ROUGH RYDERS 2008: Week One

Well, babycakes, here we are - Week One of the 2008 NFL season, and therefore, Week One of exciting WINONA ROUGH RYDERS fantasy football action...

And yeah, there was some action, although I am sad to report that our beloved ROUGH RYDERS came up 3.83 FP short, thus losing our first game of the season...On the bright side, we exceeded projections, as projected by the shadowy peeps working at Yahoo!, while our opponents, Scarecrows, didn't quite meet their expectations...

3.83 FP...That's one more looong field goal from Stephen Gostkowski, but then again, the Patriots all but fell apart after Tom Brady went down with a season-ending knee injury...On a sidenote to this, I've got Randy Moss on my other fantasy team, The SUPER DOOM UNIT, and he didn't do anything of note after Brady went down either...

3.83 FP...That's just a couple more short-yardage catches from Marques Colston, except he fucked up his thumb at some point during that game, and now he's out for the next 6 weeks...That's a huge blow to my team, as he's a threat to go A-List legit this year, and my team is currently quite thin at wide receiver...In fact, my only backup is Anthony Gonzalez, the third or fourth option in the Colts' offense...I gotta make a decision here, whether to go fishin' for another receiver, or sacrifice one of my DBs...See, the thing is, we still have all the BYE weeks to navigate, and that doesn't leave much room for movement...

3.83 FP...That's a couple more completions and a couple more first downs for QB Ben Roethlisberger, but Pittsburgh and Fast Willie Parker (another member of The SUPER DOOM UNIT) had things very well under control, and Roethlisberger fucked up his shoulder a bit anyways, and only threw 14 passes the entire game, all of 'em in the first half, if I'm not mistaken...As you may remember, the Pittsburgh Steelers are my second favorite football team after the beloved GREEN BAY PACKERS, and as much as I like Big Ben, I've already decided I've gotta go with Jay Cutler as my starting QB until he proves me wrong...

3.83 FP...That's a couple more receptions from TE Owen Daniels...But the Houston Texans were going up against the Steelers DEF, so his underwhelming performance wasn't unexpected...Since I'm starting Jay Cutler next week, I might have to start Bronco TE Tony Scheffler as well....

3.83 FP...That's an aweful slim margin in a insanely high-scoring league like our FICL...The loss is bitter, of course, but for the most part, I was happy with my team's performance...I'm happy and I think I'm gonna be proud that I was able to snag RB Thomas Jones in the 8th round of the draft...All ten of us made a big mistake letting him last to the 73rd pick...As I think I mentioned in my draft notes, the additions of Alan Faneca and Brett Favre to the Jets' offense, is gonna help Jones running game open up and bounce back from his extremely disappointing 2007 season...Hold thumbs that he stays healthy, though it looks like I've got two capable backups in rookies Darren McFadden and Jonathan Stewart...

Finally, a big shout out to Steeler LB James Harrison, who put up a huge 16 FP, racking up 3 sacks, a forced fumble, 7 solo tackles and 2 assists...

Our beloved ROUGH RYDERS may have lost this week, but historically, we've lost more Week One games than we've won...Call it poor coaching...

Onward, to Week Two, and the formidable and historical NestOfDeath...No one gets out alive from that one...

Hotcha! Hank