New York Giants 23, Washington Redskins 7

• The important thing to remember here is that the Giants are just plain better than the Redskins. Washington came into this game wanting to stop Brandon Jacobs and the New York rushing attack. They did exactly that. Jacobs was bottled up early on and finished with 71 yards on 21 attempts. Derrick Ward gained 30 yards on 10 carries. But with the ground game limited, all that meant was Eli Manning could make more plays through the air. And that’s what he did, completing 21/34 for 305 yards.

• Remarkably, three different Giants players – Amani Toomer, Derrick Ward and Domenik Hixon – had five receptions for 70-plus yards on Sunday. Toomer made big catches down the field, Ward demoralized the Skins with his underneath plays and Hixon caught several tough passes inside on third down.

• I guess this makes for a good segway into the Plaxico Burress situation. By now you’ve heard a million reports and opinions on the whole matter, so I’ll be quick in giving you mine: the Giants don’t need this punk.

• The story of Washington’s offense versus New York’s defense was that Steve Spagnuolo’s group held Clinton Portis to 22 yards on 11 carries. But a bigger-picture story with Washington’s offense is that they need to get Santana Moss more involved in the passing attack. Moss has just 170 yards receiving over the last four games. When he’s making big plays downfield, this is an entirely different unit. The Redskins need to emphasize Moss, if for no other reason than giving opponents something to worry about during the week.

• I’m not convinced that Jason Taylor is 100 percent. He made some nice plays in run defense Sunday, but in nine games this year, he has just one sack.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23, New Orleans Saints 20

• The Saints remain the flakiest team in football. It’s a lot to ask of a team to go on the road and defeat an eight-win divisional foe, but the Saints had myriad chances to do just that in Week 13. Problem was, Drew Brees and his receivers weren’t great, which resulted in the league’s most prolific passer throwing two costly picks down the stretch.

• Is anyone surprised that Reggie Bush stunk up the joint Sunday? Bush seems like the classic example of a guy who comes back from injury and needs about three or four weeks to regain his rhythm. What’s sad is that this will always be the case with Bush. His career will be defined by mild injuries, fleeting bouts of greatness and a bunch of almost-big-plays.

• Warrick Dunn is having a marvelous season. His quickness remains at full throttle, which, with his vision and sagacity, means he can still be an effective starter from week to week.

• Cadillac Williams could turn out to be a significant contributor down the stretch. It’s a good thing, too. As impressive as Dunn has been, Tampa Bay, with its somewhat mundane passing attack, needs a second weapon out of the backfield.

• Davin Joseph continues to have a Pro Bowl campaign at left guard for the Bucs.

• Ronde Barber has been making more plays in recent weeks. I still believe this is his last season with the club, though you could make the case that he’s not slowing down as much as originally thought.

• It would be a huge mistake for Monte Kiffin to leave the Buccaneers for the Volunteers. And it would be a huge loss for Tampa Bay.

Miami Dolphins 16, St. Louis Rams 12

• Once again, the Dolphins just barely beat a crummy team. They love to milk the old adage that says “A win’s a win.”

• The boo birds were out in full force on Marc Bulger Sunday. And deservedly so. Bulger’s three interceptions were all a case of the quarterback not seeing the field.

• Miami should be excited about undrafted rookie Davone Bess. An über-prolific receiver at Hawaii, Bess had an NFL career-high six catches for 84 yards Sunday. His quickness makes him a veritable weapon in the slot. A terrible 40-time is what killed Bess’s draft stock, but had scouts actually watched more tape, they would have seen that few players can stop, start and change directions like this guy can.

• A lot of people are referring to Ronnie Brown as a Pro Bowler for this year. I wanted to call this claim fallacious on the grounds that Brown is on pace for less than 1,000 yards, but looking at the AFC running backs, who, besides Chris Johnson and Thomas Jones, can you put ahead of him?

Carolina Panthers 35, Green Bay Packers 31

• This felt like a game that Green Bay should have won. They would have if they could have covered Steve Smith.

• Is there a better receiver in traffic than the 5’9” veteran? Smith has an uncanny ability to elevate for a jumpball, and at the same time, he’s deadly underneath.

• Donald Driver and Greg Jennings were both fantastic Sunday. They’ve been fantastic all season long. And yet, the Packers are 5-7. Why? A few reasons. One, this team doesn’t come up with big plays in crucial situations. Part of that is on the quarterback, though it’s not fair to throw this stigma on Aaron Rodgers yet. Two, Green Bay’s offensive line is mildly inconsistent. And three, the defense currently has too many holes in the front seven.

• Hope you noticed Jon Beason in this one. He was the guy leading the Panthers in tackles and sealing the win with that late interception. If you’re voting for the Pro Bowl, please don’t forget the second-year stud.

• In an effort to get Tramon Williams on the field, Green Bay played Charles Woodson at strong safety for a few plays. Then they realized that Woodson – the man with the tiniest shoulder pads in football – can’t really tackle.

Indianapolis Colts 10, Cleveland Browns 6

• If the Colts weren’t the Colts, we’d have every legitimate reason to worry about their offense. Three points against the Browns? The Browns!? Fortunately, Peyton Manning is under center (by the way, the center in this game was Jamey Richards, not Jeff Saturday, which may explain some of the sluggishness), so we can assume that everything’s fine.

• On the plus side, it looks like Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis are officially back from their early-season sabbaticals. The defensive ends combined for three sacks in this game, including the one that resulted in Mathis returning a Derek Anderson fumble 37 yards for the go-ahead score.

• The Browns really controlled the tempo on Sunday. They found themselves in 20 third down situations. (They were successful in 11 of them.)

• Everyone talks about Braylon Edwards’s drops – and rightfully so – but would you believe that the Colts, as a team, are just one spot behind the Browns and rank fourth in the NFL in total drops?

• It was interesting to hear Bill Cowher call out a few Cleveland players on the CBS pregame show. You’d think Cowher would be a little more reticent considering he’s probably going to be coaching this team in 2009.

Baltimore Ravens 34, Cincinnati Bengals 3

• Good teams manhandle weaker opponents. Give credit to John Harbaugh and his staff for having his players ready for this game. With the earlier announcement that their game against in-state rival Washington was flexed into primetime, it would have been very easy for the Ravens to overlook the Bengals.

• One of the biggest surprises in football this season is Baltimore fullback Le’Ron McClain. The second-year pro has carried the ball 142 times, including a career-high 25 times Sunday. (He gained 86 yards.) McClain is not a dynamic weapon by any stretch of the imagination, but he is a reliable source who runs with power.

• Mark Clayton never has taken over for Derrick Mason as Baltimore’s go-to guy, but that might say as much about Mason as it does the former first-round pick out of Oklahoma. The bottom line is, Clayton is an incredibly talented player who presents excellent quickness and big-play ability. He has struggled most of this season and all of last season, but perhaps his 164-yard outburst can ignite some chemistry between him and Joe Flacco.

• At the same time, the Bengals must hope that this game doesn’t settle into the back of Leon Hall’s mind. The first-round pick was ruthlessly targeted Sunday. But Hall is too good of player to be defined by one bad afternoon.

San Francisco 49ers 10, Buffalo Bills 3

• Think the Bills may have overlooked the Niners just a bit? After hanging 54 points on the Chiefs, Buffalo went home, looked ahead to their Canadian bout with Miami next week, and wound up losing to an unfamiliar and, generally speaking, inferior 49ers club that was making the dreaded west coast-to-east coat trip.

• Trent Edwards did not play in the second half (groin) but that’s not why the Bills lost. Edwards hasn’t played well for several weeks anyway.

• It’s too bad Marshawn Lynch isn’t a smarter player. We saw in this game how explosive he can be (16 carries, 134 yards). Problem is, Lynch is impatient and does not know how to operate within the flow of the offense, which makes it difficult for Turk Schonert to feature him on a regular basis.

• I’d almost guarantee you that you’ll never see Buffalo’s lethargic defensive ends, Chris Kelsay and Ryan Denney, combine for three sacks in a single game again.