Week 1 Recap

Well, normally this will be posted on Tuesday evening, but I've been sick since last night... and I've slept through most of today, and I still feel sick.  While I wait for the medicine to kick in, I might as well write the blog, before it turns into next week (in football terms).

Game 1: Agmen Alarius vs Pretty in Pink
When Colby and I made the trade for draft picks at the beginning of the year, he predicted his team would score some monster games while my team would consistently score good, but not great.  That's almost exactly what happened in game 1.  My team was consistent, in that nobody scored over 20 points, but nobody scored under 10, except the TE position.

Michelle had it rough; all of her RB's are considered starters, or at least number 1 on their respective depth charts, but none of them had a great week.  Knowshon Moreno was supposed to benefit big time from John Fox, who is supposed to be a run-first type of coach.  Ryan Grant should have better games ahead, when it's not a shoot out for Aaron Rodgers.  While Greg Jennings and Jason Witten had their expected production, Dwayne Bowe only caught one pass.

On the other hand, my team's RB corps each scored a TD.  If not for Felix Jones' TD, he would have had a so-so outting, but I got lucky there.  Beanie Wells and Tim Hightower both look to be great picks if they have the number of carries throughout the year that they had in this game.  Hakeem Nicks and Dez Bryant both had great games, but now I have to worry about their durability.  They are both listed as questionable this week, although I imagine that they will both play.  I really don't want to have to put Percy Harvin in the lineup until McNabb proves he can throw the ball.


Game 2: The Time in NOW vs Team Stonewall
Alex's two highest scorers this week were his defense and his kicker.  Lewis had five players score sub-double digits.  This was a rough start for both Alex and Lewis, but it sure made for an interesting game.  This one was the closest game of the week.

Lewis started hot with Vick scoring 20.  The funny thing about Vick scoring 20 is that he only threw for 187 yards.  I suspect he will continue to put up high, high numbers, if he can score 20 on that low of yards.  Blount came up as a big disappointment, and we'll see where this goes.  I had Blount pretty high on my draft board, so if he ends up second on his depth chart, Lewis will have saved me from a wasted pick.  On the other hand, I still expect him to come back strong.  The hard part for Lewis is that he doesn't have too many bench players to plug in just yet, although he has made some swaps.  I figure Lewis' team is strong enough that he will come back (unlike last year); hopefully it's not too early, since I play him this week.

Alex's team had an off week, too.  Jamaal Charles and Peyton Hillis should each be scoring double digits every week.  Also, the trade went through, giving Alex some quality at WR.  No more trying to depend on Braylon Edwards and Devin Hester each week.  It does look like he's going to struggle with TE; I doubt the Bills TE is going to score 2 TD each week, and Marcedes Lewis is already battling the injury bug.

This game was awesome for two reasons:  it came down to the wire, and if Sebastian Janikowski doesn't hit that record tying 63 yard FG, Alex doesn't win.  But he does, and Alex pulls off the win.  The Time is NOW is looking like the Cowboys.  But we still have hope!


Team Goodrum vs Bare RAST
Bandt got lucky in his fantasy football debut.  No, I'm not talking about his players, I'm talking about his opponent.  He pulls the short straw, or should I saw the short bus, by getting Eric on week 1.  This is sort of like a handicap in golf, I suppose.  Remember, Eric got last place last year.  Brandt needed it, too: somehow he pulled off the win despite scoring only 78 points.

Eric was saved in the purest sense of the word by playing the Ravens defense.  If they didn't score 26 points, Eric is staring a 40 point week in the face.  Looking at that lineup, though, that shouldn't be the norm.  Chris Johnson, Frank Gore, and Shonn Green are lead-men; they should be scoring double digits.  Not this week, however.  Frank Gore led that entire pack with 6 points.  Also, Vincent Jackson and Antonio Gates should be getting a TD each game, but they got punked this week by Mike Tolbert, who had a monster game and scored all of the Chargers TD's.

Brandt got lucky with Kenny Britt; scratch that 80 yard TD and he only gets 11 points, and Brandt doesn't win this game.  MJD, on the other hand, had 15 points in a game that they were limiting his touches.  That bodes well for the most injury prone top-10 pick.  Maybe he will have a good year after all.      Maclin played about like I expected him to play.  Remember, Maclin's "illness" is eerily similar to what I got a couple years ago: mono comes and goes, but mysterious physical symptoms keep persisting.  I still have to deal with that, and it's been 2 1/2 years.


Brett Favre's Dirty Giblets vs Million Dollar Cowboys
This was BJ's Hinckleys House debut, and I have to say, he didn't quite disappoint.  He nearly put up 100 points.  Now, 1/3 of those points come from Tom Brady, but that was all BJ: He picked up Brady about 10 picks before he was projected to go.  This drove me crazy because Brady was supposed to be my #1 pick.  But it goes to show that at least BJ has some football predictive senses.

BJ got the short end of the stick with Stephen Jackson, I think.  He is 29 years old and that is exactly when most RB's start to decline; Jackson is different from most, however, and this is just a bruised quad, not a mysterious drop in YPC.  Addai played about as well as you would expect for the Colts this year, and LT had more points than he will probably have most of the year.  Also, who expected the Giants D to give up 28 points against the Redskins?

BJ's biggest problem this week, however, wasn't his personnel choices.  It was his opponent.  Colby had great game despite Darren Sproles sitting on the bench.  While Bradford and AP didn't produce, McCoy did like I expected him to (He was going to be my #1 pick if I didn't trade) and Forte exceeded expectations.  Speaking of exceeding expectations, Anquan Boldin broke double digits: while I don't expect that to be the norm, at least it says he has a potential upside, right?  Colby is projected to have a big week next week, as well, so watch out Nate!


Disco Inferno vs Air Raid
When Ray Rice scores 27 points and five of your players are in double digits, you would expect to win your game, right?  Not quite.  Reggie Wayne scores Indy's only TD and breaks 100 yards, Aaron Rodgers does his Aaron Rodgers thing, and Cedric Benson run for 120 yards and a TD to hand Mcleary the win.

Nate has to be disappointed with the loss but hopeful for the rest of the season.  For one thing, Roethlisburger only netted him 5 points.  That's about 10 points below his average and expected production.  The Steelers won't be having another 5+ turnover game anytime soon, I would think.  Also, Fitz was limited and his kicker only scored 1 point.

Big Mac has to be excited for the win but also excited for the season.  For one thing, Michael Turner looks like he'll have another productive season, and if Cedric Benson can keep running like that, he will be considered a steal (Cant quite remember what round he went in).  I figured Mike Williams was going to be a good WR this year, and I had him pretty high on my draft board, but Big Mac beat me to him, and more power to him.  Also, Vernon Davis only had 4 points, and that shouldn't be considered normal; I would expect him to get way more receptions as the season goes on.


Team WorldDominators vs Team Goodrich
Well, this was the down matchup for this week.  John might be a bit excused: His part of California has had power outages, and to his credit, John thought he had made his swaps already.  But man up!  Because you won your first game, and it turns out that although you lost Peyton Manning, you might have found some gems.

For on thing, while Tolbert isn't going to get 3 TD's in a game very often, he easily outproduced Ryan Matthews, and quite convincingly.  I had Tolbert ranked way higher than Matthews.  Rashard Mendenhall suffered from the Steelers terrible, terrible outing and Austin Collie should get more receptions as he and Kerry Collins get more comfortable.  But here we go again with Wes Welker: 28 points, 160 yards and a pair of TDs.  The Brady-Welker connection looks to be in full swing again.  Fix your kicker, fix your QB and you should be a threat in the league.

Goodrich, on the other hand, needs to WAKE UP!  Not switching out Foster cost you the game!  Goodrich can't really be blamed for the Steelers debacle, as nobody in the league would have switched them out prior to this game.

While I've got both of these teams in the same week, it should be noted that a lack of attention each week might cost you your team.  We are currently at a 12-team format, but if the not-roster-rotating becomes a problem, we can consider changing it back to a 10-team format or swapping out some owners.  *ahem*




Well, there you have it.  Half of the league has won 100% of their games while half of the league has lost 100% of their games.  Newcomers Brandt and BJ have proven that they have some game.  One of the big games coming up next week: I play against Lewis, and this isn't the guaranteed win it would have been last year.  Am I nervous?  Of course not.