Snap Judgments (cont.)

Cleveland's Jerome Harrison posted the third-biggest rushing game in NFL history. Jamie Squire/Getty Images

• I tuned into some of the Browns-Chiefs, which happened to be the first game in 19 years to be locally blacked out in Kansas City. Nothing but a top-three draft slot was on the line for the loser in this one, but what a show Cleveland and Kansas City put on in the Browns' 41-34 slugfest victory, their second win in a row.

And what are the odds that the Browns, with one of the three worst offenses in the NFL, would be involved in two of the most entertaining shootouts of the season? Cleveland's victory at Kansas City was reminiscent of that wild 38-37 Lions win over the Browns at Ford Field in Week 11.

Not only did you get Cribbs' record-breaking performance if you invested time into the Browns-Chiefs game, you got Jerome Harrison's monstrous 286-yard, three-touchdown, rushing performance for the Browns, and Jamaal Charles' 154-yard rushing game for Kansas City. Harrison had a 71-yard scoring run and posted the third-biggest rushing game in NFL history, trailing only Adrian Peterson's 296-yard game in 2007 and Jamal Lewis' 295-yard outing in 2003.

The little-known Harrison entered the game with just 301 yards rushing all season, and with 34 carries the fourth-year vet nearly doubled that in one afternoon. His 286 yards shattered Jim Brown's 48-year-old team rushing record of 237 yards (done twice), and was the NFL's best rushing performance this season by a whopping 58 yards (besting Chris Johnson's 228-yard game against Jacksonville in Week 8). Harrison's previous career-high was 121 yards rushing, from earlier this season against Cincinnati. Cleveland finished with 341 yards rushing against Kansas City, and that's despite Harrison being the Browns' third-team running back for most of the season.

• It's a shame Charles' big game for the Chiefs got overshadowed by Harrison's and Cribbs' record-breaking performances, because the second-year standout has emerged as a go-to play-maker. His 47-yard scoring run in the second quarter gave him six consecutive games with a touchdown, and he now has run for 607 yards in that span.

What a find Charles has been for the Chiefs. Who needs Larry Johnson?

• Stat of the day: The quirky Browns have averaged 39 points per game when playing Detroit and Kansas City this season. In their other 11 games, Cleveland is averaging 11 points per outing.

• It's no small accomplishment for Tennessee to get back to the .500 mark this season after that humbling 0-6 start, and the Titans deserve credit for fighting their way to 7-7. They still need two more wins and a bunch of help to make the playoffs, but all that talk of Jeff Fisher's time being up in Nashville now sounds sillier than ever. Chargers-Titans on Christmas night should be fun.

• The Cardinals found a way to win in Detroit, but Arizona still seems to be a team that has the troubling habit of playing down to the level of its opponent. In the two weeks since I saw the Cardinals dismantle Minnesota in Glendale, they've lost big at San Francisco and squeaked past a Lions team that was down 17-0 but fought back into a 24-24 fourth-quarter tie.

You can't give a bad team that much life and get away with it on a regular basis.

• The Rams flirted with victory at home against Houston, but in the end they protected their shot at next year's No. 1 overall draft pick. With Tampa Bay getting its second win of the season, in a mild upset at Seattle, St. Louis (1-13) is now in the driver's seat for the top pick. And it's a good year to have that distinction.

• Things I wish I hadn't seen Sunday:

-- Lions reserve quarterback Drew Stanton scoring his first career touchdown on a fourth-quarter, game-tying 1-yard run and trying to do a Lambeau Leap in Ford Field. The walls are a bit higher than in Lambeau, and Stanton didn't really make the leap into the stands, leaving him kind of awkwardly pinned up against the wall as a few fans backslapped him.

-- Jets' Mark Sanchez sliding head-first again. I'm guessing Joe Girardi has given his last sliding lesson to an NFL quarterback.

-- Texans safety Bernard Pollard and Rams running back Steven Jackson locked in that nasty one-on-one scrum after a second-half play in Houston's 13-10 win in St. Louis. Jackson somehow wound up helmetless and with a bit of a bloody lip.

-- Packers kicker Mason Crosby lining up for another field goal. Green Bay has a kicking issue to deal with. Crosby has missed five of his past 11 field goal tries, including a 34-yard, second-quarter attempt at Pittsburgh.

-- Daunte Culpepper getting another start for the Lions at quarterback. Why? What has he done this year to deserve to play ahead of Stanton? I couldn't help but notice that with Stanton in the game in the second half, the Lions scored 24 points and made a game of it at home against defending NFC champion Arizona. The Lions lost 31-24, but Stanton at least provided an offensive spark.

• In fairness, the Lions second-half comeback was really kick-started by rookie safety Louis Delmas, whose 101-yard interception return for a touchdown scored Detroit's first points. Delmas is now the first rookie in NFL history to score on a safety, a fumble return for a touchdown and an interception return for a touchdown.

I was in Detroit on draft weekend, and the Lions front office was as excited about landing Delmas with the first pick of the second round as anything that happened that Saturday. I understand why a bit more every week.

• Ricky Williams is a 1,000-yard rusher again, six years after it last happened. That's the longest gap between 1,000-yard rushing seasons in NFL history, and maybe nothing sums up the interesting arc of Williams' career better than that. There are so many different chapters to the Ricky story. Ricky as the Saints franchise back. Ricky as the workhorse for the Dolphins. Ricky the enigma. Ricky the exiled. Ricky in Canada. And Ricky reborn as a savvy role player in Miami.

• Nice coaching job, Wade Phillips. You've been a piñata here of late, and I've certainly taken my share of swings, but you had your Cowboys ready for their game of the season Saturday night in New Orleans. But don't start resting on your laurels, because your work is far from done. It may take a 10th victory to make the playoffs, and even if it doesn't, a win in the postseason is probably a must to keep your job another year.

• Their perfect season is gone, but that doesn't mean the Saints (13-1) can afford to ease their foot off the gas at this point, even after Minnesota (11-3) fell to Carolina Sunday night in Charlotte.

But with a home game against Tampa Bay and a road date at Carolina remaining, the Saints still should be able to make the rest of the NFC playoff field go through the Superdome.

• We'll be seeing you, Nick Folk. When the Dallas kicker clanked that 24-yard field goal attempt off the right upright Saturday night at the Superdome, giving the Saints life in the final two minutes, he might as well have headed to the sideline and speed-dialed Shaun Suisham to find out what to expect during his pending unemployment.

• Granted, Drew Brees didn't have his best game of the season against Dallas. He threw a pick, lost a couple fumbles and absorbed four sacks by the Cowboys. But no, I don't think the MVP race just got decided in favor of Peyton Manning. Brees obviously didn't help his candidacy, but this thing ain't over. Not by a long shot. It'll go a full 17 weeks.

• Should be a nice Christmas week for Jim Caldwell. How'd you like to be a rookie NFL head coach and realize that you can't possibly experience your first regular-season loss until after the holiday? Probably makes the egg nog taste a little sweeter.

• Even at this late date, does anybody really know what the Browns have in Brady Quinn? The 2007 first-round pick entered Sunday with four consecutive games without an interception, but he had his second straight low-impact game in a Browns win, throwing for just 66 yards and a pair of interceptions in that wacky affair in Kansas City. Quinn ran for almost as many yards (39) as that, and on just four scrambles.