After yet another fantastic Monday Night Football game, Week 2 of the NFL has come to an end. Here at Total Sports Blog, we’ll take some time to analyze the biggest match-ups, upsets and standout fantasy performances of the week as we get ready for Week 3.
There was no Thursday night game this week, packing Sunday chock full of 15 hard hitting games. If you listened to TSB’s Week 2 Fantasy Football Podcast, Scott and I gave you a couple of players to look out for and boy did these guys produce. I hope you didn’t panic over your first round pick Andre Johnson’s abysmal Week 1 performance as he realized he’s the best WR in the league and put up a monster 158 yards and 1 TD on 12 catches. DeSean Jackson hooked up with Michael Vick for 135 yards and a score, and Miles Austin had 142 yards on 10 receptions. Perennial bench bum Darren McFadden had 145 rushing yards and Knowshon Moreno put together 118 all purpose yards and 1 TD. The Rams Stephen Jackson wracked up a decent amount of yards even though he failed to find pay-dirt, and to cap it off TSB’s survival picks of Green Bay, Atlanta and San Diego not only won but covered their respective spreads with ease. Be sure to tune in next Thursday night for whats sure to be an interesting conversation, as this Week 2 gave us plenty to talk about.
Sunday kicked off with a few big games, namely Chicago at Dallas and Pittsburgh at Tennessee. If you would have told me before these games that the Steelers and the Bears would soon be 2-0, I would have asked you to introduce me to LT next time you guys go joy riding for crack in Spring Valley, NY. If you also told me that Devin Hester would make a highlight reel catch I’d probably lose it. But low and behold, all of these scenarios played out as the Pittsburgh defense shut down fantasy mega-stud Chris Johnson and Da Bears had nobody asking “How bout dem Cowboys?”
While this was going on, Michael Vick was exploiting the Detroit Lions Defense to the tune of 284 yards passing, 2 TDs 0 INTs and 37 yards rushing. I’m glad to see Vick rise up after pressing the self-destruct button on his career just a few years ago and doing some hard time in the penitentiary. Fending off lonely inmates in the showers has proven to actually improve Vick’s game as the guy seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, spinning away from linebackers left and right. Vick is back. He should be starting Week 3, but he won’t. The only player in this game more impressive than the financier of Bad Newz Kennels was Detroit rookie sensation RB Jahvid Best. 232 total yards and 3 TDs almost single handedly won Week 2 for fantasy owners of this guy, as he too seems to be the real deal.
The game of the week came shortly after the early games, as the New England Patriots faced off against the New York Jets. I wasn’t aware that the material on the gloves NFL receivers wear was made of those sticky hands from the quarter machines at the super market. While Randy Moss was vacationing on Revis Island, he burned the standout corner down the middle to make the most ridiculous one handed catch I’ve ever seen. No, he didn’t lay out for it or tip-toe the sideline. Moss simply put out 1 hand on an over the shoulder 34 yard bomb and caught the ball effortlessly.
While Moss had the play of the game, New York pulled off the upset at home and sent the Patriots packing. Ladanian Tomlinson looked solid and Mark Sanchez seemed to have taken his Valtrex as he was not the giant herpe on the lip of an otherwise attractive New York Jets squad that he was in Week 1. This was a signature win for the Jets, although I’m not ready to fully trust Sanchez just yet. Losing Darrell Revis for a few weeks (partially torn hammy) is going to hurt a bit. Jets fans can step back from that ledge, but I wouldn’t start popping the bubbly just yet. There’s 14 more games to play and they need to win at least 9 of them.
The Houston/Washington game was a fantasy football feast, with multiple players from each team putting up huge numbers. If you had Matt Schaub, Andre Johnson, Kevin Walter, Donovan McNabb or Clinton Portis, you did fairly well this week. The Texans pulled this one out in OT as they start off 2-0 for what seems to be a good start to a promising season.
The Sunday night game was dubbed “The Manning Bowl” as the New York Giants and Indianapolis Colts faced off. The elder, better (it’s not even close) Manning destroyed the Giants while NBC crammed Manning family footage down our throats as if they were trying to make me miss my family. They’re brothers. They both won Super Bowls. We get it. Instead of watching little Peyton run around the Manning backyard, maybe you could have had the camera on Brandon Jacobs when he hurled his helmet into the stands, simultaneously putting an end to his participation in the game and any hopes I had of beating Scott in this week’s fantasy match-up. Keep an eye on the Jacobs situation as I fear he may have played his last game in a Giants uniform (Green Bay, have you picked up the phone yet?). The Colts are still the best team in the league, I don’t care what happened Week 1. They’ll be playing for a shiny trophy in January.
On Monday night the Saints looked a bit rusty after 11 days rest but managed to pull off a last second victory against the re-energized San Francisco 49ers. A few unfortunate turnovers did the ‘9ers in, but they looked like a completely different team than the JV football squad that suited up Week 1 against the Seahawks. They played well on both sides of the ball and only lost by 3 after coughing it up 4 times, but as we all know close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades and 0-2 is NOT how you want to start the NFL season. On the flipside, New Orleans is a sloppy 2-0 but they are on the right track. A win is a win no matter how you get it.
That about wraps up Week 2 of the NFL season. A few more players emerged this week, while others came down to earth. Here are Hooks must adds, drops and guys to keep an eye on as of Week 2:
Must Add- Mike Tolbert (RB SD), Demaryius Thomas (WR DEN)
Must Drop- Mike Williams (WR SEA), Vince Young (QB TEN)
Keep an Eye on: DeShawn Wynn (RB NO), Jason Snelling (RB ATL)*, Louis Murphy (WR OAK), Aaron Hernandez (TE NE)
*had a monster week 2, but won’t be a factor unless Turner misses significant time.
