Put Week 8 in the books NFL fans. This week I'll address some of the highs and the lows of professional football as seen through the eyes of an avid fan.

HIGHS

The Pittsburgh Steelers went on the road this week to Cincinnati and came away with a modest, yet solid victory over the Bengals. The Steeler DEF looked like their old selves again this week, surrendering only 1 TD later in the game after only giving up 6 points on two filed goals in the first half. The Steelers came out throwing again this week, which has been their calling card of late. This week however, after getting the lead, they resorted to Steeler football of old... pounding the ball in the second half with Willie Parker and Davenport.  Except for a brain #### early in the third quarter, Big Ben looked polished and poised, showing why he is one of the best young quarterbacks in the league by connecting on two first half touchdown passes to Hines Ward, who finally looked fully recovered from a knee injury that held him out for a handful of games earlier in the season. It was a very important victory for Steeler nation, setting the stage for them to take a commanding lead in the division following this Monday Night's game at home against the Ravens and the Browns two Sundays from now, again at home.

The Green Bay Packers had more Monday Night heroics from icon legend Brett Favre as his overtime strike to Greg Jennings gave the Pack a road victory against the crying one's Broncos. Favre HAS to be considered or arguably the greatest QB in NFL history. I'm sorry fans of the old-time NFL; your league just doesn't match up to today's game. Now granted, Montana, Marino, Elway, Kelly; these guys were all great, but they also all had consistent great teams. Name a handful of players from the Packers over the last couple of years. If you’re an average fan of the NFL I bet you can't! So what if Favre owns the record for the most INT in a career. When you throw the ball as much as he does, it's bound to happen. His longevity alone ranks him in the NFL's all-time elites for the QB position, throw in numerous NFL passing records and you've made his case for the greatest. Now don't get me wrong, there are great QB's from every era that hold farm fuzzy spots in our hearts, but those guys that played in the 60's and earlier didn't have nearly the competition or the resources to compete with what the NFL puts on TV each week. Congratulations to you Brett Favre, greatest QB of all-time. If you ask John Madden I bet he'd say the same thing.

LOWS

There's no room in the NFL for running up the score. This profession is too proud to have this kind of thing happen. Now, I've said I'd never talk about certain teams in this blog, but this needs to be addressed. Insulting your opponent is the lowest of lows that a team can lay upon another in the NFL. It does a few things to cheapen the game. One, these athletes put too much of themselves into these games and their profession for this kind of thing to happen. I understand why you do it in college, to impress the pollsters, right? Not in the NFL. A win is a win is a win. Very rarely does circumstances arise that a tiebreaker of most points for needs to be implemented to determine playoff of draft pick slotting. It also does something to the players on the team that is running it up. It makes them targets. No one in the NFL will tell you that they purposefully tell a player to go out and hurt another one, but that's just what your asking for when you consistently run up the score. All it takes is for 1 defensive player to lose control of his emotions and take a cheap shot at an MVP QB's knees. Do you really think that defensive player cares about a 15yrd penalty or a meager $15,000 fine when the score is 42-0 at half time. News flash, they don't care! When the games out of reach, RUN THE BALL, kill the clock and get out of there with no injuries on either team and a victory, because no matter how points you score in one game, you still only get one win. How many points do you think your team will score a game with your MVP QB?

A quick note about the Broncos... I watched the 1st quarter of this past week's Monday Night game. It's unbelievable how many favorable calls the Broncos get in their games. I saw flags thrown on the Packers for doing less in this game than I've seen other teams NOT get flagged for in their games. Couple that with two prime-time games in a row at home. Your telling me the NFL doesn't want the Broncos to succeed? Whatever.