Bruno Boys Fantasy Football

Week 4 is the week where we start to see a little separation in most fantasy leagues. If you’re 4-0 - keep it up! If you’re 0-4, this may just not be your year, but you have to keep trying for the good of your league. Week 4 in the NFL saw the return of LaDainian Tomlinson, though he didn’t show up much on the stats. We saw another unbeaten go down as the New Orleans Saints topped the New York Jets. Are the Denver Broncos for real or are the Dallas Cowboys just that bad? More importantly, should you be worried about all the Cowboys on your fantasy team? Let’s take a look at the fantasy action from Week 4.

Chicago Bears 48 vs. Detroit Lions 24
All week long just about every fantasy football analyst told you to play Jay Cutler this week. Well, Cutler had a good fantasy performance - 3 total TDs and 141 yards passing. I don’t think he met the expectations given for this matchup, especially passing for under 150 yards, but you can’t complain about three touchdowns. The guy who DID have his huge coming out party was Matt Forte. For all you Forte owners out there, he took all your frustrations out on the Detroit Lions, putting 121 yards rushing with a score. I know you’re hoping for more games like that, but keep in mind, he was facing the Lions today. Still, it could be just the spark he needed. Forte’s counterpart, Kevin Smith, got his owners two touchdowns, but only 30 yards rushing. It seems like you’re going to have to take the good with the bad with Smith this year. He’s the team’s feature back and he’s going to get all the touches, but he may struggle to rack up the yards this year. Plus, the Lions are probably going to be playing catch up all year. It wasn’t a bad day for the Lions’ passing game, though. Matthew Stafford just missed 300 yards passing and added a TD, while Calvin Johnson posted 133 yards receiving. No TDs for Megatron, but be patient because he’s still getting the yards. The touchdowns are coming for CJ.

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Big D finally got its first win in the new stadium. It was a sloppy game in many aspects, but a win is a win. More importantly, did your players show up tonight to seal the win for you? If not, don’t worry, we’re less than a week away from Week 4. Let’s take a look at tonight’s fantasy action from the Dallas Cowboys and the Carolina Panthers.

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Week 3 is in the books, and now after three weeks, this is the first time when I think you need to take a step back and evaluate your squad. Look at the matchups in the week ahead, as now you can get a better glimpse of who are the strong and weak defenses. Look at how your opponents are doing, see what their strengths and weaknesses are. Today we saw Mark Sanchez quiet the critics for the third straight week. We saw a defense that was finally able to slow down Drew Brees, and we saw Maurice Jones-Drew finally do what his owners have been waiting patiently for through the opening weeks of the season. Congrats to those of you that are 3-0, and for those of you who are 0-3, it might be time to do something drastic before your season gets away from you. Let’s take a look at Week 3.

Baltimore Ravens 34 vs. Cleveland Browns 3
The Cleveland Browns forget to show up today. I hope every owner of Ray Rice and Willis McGahee plugged these guys into your lineup today. It was predicted that they would have a nice afternoon, and they did not disappoint. McGahee found the endzone twice and had 67 yards rushing. Rice got a TD and had 48 yards rushing and 27 yards receiving. McGahee’s career resurrection has to be frustrating Rice owners a bit, but the Baltimore Ravens have a found way to get this offense clicking and both should produce nicely. Talk about their offense, Joe Flacco throws for 342 yards with a touchdown, and that TD went to Derrick Mason. You remember him as the guy that wanted to retire this summer. Mason continues to be the No. 1 option in this passing attack. He went over the century mark in addition to his touchdown. Now for the Cleveland Browns, things are going in the opposite direction. It seems we may have another QB controversy on our hands again, which only hurts owners of Braylon Edwards. Edwards finished with just 35 yards receiving today. Combine that with Jamal Lewis being inactive today and possibly on the verge of losing his job atop Cleveland’s depth chart, and suddenly, having anybody on the Browns on your team seems like a bad idea.

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For the second straight week, we were treated to an exciting Monday night clash between the Indianapolis Colts and the Miami Dolphins. Three Monday nighters in a row that kept you on the edge of your seat for your fantasy players. Let’s take a look at tonight’s game from a fantasy football perspective.

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What a huge week for some players in the NFL this week. We saw nice bounce-back performances for Matt Schaub and Chris Johnson. The potent New Orleans Saints’ offense was just as effective as in Week 1. The Cincinnati Bengals were able to put points up on the supposed much-improved Green Bay Packers’ defense. The performances of Schaub and Johnson should be a lesson that you can’t make a complete evaluation on your players. If you benched these guys because of what they did last week, you paid the price, but hopefully now you’ve learned your lesson. On the flip side of that, owners of players like Randy Moss and Tom Brady were probably frustrated that they followed strong Week 1 performances with lackluster outings today. You have to take the good with the bad. Even your studs will have quiet weeks. With that, let’s take a look around the league.

Atlanta Falcons 28 vs. Carolina Panthers 20
Without question the main storyline in this game was how would Jake Delhomme do. Well, I’m guessing most fantasy football owners don’t have Delhomme on their team, let alone their in their lineup, but there are tons of Steve Smith owners out there. Delhomme did better this week, throwing for over 300 yards, and connected with Smith for 131 of those yards. Smith didn’t find the endzone, but the yards and the targets were there. Smith also suffered a fluke injury at the end of the first half, but later returned to the game. Monitor how he practices this week, but he should be fine. DeAngelo Williams hit paydirt in this game and posted 79 yards rushing. He still has Jonathan Stewart to contend with, but the Carolina Panthers would be smart to keep running the ball until Delhomme fully works all the kinks out of his game. While Delhomme racked up more passing yards than Matt Ryan, Ryan threw for three scores. He and Tony Gonzalez are building a nice rapport, teaming up for another touchdown, and this week Ryan hit Roddy White for White’s first touchdown of the season. This passing game is only going to keep flourishing, and initial signs point to Gonzalez being Ryan’s favorite target. Michael Turner went over the century mark and hit paydirt. The Atlanta Falcons were not against a real formidable defense this week, but it’s nice to see this team get their offense going after being a little quiet in Week 1.

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What a doubleheader of Monday Night Football that we were all treated to tonight. Two great games that went down to the wire. We all thought we were going to see two upsets, but in the end, the favorites prevailed. Tom Brady and Philip Rivers, two of the fantasy studs in these games, led their teams to victory when it mattered most, and most importantly for everybody reading this article, salvaged their fantasy performances. Let’s take a look at tonight’s contests.

New England Patriots 26 vs. Buffalo Bills 25
First and foremost, you have to tip your hat to Fred Jackson. For those of you who took a chance on him and plugged him into your lineup, you were rewarded as he gave you 140 total yards and a touchdown. Just remember, Marshawn Lynch will be back in a few weeks, but Jackson gets the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the New Orleans Saints, both at home, before Lynch returns. The only thing quieter than Terrell Owens’mouth tonight was his game. Owens finished with a quiet two catches for 46 yards. He won’t always be that bad, but it’s a sign that maybe the Buffalo Bills are going to struggle this year. His counterpart, Randy Moss put up 141 yards receiving. He didn’t find the endzone, but you can’t complain about the yardage. Wes Welker, like Moss, recorded 12 catches for 93 yards. But it was Ben Watson who stole the show with Tom Brady. I’m sure all Brady owners were grinding their teeth at that fact that 2009 didn’t start like 2007 for the New England Patriots. Brady finally pulled through in the end with two scores. Just as a reminder to all those Brady and Moss owners out there, you can’t expect the Patriots to do exactly what they did in 2007, but those two should still celebrate many touchdowns this season.

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After getting a nice appetizer last Thursday, fantasy football fans finally got the full buffet of Week 1 today. We saw that nothing has changed for Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints. Addition by subtraction may have been just what the Dallas Cowboys needed. The NFC East didn’t disappoint in being possibly the best division in football, as Dallas, the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles all looked sharp, despite the Eagles losing Donovan McNabb to fractured ribs. Like Brees, Adrian Peterson picked up right where he left off in 2008.

In this article, as you will find every Sunday night, Bruno Boys Jimbo will take you through each game of the week and give you a recap from a fantasy football perspective. It’s never too late to start planning for next week. One common theme that I’m going to say here so I don’t have to keep repeating myself throughout the article - one game is not enough to make a full evaluation of your players. If your studs failed to show up today, don’t make any rash decisions. If your sleeper went off today, don’t get ahead of yourself either. With that, let’s take a look back at today’s action.

New Orleans 45 vs. Detroit Lions 27
What can you say about Drew Brees? He kicked off the 2009 season with six touchdowns! Don’t expect too many repeat performances like that this year, but you can definitely expect big things from Brees this year. What’s worth noting here is that Brees threw those scores to five different receivers. Jeremy Shockey was the only receiver to get two touchdowns. Brees loves to spread the wealth around. Devery Henderson had 5 catches for 103 yards, but next week, it may be Lance Moore or Marques Colston who has the huge day. You just never know which Saint will share in Brees’ excellence. Mike Bell got owners who picked him up this week 143 yards on the ground, but expect Pierre Thomas to return to action next week. For the Detroit Lions, Calvin Johnson owners are going to have to bear with Matthew Stafford as he goes through the learning curve, but Johnson is still a must play every week. Kevin Smith, a guy who I think should have a nice season, only got 20 yards rushing, but he also got 52 yards receiving and scored a touchdown.

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