren Urban of the Cardinals' official blog , is "stumping" to get Steve Breaston a new contract. Breaston, however, didn't want to chat about it.

• Jason Reid of the Washington Post points out that rookie tackle Trent Williams will have had a pretty good couple of tests in the first two weeks -- DeMarcus Ware and Mario Williams as his blocking assignments. He gets a break next week with the Rams, but then games against the Eagles (Trent Cole), Bears (Julius Peppers) and Colts (Dwight Freeney) should give us a good idea if he was a good pick by midseason.

• Tom Brady -- wisely -- understands the stupidity of trying to throw the ball in Darrelle Revis' direction a lot on Sunday. Which means that if Revis is manned up on Randy Moss, we should have a fun little "the team is blatantly trying to sandbag me for a contract" press party.

• Steven Jackson sat out practice on Wednesday , which is terrifying for anyone who was z-z-z-z-z-z-aaaaany enough to make them their pick two weeks in a row.

• We've been discussing how "locker room spies" are beneficial to their new team (although Eric Winston told me he doesn't think Kyle Shanahan will make that big of a difference) and the Giants have the best one of all in Jim Sorgi, who was Peyton Manning's backup for quite a while. (Of course they also have, you know, his brother Eli Manning, but he doesn't know the Colts offense.) Sorgi, however, doesn't think it'll matter. Because it's Peyton.

• Matthew Stafford is officially out this week , in case you were wondering. The good news is that he got a second opinion on his shoulder and surgery won't be necessary.

• Brandon Graham discusses/compares the speed differences between Michael Vick and Denard Robinson. He thinks Robinson's faster because Vick's older . Seems fair, but doing what Vick does in the NFL is a helluva lot harder than what Robinson's doing in the NCAA. Also, he should be primed for a big game Sunday, since he's basically heading home.

• The Chargers are expecting a blackout come Sunday -- they need an extra 8,000 tickets sold before Thursday at 1:15 PM against the Jaguars starts. So, that seems like a pretty good bet.

• One of Brian Bassett's readers noticed that Kris Jenkins had a tough time making it up the stairs at Cortland. Provided this account is true, well, it kind of makes it seem like he shouldn't have even been on the field for Week 1. Or we should have seen another injury coming.