Bayern Munich kept up its recent winning ways but Hoffenheim remains top of the Bundesliga after beating Arminia Bielefeld to stay three points clear.
Second-half goals from Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose gave Bayern all three points from its trip to Bayer Leverkusen to leave it in second place with 31 points from 15 games.
Toni opened the scoring in the 59th minute with Klose's goal coming eight minutes before the end to seal a 2-0 win.
However, Hoffenheim remains out in front after a convincing win over Arminia Bielefeld.
Vedad Ibisevic struck his league-leading 17th goal after just five minutes. Carlos Eduardo doubled the advantage only six minutes later before Francisco Copado capped the win from the penalty spot a minute before time.
Bayern hosts Hoffenheim on Friday with a chance to go top of the table.
Werder Bremen is off the pace after an indifferent start to the season, but it showed how dangerous it can be with a 5-0 demolition of Eintracht Frankfurt.
Claudio Pizarro struck a hat-trick as Werder secured a third straight home win to move up to seventh place - three points from the UEFA Cup places.
Pizarro opened the scoring with goals in the 11th and 20th minutes before Diego converted a penalty in the 44th minute. Pizarro added his third just after the hour mark before Aaron Hunt completed the rout 15 minutes from time.
In a battle at the bottom, Energie Cottbus got the all-important points from a 3-1 away win over Borussia Monchengladbach to move off the foot of the table and into 15th place.
Borussia got off to a bad start when American midfielder Michael Bradley scored an own goal in the 18th minute. Dennis Sorensen then doubled the visitors' lead six minutes after the break.
Although Steve Gohouri got one back for Borussia just before the hour-mark, Emil Jula made sure of the points for Cottbus in the 85th minute.
Cottbus came into the game having scored just eight goals in the first 14 games but took advantage of the worst defence in the Bundesliga.
Bojan Prasnikar's team has now won two of its last three games to move out of the relegation zone.
Karlsruhe sank into last place as it went down 3-2 at Hannover.
The hosts wasted little time taking the lead as Mike Hanke scored a quickfire brace in the 12th and 18th minutes with a pair of powerful shots. The hosts grabbed their third a minute before the break with Mikael Forsell the finisher.
Karlsruhe launched a second-half comeback attempt as Antonio de Silva scored from the spot in the 48th minute before Lars Stindl fired home four minutes from time, but it was too little too late from the visitors.
Hannover 3 (Hanke 12, 18, Forssell 44)
Karlsruhe 2 (Da Silva 48p, Stindl 81)
Bayer Leverkusen 0
Bayern Munich 2 (Toni 59, Klose 82)
Borussia Munchengladbach 1 (Gohouri 59)
Cottbus 3 (Bradley 17og, Sorensen 51, Jula 85)
Werder Bremen 5 (Pizarro 12, 20, 62, Diego 44p, Hunt 75)
Eintracht Frankfurt 0
TSG Hoffenheim 3 (Ibisevic 5, Carlos Eduardo 11, Copado 89p)
Arminia Bielefeld 0