EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Sometimes, real life intrudes on the games we play. And sometimes, we need those games to get away from real life.

In the wake of Superstorm Sandy and the destruction it brought to the Northeast, everyone on the Pittsburgh Steelers and New York Giants understood that.

"There are so many bigger things going on around here that what we do is not as important as real life," Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said Sunday after throwing for two touchdowns in a 24-20 comeback victory. "My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone else who are going through so much. There were so many emotions going on, I didn't know what to expect from it. But maybe we were able to take their minds off their problems just a little."

That's all the local fans sought: temporary relief and the Giants (6-3) provided it for a while. But they couldn't stop Isaac Redman, who had little relief with Pittsburgh's other two main backs injured, yet rushed for a career-best 147 yards and the winning 1-yard TD with 4:02 to go.

Pagano inspire Colts

INDIANAPOLIS — Only one person could upstage Andrew Luck's record-setting performance in the Indianapolis Colts' biggest win of the season: coach Chuck Pagano.

Pagano, still fighting his battle against leukemia, talked with the team before and after Luck threw for an NFL rookie-record 433 yards in the Colts' 23-20 win over the Miami Dolphins at Lucas Oil Stadium.

In a video released by the Colts, Pagano can be seen addressing the team in an emotional scene afterward.

"I mentioned before the game we were living in a vision, we weren't living in circumstances," Pagano told the team. "You know where they had us in the beginning. You refused to live in circumstances. We decided consciously as a team and a family, to live in a vision. That's why you bring things home like you brought it home today."

Notes

• According to a report by ESPN, the multiyear extension that Sean Payton signed in September 2011 was voided by the NFL, which would make the suspended New Orleans coach a free agent at the end of the 2012 season. Reportedly at issue in the contract, which would have kept Peyton in New Orleans through 2015, "was one specific clause that would have enabled Payton to walk away from the deal if general manager Mickey Loomis was suspended, fired or left the New Orleans organization, sources said. The league believed that any such language in Payton's contract would set a bad precedent for other coaching contracts and rejected the deal well before Loomis was suspended for the first eight games this season for his part in the bounty scandal."

• Doug Martin never had a homecoming like this during his stellar college career at Boise State. Martin rushed for a franchise-record 251 yards and four touchdowns and Ahmad Black intercepted a Carson Palmer pass after Oakland had cut an 18-point deficit to three late in the fourth quarter as the Buccaneers beat the Raiders 42-32.

Martin, who was born in Oakland and went to high school in nearby Stockton, had a memorable return home for the Bucs (4-4) by scoring on runs of 1, 45, 67 and 70 yards in front of more than 60 friends and family members.

"Everybody was there. It was awesome," he said. "It's surreal right now. I'm just doing my job out there. I'm honored."

Martin, the 31st pick in April out of Boise State, became the first back since at least 1940 to score on three TD runs of at least 45 yards in one game, according to STATS LLC.