What a weekend

Among the top 10 scorers in fantasy football this weekend:
Tom Brady and Randy Moss - surprise, surprise. On a side note, does it seem that every fantasy owner who has one of these guys also has the other? In my main league, the league leader lucked out and got both of them. What did he do to deserve such fantasy karma? The only downside for these owners, Patriots bye week they'll be in trouble. Lucky for me (#2 team in my league), I play Alex when Brady and Moss are on the bench.
Rod Bironas, kicker, Titans - 8 field goals. Eight. Ocho. Wow.
Kenny Watson, RB, Bengals - Before the season, Rudi Johnson was touted as a "safe" and "consistent" pick. Bummer.
Sage Rosenfels, QB, Texans - Looking at just a linescore, Matt Schaub owners were probably ecstatic. Never expect too much from a Hoo.

Our boys continued their basic mediocrity across the board this week. No A's, no F's. If this were grade school, Little Scotty Engel and little Eric Karabell wouldn't get taken out to Friendly's for an ice cream treat with these grades.

Under center, both gurus nailed their top pick - Tom Brady. Has Brady overtaken Peyton as the clear-cut #1 fantasy QB this year? Or will it depend on matchups? Should be interesting to see where they go. Karabell did a little better than Engel this week, primarily because Engel ranked Garrard and Schaub in his top 10, and both gunslingers got injured. Jay Cutler, hanging out at the bottom of both gurus' rankings (17/20) put up some good numbers against a strong Pittsburgh defense. In the same game, Ben Roethlisberger (10/10) had his highest fantasy point total since week 1. And what about Drew Brees (13/13)? Is he back? Are the Saints back on track? Look for a good game against the Niners this week.

At running back, Karabell graded out at a C+ and Engel graded out at a B this week. Strong, but not outstanding. Each had at least 15 of their top 25 score 10 or more fantasy points, but only one RB scored more than 20 (Kenny Watson, who Engel had ranked 25 and Karabell didn't have in his top 25). So odds are, no matter how these guys were ranked, scores would have been similar. Consistent, but not superb. LaDanian Tomlinson was on a bye a week after scoring 4 TDs, let's see if he holds the #1 ranking spot when he comes back this weekend.

60 points. 3 wide receivers. 1 team. Unreal. Randy Moss (1/1), Wes Welker (13/15), and Dante Stallworth (NR/22) had huge weeks catching passes from Tom Brady. The Pats offense continues with its "fuck you" attitude. And fantasy owners keep smiling. Think about it. None of these guys were probably picked in the top 3 rounds of your draft, and Welker and Stallworth could have been on your waiver wire up until a few weeks ago. And with games against the Ravens, Steelers, Colts, and Giants still on their schedule, this passing juggernaut has plenty of options to stick it to more teams. Karabell had four big whiffs in his top ten, with Marvin Harrison, Joey Galloway, Plexico Burress, and Roy Williams all scoring less than 5 fantasy points. Engel faired no better, having Burress, Tory Holt, Dwayne Bowe, and Bobby Engram in his top 10.

Two tight ends scoring double-digit fantasy points means a bad week for gurus. Only Dallas Clark (5/2) and Heath Miller (8/7) saved Engel and Karabell from an even worse grade. Speaking of Heath Miller, I lucked out this week. The guy I played in my main fantasy league left Miller on the bench and I won by 7 points. Thanks SNK.

29 points from a kicker. 8 field goals. What is there to say other than "wow". Rod Bironas (5/12) lit up fantasy this week, but the rest of the kickers were average, meaning an average week for our gurus. Kickers are a crapshoot. Good luck.

And finally, we get to the defense. A couple weeks ago, I said the Ravens D was overrated as a fantasy player. I've seen drafts where they went as high as the 4th round. But playing the woeful Buffalo Bills offense, led by rookie Trent Edwards, surely they'd snap out of the funk, right? Wrong. 4 points. Overrated. Limited QB pressure by the Dline = less sacks. A weak and injured secondary = less INTs. Props to Karabell for putting the Seahawks D in his top 10. They were the #1 scoring fantasy D this week, led by Darryl Tapp (former Hokie!)

Thats it for me. See you after week 8. Be sure to bench any Cardinals, Chiefs, Cowboys, Falcons, Ravens or Seahawks players you have. So no Boldin, LJ, Romo, Owens, McGahee or Shawn Alexander. Good luck.

Eric Karabell
QB: C (7.54)
RB: C+ (5.96)
WR: C+ (5.65)
TE: D (3.02)
K: C (4.47)
D/ST: B (5.55)
C

Scott Engel
QB: C (7.35)
RB: B (6)
WR: C+ (5.69)
TE: D (3.33)
K: C (4.06)
D/ST: C (4.55)
C