Football on a Fall Sunday....As patriotic as if an Eagle regurgitated it directly in your mouth...From the healthy, Norton virus protected notebook of your commish. Tuesday September 23rd, 2008 7:04 PM Rambling after Week 3... Skol. Yes, skol Gus. Childress made the call and reaped the rewards. How long will Gus make it work? Who knows - but he looked solid and had some zip on it. We just need AP to stay on the field and Childress might turn into the biggest winner on this one. Speaking of old guys running the show - the NFL in week 4 could see Kerry Collins (35) vs. Frerotte (37) and Favre (38) vs. Kurt Warner (37). Four guys who just might be on the hardwood doing the cha-cha with Julianne Hough in a couple years. Around the league for a bit..... AFC East - Buffalo is your leader at 3-0 out of the chute with the Pats at 2-1 after taking a loss to the Dolphins. I see this division, with Your Honor Brady out, being very tight. Ronnie Brown may be the best player in this division....with apologies only to Marshawn Lynch. I don't see Randy Moss being half the player he was last year until someone other than Cassell is taking the snaps. The Dolphins won't catch Buffalo and neither will the J-E-T-S. I give NE a chance - but only a slim one. AFC South - another somewhat surprise undefeated team, Tennessee, sits on top (Vince who???). They will go up against our Vikings in week 4, but as a home game, I don't see them screwing that one up, which pretty much means I should put money down on the Vikings. JAX and IND are both as disappointing 1-2's with Houston at the bottom at 0-2. I'd have to say that as far as fantasy goes, this division is pretty weak, but Peyton is still the guy to have....at least I think the first couple games have been an aberration for the Colts....(that's a big word meaning they're better than that). AFC North - Baltimore and Pittsburgh are a combined 4-1. Cinci and Cleveland are a combined 0-6. Hmm... Well, the Steelers lose fast Willie this week which will hurt quite a bit. The O-hi-O teams are in big trouble at this point and I see an 8-5 blow up coming sooner than later if he doesn't get the damn ball enough. On the other hand, Baltimore is somehow 2-0 (and should be 3-0 except for the hurricane postponing their sure win against the Texans) with an ancient Defense. Did you know that Ray Lewis is only 33? It seems like he's been in the league as long as Favre to me. What a player - I just hope he quits while he still has brain function (I guess that is assuming he does at this point) AFC West - What can you say about this division? Fantasy owner's dream. San Diego - LT, Rivers, Chambers, Gates, Sproules......those guys put up the points. Same (or even better) in Denver. Marshall, Cutler, Scheffler and Pittman.....another solid crew. I have no stats to back it up, but this division must be the highest fantasy scoring group in the NFL. On the other side of things, the Chefs are not cooking up anything good at all. Larry Johnson probably needs to go on Vince Young watch with the guys around him. And just imagine if Gonzo was on Favre's team. How about the NFC you ask? In the NFC East. This is pretty much the Bulldog Division of the NFL. Beau Beau's Cowboys are unbelievable. The Giants and my least favorite NFL player are somehow undefeated. The Eagles and Redskins - both at 2-1 - give this division a 10-2 combined record thus far. I like the Cowboys and the Eagles here....but only if their RB's and QB's stay healthy. NFC South - Tampa, Carolina and Atlanta are all at 2-1. Before the season, I'd have put all my chips down on Carolina Blue but now, and I can't believe I'm typing this, I'm thinking the Vick-less Falcons. Maybe it's the old karma thing going on, but maybe the Falcons are being rewarded for putting up with the Vick debacle a couple years ago. And speaking of Mike - I wonder what he's up to these days? Touch football during exercise hour? NFC West - This is backworlds world. Arizona and San Francisco on top, Seattle and St. Louis on the bottom. The 9ers might finally have found a quarterback to take some pressure off Mr. Gore in O'Sullivan. In Phoenix (or whatever city the red birds nest in) the pair of Anquan and Fitz are almost impossible to stop - the only man that can slow them down is Drew Rosenhaus, Boldin's agent. He keeps yapping about how good AQ would look in a Dolphins uni. Doesn't he realize that Pennington is their quarterback? He can't throw half as far or a quarter as accurate as Kurt. Finally, the NFC North. At least things haven't changed in our neck of the woods. Green Bay in first - Detroit winless and us and da Bears sitting in the middle. The Packers have a great QB, the bears a great Defense and the Lions, well, they have nothing other than Roy and Calvin. The NFC north, death and taxes. The more I watch Rodgers - the more I think Gus Frerotte is too little, too late, BUT BUT BUT, with a win in Tennessee this week (which I say is unlikely) and a couple more against New Orleans and Detroit in weeks 5 and 6 (which I say are likely), we'd be at 4-2.....not bad. I'm going with that kind of glass half full thinking. What about the world outside the NFL? Mr. Smith's bachelor party took place last weekend. The short story goes like this....hundreds of cans of beer, 1 Krebs sighting, 9 holes of golf, one 35 foot long limo, 150 miles round trip, a place called Phipps and a pizza order to cap off the night. Only one man was (almost) left behind and although the authorities were almost called for some questionably legal video taping, operation "Red Dawn" went off without a hitch. The backup pantalones were not even necessary (at least so I was told). Good times. Quote of the week.....from charter BIGFFBL member Jim Mahrer. The Duluth News Tribune reported a story on the local pizza scene in the Northland. The Shamrock Bar and Grill served up a bacon cheeseburger pizza. Reporter and fellow '98 PHS grad Jana Hollingsworth used a quote from our own Jim Mahrer (and yes, after you read it, think about that it was printed in the DNT).... “The cheeseburger pizza from the Shamrock … the most patriotic of all pizzas. What could be more American? Nothing: Except maybe if a bald eagle chewed it for you and regurgitated into your mouth.” Jim Mahrer, Proctor. I can't make this stuff up people. On to the BIG BIGFFBL. We are now three weeks in and the cream is beginning to rise with the, well, whatever is sinking. As for the sinker - Team Juice at 0-3 and averaging little over 70 points may not have the focus of previous seasons (then again, who can blame him).....and remember, I may have drafted his team, but it was off a list. Youch. The Woj, Nookie, Fantasy Super and Mikey all are also off to a tough go. Scottie will be running uphill all year with Brady out, Ben can't even walk much less run with his ankle in a cast now, Jugs needs more than 7 total out of his RBs and Mike needs Andre Johnson to do something. On the upper side of things, the LB's 100+ streak was finally broken at 12 going back to the 2007 season, but assuming Westbrook isn't hurt too bad, the LB's are still the favorite in the Bulldog D. Smitty will put up a fight, but Larry Johnson isn't good enough to keep up with the Bastards the whole year. The Husky boys will continue to be led by Kinger who will not look back. Jack is at 3-0 with the most points in the league so far and that is without the real Manning not even doing much of anything yet....and we know that won't last all year. Big week 4 matchup for Kinger with the LB's coming in with both needing the win to continue on the path of the division championship. Air JC held on to split the series with the bros by beating Ben by 2 a week after losing to Jon by 2. That's the 3rd 100+ of the year for JC who joins Kinger as the only 2 squads to go 3 for 3 this year. The Hellfish are also sitting at 2-1 but need some help at RB.....or maybe just need to start Ronnie Brown (which definitely would have helped). The Bison will be tight at the top the whole season I'm afraid. Hey, why not.....IF THE PLAYOFFS WERE TODAY-AY-AY-AY......
Anywho, good luck all in week 3 (except for Team Tang and the rest of the Bison of course). And for this week's final word. Kinger and I have joined the ranks of the 29ers with Smith and Juice soon to follow. Late 20s sounds better than early thirties - and I'm now down to 362 days to find a way to turn that around -- Jason, got any advice? Need I say more? BIGFFBL senior writer Jeremy Carlson sounds off whenever he feels like it on www.bigffbl.com |