Approaching the mid-point of the 2011 NFL Regular Season, it should come as no surprise that the teams with the most successful quarterbacks are riding high, while those with problems in the passing position are trailing the field.

Sitting atop the passer rankings after Week 8 were four QBs with ratings above 100. By no coincidence, all four play for teams at the head of their divisions.

After just three and a half seasons of signal calling for the Green Bay offense, Aaron Rogers already has cheese heads thinking “Brett who?” His passer rating going into Packers’ bye week was 125.7, including 20 touchdowns versus just three interceptions.

There’s no doubt that Rogers’ success is the reason his team has started the season 7-0 to lead the NFC East. His arm should be well rested as he travels to the left coast to see if he can keep the Pack perfect in San Diego in Week 9.

In contrast, New England’s Tom Brady is not having his best year. After seven games, he’s been intercepted eight times. In 2010, he gave up only four picks all season and ended up ranked #1 overall.

But even when he’s off, the Patriot’s quarterback is still phenomenal. With a 104.4 passer rating, Brady has tossed his team to a record of 5-2, currently tied for the lead with Buffalo in the AFC East.

Sporting a 102.1 rating, New York’s Eli Manning is ranked #3 in the league. His 5-2 Giants are comfortably ahead of the other three teams in the NFC East, none of which has a top rated aerial attack. (Tony Romo in Dallas comes closest in the low 90s.)

Still negotiating a new contract in New Orleans, Drew Brees has been showing Saints fans that he’s worth every penny he wants. His 100.6 passer rating includes 2,746 yards in the air, more than any other quarterback in the league at this stage. The 5-3 Saints are clinging to a slim lead over the Falcons and the Buccaneers in the NFC South.

On the other end of the standings are the NFL’s two winless teams, Miami (0-7) and Indianapolis (0-8). The Dolphins have choked in the air with Chad Henne (79.0) and Matt Moore (65.3). The Colts, of course, were devastated by the loss of injured Peyton Manning; his replacement, Curtis Painter, has a passer rating of just 75.1.

Ironically, having Manning off the roster simply proves why giving the Hall-of-Fame-bound QB the recent contract extension he wanted was worth $90 million. More than any other component of play, passing wins games. And that’s a stat you can bet on.

It wasn’t pretty. In fact, it was downright ugly. But on October 29, 2011, Penn State delivered victory #409 to their 84-year-old leader Joe Paterno, making him the coach with the most wins in NCAA Division I football history.

Ranked #19 prior to kickoff and playing at home, 7-1 PSU was heavily favored over unranked Big Ten rival Illinois, who were 6-2 coming into Happy Valley. But by all accounts, it was a miserable game for both teams till the last few minutes.

On Saturday, one of the worst blizzards in history came upon the Northeast. Beaver Stadium was draped in heavy wet snow. Pre-game, the grounds crew did their best to clear the turf, but the white stuff kept falling and left the surface slushy and slick.

Penn State fumbled the ball six times, losing two of them plus an interception to the Fighting Illini, who led 7-0 going into the fourth quarter. With seven minutes left, Anthony Fera’s 30-yard field goal put the Nittany Lions within four. Then, with just 1:08 to go, sophomore RB Silas Redd lugged the slippery pigskin three yards to the endzone for a 10-7 lead.

But the game wasn’t quite over. On the next possession, Illinois started in its own 17 and drove all the way down to the Penn State 25. That gave kicker Derek Dimke an opportunity to tie it with a 42-yarder, but as time expired his attempt bounced off the right upright, giving Paterno the historic win.

Just how awesome is his record? Florida State’s Bobby Bowden won 377 times prior to retirement, while Alabama’s Bear Bryant got only 323 wins. Woody Hayes never even reached 250 at Denison, Miami and Ohio State combined. The man JoePa left in second at 408 victories was Grambling’s Eddie Robinson, whose feat was once thought to be unbeatable.

En route to this amazing accomplishment, the Brooklyn native, who played both quarterback and cornerback for Brown University in 1946-49 before serving 15 years as a PSU assistant coach, guided Penn State through 46 seasons. He got his team to two national championships and five undefeated, untied seasons—more than any coach in NCAA football history.

Paterno well deserves the accolades he has received, as well as the short rest that next week’s bye will afford him. Win #410 is not going to come easily.  The Nittany Lions face #10 Nebraska next, followed by Ohio State and then #20 Wisconsin to close their 2011 regular season.

Should Penn State win the Leaders Division, as expected, they will face the best team in the Legends Division for the first ever Big Ten Conference Championship game. That will take place in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium on December 3, 2011.

Many say that could be the maestro’s last concert. It would certainly be a fitting way to end a glorious career if it ended in one more triumph—a final feather to add to JoePa’s war bonnet and one more victory beyond what any other coach in Division I has ever accomplished.

Hats off to JoePa!

Back in March, when the 2011 NFL Season was still a question mark in the minds of both locked-out players and worried fans, NFL owners quietly voted to change the rules of how kickoffs are conducted. They moved the spot of the ball up five yards to the 35-yard line while restricting the running start of coverage units to five yards behind the ball.

The owners had their reasons. First and foremost, they wanted to limit injuries caused by head-on collisions at full speed. Giving kickers a shorter field should mean more balls sailing into the end zone. That should in turn result in more touchbacks and a decrease in injuries caused by contact.

As it turns out, they were mostly right. During the full 2010 season, returns were attempted on 84% of all kickoffs. During 2011 through Week 7, that figure was down to 49%. In other words, fewer than half of all kickoffs are being returned.

But here’s where the statistics take a twist. Throughout 2010, for all teams combined, the average yardage per return was 22.3 yards. So far in 2011, the average run back has been 24.2 yards—an increase of 8.5%.

Also, in all of 2010, only six of the 32 teams had a kickoff return of 100 yards or longer. Already, five teams have done so in 2011, and the season isn’t even half over.

Several things are happening to the kicking game that the owners may not have anticipated. For one, return specialists are showing they are not afraid to field the ball in the end zone and run it out. Don’t try telling Chicago’s Devin Hester, Green Bay’s Randall Cobb or Ted Ginn of San Francisco to take a knee when a touchdown is just a 100-yard dash away.

Another factor contributing to longer returns is a letdown in coverage by kicking units. Special teams aren’t getting enough opportunities to make stops. When there’s only a 50% chance of action, they don’t bring the same reckless abandon to coverage that they do when solid tackling is the only barrier to six points.

On the other hand, only six kickoffs have been returned for TDs in 2011 to date—less than one per week, which is far off the pace that produced 23 such scores in 2010. Indeed, the only players padding their stats under the new rules are the kickers.

In 2010, Baltimore’s Billy Cundiff was the league’s lone legman to see more than 50% of his kicks result in touchbacks; he consistently averages over 70 yards per boot. Right now, with 69.7% TBs, he’s ranked only third behind Kansas City’s Ryan Succup at 70.8% and Denver’s Matt Prater at an amazing 85.2%. Fully 15 NFL kickers are currently over 50%.

Fans have lost a lot due to the rule change, as the number of exciting runbacks has been dramatically reduced and return men have been greatly devalued in fantasy football. But there is a silver lining—for in-running betting at sportsbooks, wagering on the kicking game—touchbacks, return yardage and 100-yard scores—has been given entirely new life.