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Keyboard Quarterback: Packing It In
Authored by Andrew Perna - 26th September, 2006 - 5:11 pm
Between 2002 and 2006, each school that came into the season ranked No. 1 in the nation ran the table in the regular season, but we've seen huge turnover in 07 and 08.
Jeff Risdon was actually into fantasy football back in the early 90s, and he quite a bit to say about how it has changed over the years and infiltrated the mainstream.
Baltimore wants Flacco to be their QB of the future. But the Ravens feel they have no choice but to start him now because Boller and Smith are unavailable. Wrong!
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Week three in the NFL was a week full of highlights, including a quarterback who threw five touchdowns, a running back that tallied three, the continued dominance of several teams, and even a few teams who fell deeper into the depths of their winless misery. My fantasy exploits were more like the latter, with my teams hitting a record low. I’m beginning to think I should make this season my last for fantasy football, but we all know that addictions are hard to kick.
Week Three Highs
Seahawks Offense Breaks Loose The Seahawks may have entered week three with a 2-0 record, but their first two wins weren’t exactly a work of art. Seattle’s powerhouse offense finally broke free on Sunday in their 42-30 drubbing of the New York Giants. Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck threw for only 227 yards, but it was his five touchdown passes that made the game special. The Seahawks opened up a 42-3 lead before the Giants made the score look more respectable in the second half.
Redskins Earn First Win Washington got a much-needed win against the Houston Texans on Sunday, and quarterback Mark Brunell set an NFL record by completing his first twenty-two passes. Brunell finished the game with 261 yards and just one touchdown, but the Redskins’ ground attack was potent enough to lead Washington to victory. Running backs Ladell Betts and Clinton Portis combined for 210 yards and three touchdowns.
Favre Hits another Milestone In the Packers win over the Lions, Brett Favre reached another career milestone when he threw the four-hundredth touchdown pass of his career to receiver Greg Jennings. He tacked on a two more before the game was over as Green Bay got their first win of the season. The three touchdown passes put Favre eighteen behind Dan Marino and his NFL record 420 touchdowns.
Baltimore Battles Back It looked as though the Ravens would be denied a 3-0 start, and that my week three survivor pool pick was a mistake. Then the Ravens’ Matt Stover kicked a 52-yard field goal with just twenty seconds left and the Ravens stole themselves their third win of the season. The Baltimore defense looks as though it’s back to the dominance they enjoyed a few years ago, and Steve McNair runs the offense ten times better than Kyle Boller ever did.
Indianapolis Sets Jacksonville Back Coming off an amazing win over the defending champion Pittsburgh Steelers last week, the Jaguars were looking to go 3-0 and record another statement victory over the Colts in the process this Sunday. Instead Indianapolis scored often enough to send a hard-nosed, running Jaguars team home with a 2-1 record. Peyton and his offense were as patient as I’ve seen them in their 21-14 victory. The Colts will look to go 4-0 next week against the New York Jets.
Week Three Lows Steelers Losing Ground Pittsburgh will spend their bye week wondering what happen to the team that ended the 2005 season with a Super Bowl victory parade. The Steelers are looking up at the 3-0 Bengals and Ravens, after losing to Cincinnati 28-20 on Sunday. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw for a bland 208 passing yards and three interceptions in the loss, as only running back Willie Parker looked good in the loss. Coach Cowher and the Pittsburgh coaching staff will have a lot to discuss during their week off.
Tampa Bay Still Winless The Buccaneers were supposed to challenge the rest of the NFC South for a playoff spot, instead they’ve quickly fallen into a 0-3 hole and their playoff hopes are fading. In addition to the heart-breaking loss to the Panthers, quarterback Chris Simms had emergency surgery to remove his spleen Sunday night. The surgery could put Simms on the sidelines for a month, and maybe even the rest of the regular season. Things just keep getting worse for Coach Gruden.
49ers Lose Two Starters on One Play Not only did San Francisco fall to 1-2 after a loss to the Eagles this weekend, they also lost two starters on the same crazy play. Running back Frank Gore strained his abdomen and rookie tight end Vernon Davis cracked a bone in his leg during a 98-yard fumble return by Philadelphia’s Mike Patterson. Gore injured himself while trying to stretch over the goal line and Davis broke his leg while trying to chase down Patterson, and could miss more than four weeks.
Reggie Wayne’s Brother Passes Away In an unfortunate turn of events, Indianapolis Colts’ wide receiver Reggie Wayne’s brother Rashad was killed on Sunday when his delivery truck crashed into a highway guardrail. The crash took place in Louisiana, where the Wayne’s grew up. Both the Colts and Wayne chose not to comment on the incident after their victory over the Jaguars. On behalf of the RealGM family I’d like to send my condolences to the Wayne family and anyone else affected by this tragedy.
Things Going Bad For Giants Not only did the New York Football Giants fall to 1-2 after losing 42-30 to the reigning NFC Champion Seattle Seahawks, but in a post-game interview tight end Jeremy Shockey ripped head coach Tom Coughlin. Shockey told the Associated Press, “We got outplayed and out coached. Write that down.” The comments were similar to the ones made by the much less controversial Tiki Barber following the Giants playoff loss to the Panthers last season. Poor Eli…
My Week Three Fantasy Diary My obsession with fantasy football has now led me into a deep depression. For those of you who haven’t been following, I got myself into nine different fantasy leagues and I’m struggling my way though eight of them. In week three my teams repeated their dismal week one performance by going an outstanding 3-6 (sense the sarcasm), and once again I lost in the most important league of them all.
I’ve dug myself a deeper hole than I thought possible in three of my most competitive leagues. I’m 0-3 in RealGM’s own Reader Challenge League, despite having a roster stacked with talent. I have a three-headed rushing monster with Rudi Johnson, Willis McGahee, and Willie Parker, and the rest of my roster is respectable (Steve McNair, Chris Chambers, Joey Galloway, Heath Miller, and Joseph Addai). However, yesterday my team, Andrew’s Army’ fell to 0-3 and any creditability I had is now lost.
I’m also winless in an ESPN league with several of my fellow Nichols College students. The sad thing is, I created these fantasy gurus. I came onto the Nichols campus three years ago with the intention of using sports to making friends, and one of my plots involved getting a yearly fantasy football league started. While my plan has worked well, aside from our first season in 2003, I haven’t had much success beating these guys! This week I submitted my starting line-up early Sunday morning, only to have two of my starters sit out because of last minute injuries (Donte’ Stallworth and Reuben Droughns).
The most disappointing performance came from the team I pay the most attention to, The Drew Crew of the East Coast Pigskin League. Heading into the weekend I was 0-2, and had just shaken up my struggling team after agreeing to a blockbuster trade with The Vipors and their owner, Paul. Having given up on both Kevin Jones and Cadillac Williams, I traded them to The Vipors for Fred Taylor, Joseph Addai, and Rod Smith. In addition I’d received Vipors fourth round pick in next year’s draft, while sending him my sixth rounder.
Both Jones and Williams were on struggling offenses that spent most of the game throwing the ball in an attempt to overcome large deficits. Neither had put up numbers worthy of a starting position on my team, and I needed a new look. So I called up Paul and eventually agreed to what may turn out to be the most lop-sided trade in the history of the East Coast Pigskin League. Jones and Cadillac outscored the trio of players I received in the deal 31-15, and I cried for most of the afternoon.
Looking back on my misfortunes I’ve started trying to tell myself that it’s not completely my fault. This week I faced the division rival Sonics and sobbed while Willie Parker and T.J. Houshmandzadeh had career days against my team. The most embarrassing thing is that Parker and Houshmandzadeh were just ten points shy of outscoring my whole team!
In addition, I benched Ahman Green and Lee Evans, who both had amazing days. Green was listed on the injury report all week, so I decided to take a chance and start rookie Joseph Addai and hope for another breakout performance. Instead Green posted 130 total yards and a touchdown, while Addai had 28 total yards! Evans meanwhile was playing in windy Buffalo against the Jets, with struggling quarterback J.P. Losman behind center. Evans, who at the start of the season looked as though he’d start opposite Larry Fitzgerald at wide receiver for The Drew Crew, struggled in his first two games leading me to start new Seahawk Deion Branch over him on Sunday.
Evans ended up catching several passes for 107 yards in the Bills’ loss to the Jets. The Drew Crew will now enter week four as one of only two teams with a 0-3 record. I’m currently thinking up ways to make my entire team disappear. And some of my team has already done the work for me, both of my tight ends maybe out next week. Vernon Davis broke his leg against the Eagles yesterday, and Desmond Clark sprained his ankle in the second half of the Bears’ win over the Vikings.
When it rains it pours in most places, but here in monsoons.
It looks as though I’ll have to post a near impossible 8-3 record through the remaining eleven regular season weeks of the fantasy season in order to qualify for the playoffs. A record like 8-3 would put my team at 8-6 and in the running for one of East Coast Pigskin’s few playoff spots. But a record like 8-3 seems impossible when I’ve already lost three games and I have no wins to show for it.
This week I’ll be pulling out the little hair I have when my team goes up against The Woodpeckers, who are 2-1 and will be playing guys like Warrick Dunn, Ronnie Brown, Anquan Boldin, and the Baltimore Defense against me. Oh joy…
If you know of any Fantasy Football self-help groups please e-mail me at Andrew.Perna@RealGM.com.
