With the eyes of the NFL upon him, WR Michael Crabtree made his belated debut Sunday for the 49ers at Houston.

Suffice to say, the No. 10 pick in last April's draft looks to be well on his way to proving that the Raiders made a mistake and should have drafted the two-time Biletnikoff Award winner as the college game's top receiver.

While disappointing Darrius Heyward-Bey, the man the Raiders chose instead of Crabtree at No. 7, was grabbing two passes for 28 yards in a 38-0 loss to the Jets, Crabtree was snaring five catches for 56 yards in the 49ers' 24-21 loss to the Texans. Believe it or not, Crabtree already has more catches than Heyward-Bey (4-64 receiving in six games).

Crabtree clearly benefited from the 49ers' bye week, as he had a full two weeks to get up to speed. He has proven to be a quick study and wasn't just used in three-WR formations or utilized on bubble screens or quick-hitting passes that didn't require a lot of route running. He started at split end, supplanting Josh Morgan, and ended up playing 48 of San Francisco's 54 offensive plays, showing no ill effects from the foot injury that caused him to slide on Draft Day.

Impressively, the Niners threw to him downfield, and he didn't look like a rookie. He caught passes of 17 and 18 yards and had a 22-yard catch wiped out because of a penalty.

More importantly, after San Francisco rallied behind QB Alex Smith in the second half to climb back from a 21-0 deficit and make things close against Houston, it appears that the stronger-armed Smith will take over for Shaun Hill as the Niners' signalcaller. That should only benefit Crabtree, who had extra practice with Smith during the bye week and built a rapport with his fellow former first-rounder.

A few more performances like this week and it won't be a surprise to see Crabtree cracking the top 10 in the Rookie of the Year Meter before long.

On to this week's Rookie of the Year Meter:

1. OLB Brian Cushing, Texans (first round, 15th overall)
Had another strong game, finishing with a team-best eight tackles and adding a pass defended in the Texans' 24-21 win over the 49ers. Was a big part of the resurgent Texans run defense, holding Frank Gore to 32 rushing yards on 13 carries. Houston has allowed 194 rushing yards the past four games after giving up 615 the first three games.

2. QB Mark Sanchez, Jets (1, 5)
Did a great job of not getting in the way of the Jets' powerful 1-2 RB punch of Thomas Jones and fellow rookie Shonn Greene in the Jets' 38-0 blowout victory over the Raiders. Completed just 9-of-15 passes for 143 yards with one touchdown and added one rushing score. More importantly, he didn't turn the ball over. Admitted after the game he erred in eating a hot dog on the bench during the second half of the romp. Chalk it up to the learning process a rookie goes through. Next time, he'll make sure to grab a PowerBar.

3. WR Percy Harvin, Vikings (1, 22)
He caught only 3-of-10 passes thrown to him by Brett Favre, totaling 42 yards, in a 27-17 loss at Pittsburgh. But he showed great toughness by playing with an injured left shoulder and then by remaining in the game after getting drilled in the shoulder by Steelers S Ryan Clark. Harvin not only came back, he managed to return a kickoff 88 yards to cut the Steelers' lead to 20-17 late in the fourth quarter.

4. RB Knowshon Moreno, Broncos (1, 12)
On bye. Next up: Faces a Ravens defense that has allowed 100-yard rushers the past two games (Cedric Benson, Adrian Peterson).

5. OLB Rey Maualuga, Bengals (2, 38)
Wasn't needed much on an afternoon when the Bengals' offense was hitting on all cylinders. Registered two tackles in a 45-10 victory over the Bears.

6. OT Michael Oher, Ravens (1, 23)
On bye. Next up: Faces a big challenge in a Broncos defense that has been great at pressuring opposing QBs, particularly NFL sack leader Elvis Dumervil (10 sacks).

7. WR Austin Collie, Colts (4, 127)
Continues to emerge as a key weapon in the Colts' machine-like offense, grabbing his fourth TD catch of the season in Indy's 42-6 romp over the hapless Rams. Snared four catches for 36 yards to put him on pace for 64 catches, 704 yards and 11 TDs this season. Pretty big numbers for a rookie.

8. WR Hakeem Nicks, Giants (1, 29)
Extended his streak of games with a TD catch to four by grabbing a tipped pass intended for Mario Manningham and off Cardinals CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie's fingers and racing 62 yards for a touchdown in the Giants' 24-17 loss to Arizona Sunday night. Finished with four catches for 80 yards. He's tied with Collie and Harvin for the rookie lead in TDs with four.

9. OLB Aaron Curry, Seahawks (1, 4)
On bye. Should greatly benefit from the return of LB Leroy Hill, who suffered a groin injury in Week One and has been sidelined ever since. He's due back to face the Cowboys this Sunday.

10. MLB James Laurinaitis, Rams (2, 35)
Made four tackles in his winless team's 42-6 loss to the Colts. Laurinaitis could only do so much in the middle of a makeshift LB corps, following the trade of Will Witherspoon and with starter David Vobora still suspended. The Rams allowed an Indy team that came into the game rushing for 78.8 yards per game to gash them for 156 yards at a clip of 6.0 yards per carry.

On the cusp (listed alphabetically)
CB Jairus Byrd, Bills (2, 42)
CB Derek Cox, Jaguars (3, 73)
S Louis Delmas, Lions (2, 33)
CB Jacob Lacey, Colts (not drafted)
WR Jeremy Maclin, Eagles (1, 19)
OLB Clay Matthews, Packers (1, 26)
WR Johnny Knox, Bears (5, 140)
OLB Brian Orakpo, Redskins (1, 13)
PK Ryan Succop, Chiefs (7, 256)
WR Mike Wallace, Steelers (3, 84)

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