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Tuesday, September 27, 2011

NFL Week 3 Recap

Are the Buffalo Bills for real@!? Wow - what a game that was. Going down 21-0 to the Pats and Tom Brady I thought to myself - no way. And then we just started chipping away - at first I was just rooting for the Bills to cover and keep it manageable - then it turned it to a wait a minute, if we can just stop Brady oneee more time we might have a shot at this. With the help of 3 second-half Brady Interceptions and Ochocinco shitting the bed, the Bills D absolutely answered the call. Even in the late game situations, it looked like the Bills, not the Patriots were the team that were accustomed to winning. I know its only week 3 of the season - but these first three weeks have had more excitement, hope, and drama than any 3 week stretch I can remember as a fan of the Bills. It feels good to be relevant - heck, it just feels good to not be part of the "Suck for Luck" sweepstakes. Click after the jump for more about we we learned besides the Bills stranglehold on the rest of NFL...

For our picks this week, we continued our winning streak going 9-7 overall. A couple of breaks didn't go our way which was bound to happen but I'll take the winning week anytime. In our survivor pick the Titans held on to beat the Broncos in what was a very close game all the way throughout. Unfortunately for Titans fans WR Kenny Britt went down with a torn ACL and will be out the remainder of the season. Also, Chris Johnson is still your Running Back, so that sucks. But we'll take the win and look to move on to week 4. First - here's what we learned in Fantasy as well as in the NFL. 


Fantasy:
In my big money league which is PPR, Wes Welker (61.60 pts) single-handedly outscored the entire opposing team (61.40 pts) by himself. I've never ever seen that happen. There were also 3 guys this week not in any of your starting lineups that performed in the top 15 - Ravens Rookie WR Torrey Smith (5 receptions, 152 yards and 3 TDs), Giants WR Victor "Nnamdi Who?" Cruz (3 receptions, 110 yards, and 2 TDs) and Texans TE James Casey (5 receptions, 126 yards, and 1 TD). Just goes to show that there is value out there still on the waiver-wire. Speaking of which here are some guys that I think may or may not be able to help your team out at some point in the season:


Nate Washington WR, TEN - With Kenny Britt done for the year, Washington will definitely be to go to guy for Hasselbeck in the passing game. He's already averaging 7 catches and 86 yards per contest so I would only expect his numbers to increase in order fill the void left by Britt. 


Denarious Moore WR, Oak - This is a Rookie that crashed onto the scene in week 2 after his 5 catch, 146 yard performance against the Bills. While he didn't quite have the same production this week - 4 catches, 34 yards and an impressive 23 yard Rushing TD - I still expect Moore to have an impact in this offense especially with all of the WR injuries in Oakland. He's also got a cupcake matchup against the Pats secondary next week.  


Brandon Pettigrew TE, Det - This is another one of those physically gifted TEs that can absolutely dominant opposing LBs. He didn't have much production during the first two weeks so a lot of owners (myself included) probably cut him. His 11 catch, 112 yard performance on Sunday showed me what he's capable of doing. While he's still probably not a top 10 TE for Fantasy purposes, he still warrants a spot on your bench and could be used as a fill-in for Gates or bye week matchups in the upcoming weeks. 


That's really it for guys that I would add at this point in the season. The only players that will really require a further look going forward will be players that are filling in because of an injury. My teams went 2-1 again, can't be mad at that. Lesean McCoy is proving that he is a top 5 RB in the league and Calvin Johnson continues his dominance over CBs in the redzone adding another 2 TDs to make it 6 on the year. 


NFL:
The Bills are no joke and stand alone the top of the AFC as the only unbeaten team in the conference. The Raiders whose only loss came to the Bills looked extremely impressive against the Jets this past weekend and at this point look to be the strongest team in the AFC West. That's because the Chargers have gotten off the to their usual sluggish start. Even though they are 2-1, they have looked sloppy led by Phillip Rivers' uncharacteristic 6 Interceptions so far. The Dolphins, Colts, and Chiefs have officially entered their names into the aforementioned "Suck for Luck" campaign. 


In the NFC the Packers and Lions continued to find ways to win as they both improved to 3-0. The Lions had to claw back from a 20-0 deficit against the Vikings - who have been outscored a staggering 67-6 in the second half so far this year. I just don't understand how that happens when you have Adrian Peterson. The NFC East is still wide open with 3 teams tied for first. However, it's my early prediction that there will only be one rep from that division this year in the playoffs. I expect the NFC North and NFC South to have the wild card teams this year...


Check back later in the week for more predictions / updates / random thoughts. Baseball season is coming to a close - Wild Card races still yet to be determined. Should be an entertaining couple of days. Can't wait for meaningful Baseball again. 

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