NFL

The Colts have beaten the Texans every single time they've played except for once. In their upcoming matchup in Houston against the Texans on Sunday, Indianapolis is favored by 3.5. In their recent matchup in Indy, the Colts were fortunate to win by 3 as Texans kicker Kris Brown missed a field goal to send it into overtime.

In five of their last six meetings, the Colts-Texans games have been decided by six points or less. Unlike their previous matchup, the Texans will be missing a key member of their secondary: safety Eugene Wilson broke two toes in his game against the Titans and has been placed on IR. His absence after a preseason injury caused by a Brett Favre-fined low block contributed to the Texan defense's bottom of the league slow start. In general, it is not a good thing to be missing a starting safety when your team is facing Peyton Manning.

I have long believed that Robert Smith is the single smartest person ever to play football. From his college days, when he quit the Ohio State team for a year because practices conflicted with his biology labs, to his early retirement, when he said he wanted to walk away healthy and pursue other interests like his passion for astronomy, the guy is just brilliant.

And now he's used that brain for a very good cause this day after Thanksgiving: He went on ESPN Radio and debunked the myth that tryptophan in turkey makes us sleepy.

DENVER (AP) -- The NFL Network accidentally aired a vulgarity yelled by Denver Broncos coach Josh McDaniels as he chastised his players on the sideline of their Thanksgiving night game against the New York Giants.

Coming out of a commercial break following a series of false starts near the goal line that resulted in Denver settling for a field goal, the NFL Network showed a clip of McDaniels, who yelled at his players: "We're trying to win the [expletive] game!"

The vulgarity was clearly audible to viewers, and announcer Bob Papa immediately apologized to viewers.

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If you need proof of just how uncertain NFL scouting can be, look no further than Cowboys wide receiver Miles Austin and his Raiders counterpart, Darrius Heyward-Bey.

Austin, an undrafted player out of tiny Monmouth, continued his spectacular and surprising season Thursday, racking up seven catches for 145 yards and a touchdown in Dallas' 24-7 win over Oakland. His TD grab was his eighth of the season. On the losing side, Heyward-Bey, the No. 7 pick in last April's draft, hauled in his eighth catch -- matching Austin's season-TD total -- and his first professional TD in his 10th game.

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DETROIT (AP) -- Aaron Rodgers matched a career high with three touchdown passes and Green Bay beat the Detroit Lions 34-12 on Thursday, giving the Packers three straight wins and improving their playoff prospects.

The Lions lost their sixth straight game on Thanksgiving, setting a franchise record, and had an emotional setback after their biggest comeback win since 1957.

Matthew Stafford, playing with a sore non-throwing shoulder, threw one touchdown pass and four interceptions in a rookie-like performance, after passing for five scores in Sunday's win over Cleveland. Detroit trailed the Browns by 21 before coming all the way back.

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The Wildcast is NFL FanHouse's podcast formation. It's like the Wildcat, but better.

A full Week 12 slate kicks off with a trifecta of games on Thanksgiving Day, and Knox Bardeen and I fired up the ol' podcast to breakdown all the action. We were joined by a pair of FanHouse's senior NFL beat writers, Nancy Gay and Dan Graziano, as we discussed the Lions and Cowboys keeping their holiday hosting duties, Denver's chances against the Giants, the crucial Pittsburgh-Baltimore tilt on Sunday night and much more.

So grab another heaping helping of turkey and sit back and enjoy the latest edition of NFL FanHouse's Wildcast. Audio can be found after the jump.

As a man who lives and works in Green Bay, Wis., Aaron Rodgers knows. He's not blind or deaf. He sees the highlights, browses the web, listens to the talking heads. Like each and every one of his green-and-gold-clad neighbors, Rodgers is aware that the 2009 NFL season has been a turbulence-free cloud surf for Brett Favre and the Vikings and a brutal, muddy slog for his own Packers. You could actually argue that nobody knows this better than Rodgers, since no one else in town has (presumably) been sacked 43 times this year.

But since this is a day on which we're supposed to appreciate all the good things we have in life and take a little break from dwelling on the bad, I hereby invite the good people of Green Bay to fry up some Thanksgiving cheese curds, sit back and watch their man Rodgers dismantle the Detroit Lions. And as you watch, take a second to think to yourselves, "Hey, we could have it a lot worse."

If you're a Steelers fan, there were a lot of things in Sunday's loss to the Chiefs that would drive a man to drink, but in rewatching the game with an eye on the offensive line play, there was one disappointing aspect that may have been missed when watching the game live.

After not getting any sacks in the first 55 minutes of the game, Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger was sacked three times in the final three minutes of regulation. The first sack came on a third down, forcing the Steelers to punt while the third sack, also on third down, ended Pittsburgh's chances of keeping the game from going to overtime.

Now the frustrating part was that both of those third-down sacks came on the exact same blitz call by the Chiefs, both of which took advantage of a flaw in the Steelers' blocking scheme.

The six teams that will play on Thanksgiving are a combined 10-1 this season when their quarterbacks pass for at least 300 yards. Historically, that's unusual: in the past, 300-yard passing games have not corresponded to winning. That, however, is no longer the case.

Before the season, Rex Ryan had no qualms about talking smack. It was pretty obvious what the Jets were getting: a defense-minded, hard-nosed and cocky head coach. "I never came here to kiss Bill Belichick's, you know, rings," Ryan announced on June. He made it apparent, before he had ever notched one victory, that he was putting the division rival Patriots on blast.

It was a welcome departure from Eric Mangini's style and made Jets fans feel they had a leader with some ... cojones.

But words only get you so far. And then you have to actually, ya know, keep winning.