1. We saw those plays! All the highlights, interview clips, etc. are things that have already been done, except, we guess, for the “red carpet” type of stuff.  C’mon, SportsCenter gets watched by hundreds of thousands daily.  There’s little new material.

2. The highlight mentality Call us sports purists, but we think that the highlight-heavy clips and such distract from true enjoyment of the game.  So much of baseball, for example, happens between pitches, that you can’t get the full experience of watching–even on TV–if you’re just seeing bits.

3. Also, what about the kids? Kids are seeing athletes rewarded, at the ESPYs, for awesome feats of skill (and luck, and popularity, but leave those aside for now.)  These are their role models.  But what kids SEE is those amazing plays.  Result: they go for that crazy catch, or ridiculous basket…and skip passing, teamwork, and all the things sports are trying to teach them on and off the field.

Not that we’re hating on Drew Brees…

1. Drew Brees: more interceptions than TDs in his last 3 games.  What are we supposed to do, start Mark Sanchez?

2. Cedric Benson: 22 yards and a hip injury? Ow.  He’s expected to practice on a limited basis this week, but even apart from our team we hope it’s not terribly serious.  Breakout seasons that end like that are just sad.

3. Brandon Marshall turns out awesome: Who knew? Why didn’t he catch those TDs when we started him for two misguided weeks?

The happy:

Well, we still won anyway.  Chris Johnson’s having himself a heck of a year.

Us: 94.39

Our Opponent: 60.71

This week was do or die.  Playing the league leader, we needed a win, and while we were in good shape on points, we wanted a big one.  Of course, fifteen minutes before kickoff, we realized half of our team was on a bye week.  So, we did some quick adds and drops, picking up Michael Crabtree and Laurence Maroney, as well as the San Diego kicker.

This worked out fine. Cedric Benson had his biggest week…ever, with 189 yards and a TD.  Maroney had over ten points, since he hada TD as well.  Wes Welker came through with a big week.  Vincent Jackson got 20 points…all in the first half…and Crabtree played on every drive.  It’s not entirely his fault he plays for San Francisco, but he had a solid debut regardless with almost 6 points.  And oh yeah, the Steelers defense?  Totally up to the challenge of the Vikings.  Just sayin’.

And then, the Saints game started.  And Drew Brees had negative points IN THE FIRST HALF.  Meanwhile, our opponent still had a reciever and a running back to play. plus Colston, who seemed the be the only person Brees could complete a pass to to save his life. 

Eventually? It turned out we were so far ahead that even if Brees had ended the game with that same score,  we’d STILL have won.

Us: 140.43

Our opponent: 104.37

We went from eighth place (last) in our league, to fifth. A win next week and, depending on points, we could have our eye on second.  Stay tuned…

After a stunning first couple of weeks, we’re now 2-2 after yet another humiliating defeat.  Blatant favoritism caused us to start Wes Welker over Mike Sims-Walker, who ended up with SEVENTEEN MORE POINTS.  Not seventeen total. Seventeen MORE.

And then, Drew Brees didn’t throw for a single touchdown.  Really, Drew Brees? REALLY? Killing us here.

Chris Johnson’s also going to need to learn some new routes. His ridiculous Week 2 performance against the Texans isn’t quite a fluke, but it’s beginning to look like Tennessee’s playbook isn’t quite the miracle of trickery they think it is.  0-4, plus Johnson, arguably their most explosive player, has been contained and limited to under a hundred yards in both of his last two games.

Not as contained as Darren McFadden, who ended up with negative rushing yards despite being a running back.  We’re SO. DONE. with Darren McFadden.  (He did have 5 receiving yards. What? We dunno….)

We’re actually not worried about Brees, because the way that the Saints have been running the ball means that after next week’s bye, defenses are going to have to pick up their plays against the run.  The Saints’ defense, which turned two interceptions into touchdowns yesterday (including a 98 yard run), has been playing well enough that they’ve adequately demonstrated they don’t need Brees to air it out to win.  That means that teams will focus a bit more on defending the run, and since they can’t be in two places at once, Brees should end up with more room to throw and keep pace with his record setting season.

So ok, not so great.  But we’ll keep working at it….

Us: 59.90

Opponent: 102.12

We started off by switching Wes Welker, who went back and forth from questionable to probable to questionable to inactive over the forty eight hours before kickoff.  We managed this about two minutes before our lineup locked, switching in Baltimore WR Mark Clayton.  Not the best move ever–our gut told us to sit Cedric Benson instead of moving him into the flex spot, and…oops. Our gut was wrong.

Lance Moore, who took that flex spot, left the game with a hamstring injury (done with him–he gave us nothing last week even with Brees’ monster day.)  We bounced back from our mess with Chris Johnson’s career day and good numbers from Drew Brees and Chris Cooley.

And, of course, we kicked our opponents butt, and though we didn’t beat everyone in the league this time, we think we’ll be on top of the standings again, because of point differentials this week and last week for this week’s winner.

The Sports Chick: 130.84

Opponent: 89.59

Our major coup, of course? Drew Brees, who we could have told you is probably the best QB in the NFL, even before what we’re watching right now, which we’ll cover in a moment.  We picked Chris Johnson, the RB out of ECU who plays for the Titans, and Cedric Benson (who had a personally good game despite the Bengals’ 12-7 loss) was in our other RB spot.

But here’s what we figured out.  You shouldn’t draft the kicker from one team and the defense for another team and then play both in the weekend they’re playing each other.  It leads to some identity-crisis football watching. Seriously, the mood swings reminded us of PMS.

Our total: 130.65 LEAGUE VICTORY!!

The week’s opponent: 90.67

Not bad for our first week, eh?