Brent Yarina, BTN.com Senior Editor, September 25, 2012

Every Tuesday morning during the NFL season, Brent Yarina singles out the best offensive, defensive and special teams performances by Big Ten products and links to their NFL.com highlights. View all the former Big Ten players on NFL active rosters. See Brent's Week 3 winners in this post.

OFFENSE: Mikel Leshoure, RB, Detroit – It came in a losing effort, but Leshoure's long-awaited NFL debut more than lived up to the hype. The former Illini star ran for 100 yards, on the dot, scored his first touchdown (Watch TD run) and added four receptions for 34 yards in Detroit's overtime loss at Tennessee.

Not to be ignored, several ex-Big Ten wide receivers compiled big games, including Eric Decker (8 rec., 136 yards), Santonio Holmes (9 rec., 147 yards) and Brandon Lloyd (9 rec., 108 yards).

Chad Greenway
US PRESSWIRE

CO-DEFENSE: Chad Greenway, LB, Minnesota – The Iowa product registered an impressive 13 tackles and two sacks (Watch sack No. 1 | And sack No. 2) in the Vikings' wire-to-wire 24-13 upset victory over popular NFC favorite San Francisco. In the same game, former Penn State LB NaVorro Bowman notched 18 tackles.

J.J. Watt, DE, Houston – Three weeks, three distinctions for Watt in this series. The former Badger and reigning AFC Defensive Player of the Week picked up 2.5 more sacks, to go along with four tackles for loss, as Houston won at Denver to improve to 3-0. Watt's 5.5 sacks in the first three games match his total last season as a rookie.

SPECIAL TEAMS: Robbie Gould, K, Chicago – Gould was perfect in Chicago's 23-6 home win over St. Louis. The ex-Penn State kicker nailed all three field goal attempts, including a long of 54 yards (Watch it), and hit both of his extra-point attempts.

If you like keeping up with Big Ten products in the pros, BTN's "The Next Level" is for you. Watch the show at 8 p.m. ET every Tuesday during the football season.

BTN.com web editor Brent Yarina covers football and men's basketball for BTN.com. He writes the popular uniform feature "Clothes Call," which also focuses on the latest cosmetic changes across Big Ten arenas and stadiums. Read all of his work here. You can subscribe to Yarina's RSS feed and follow him on Twitter @BTNBrentYarina.