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(NOTE: You're probably getting bullet point recaps going forward, but in honor of Week 1, I'll give you the full effect)
Is it me or are these games becoming more and more stressful? I think its because we all realize the importance of stringing a few wins together. Get 6
and you'll be a contender. Get 7 and you're in the playoffs. Every game is more important than the next. Especially when you figure that we only have
6 games where all of our starters play (f*ing bye weeks).
So the first week is in the books, but not without a little Monday stress for Apartment 10F. Week one had a lot of storylines in it: VA suffers his first
ROFFL loss. Tanks come from behind and now sit alone at the top (guess his computer was right… at least in Week 1). Pigs remain dominant. B’Day
looks resurrected. And even with some terrible losses, Dave manages to scrape out a win. Let's take a look at the whole, long, stressful week:
Tools Win in the First Close Game of 2008, Take Jew Bowl Lead
I had planned to write a description of the game – from Santana Moss kicking it off with a TD on Thursday night, to Jay’s four players making me stress
till the bitter end on Monday night. Rather, I would like to share this email exchange from my non-girlfriend Emily to me, Tuesday morning:
From: Epstein, Marc
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 10:15 AM
To: Rogovin, Emily
Subject: Last Night
After I went to bed last night, Oakland scored a BS TD in the final 2 min of the game. Had they not done that, I would have lost by 3. Instead, I
won by 3. I do feel a little bad about that.
From: Rogovin, Emily
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 10:28 AM
To: Epstein, Marc
Subject: RE: Last Night
You know what’s bullshit? Your “I do feel a little bad about that” comment. Whatever happens in those 4 quarter counts. You would have been so
pissed if you had lost, so be equally happy that you won. Take your win, and be proud of it. “I do feel a little bad about that” is NOT something a
championship team owner would say…get that out of your system, stat.
Ok. Fine. She’s my girlfriend.
Nose Wins an Ugly One
It’s hard to say that Nose won this game cause let’s be real: No one won this game. Nose had the least points of any winning team and would have lost
had he been playing anyone else this past weekend. And Double G had the lowest point total. Period. With the exception of a few bright spots (Nose’s
Roeth and Lynch; Double G’s Favre and Megatron) there wasn't much exciting to talk about. I see a glimmer of hope coming soon (Nose’s Colt’s D
can't be THIS bad; Double G’s Portis will run against lesser defenses). For now, let’s forget this happened and move on.
Pigs Break Nomads Strangle Hold
Talk about the turning of tides: First Parker breaks up the Nomads hold on our playoffs (although technically Jay knocked him out) and now he breaks
out of the Nomads hold over him. Since 2004, Navid has never lost to Parker, and in that time never scored less than 115 points in a game (and broke
130 in three of those four games). But ugh – I mean, look at Nomads WR core: Edwards, Williams and Taylor. All seemed like viable picks on Sunday
morning. But then the games were played and they combined for a total of 18 points. Now look at the bench and the young and untested Mr. Eddie
Royal: 9 catches. 146 yards. 1 TD. 26 points. Ouch (Not to shabby for a 13th round pick.) Points left on the bench is never fun to watch.
Meanwhile, I would be remiss to not alert the league to be scared. Be VERY scared. Parkers team was dominated by a HUGE day by McNabb,
Westbook and the Tennessee D. They'll calm down, but Addai, Holmes and Welker (yes, Welker… I think Cassel may rely on him MORE cause he’s
going to be dishing them short) are sure to get hot. It’s going to get ugly for a lot of us. Thank goodness I get Parker in Week 11 when his team should
be slowing down a little. Right... RIGHT?!?!
B'Day Breaks the New Kid In
While Brian completely dominated this game, beating the rookie by over 22 points, you have to take a second and applaud the day VA had. Our first
rookie since Jarrett posted an impressive day thanks to Hines Ward (guess they rest of undervalued him a little... and the entire Pittsburgh team), TO
and Peyton. VA did get caught in the Mike Shanahan trap of RB's (if you haven't noticed, there a dime a dozen on the Broncos team), and a poor
showing from Lewis can be scary considering his 2006 season. But all in all, not a bad day. Just 0.13 points shy of 100? Impressive. Oh and PS -
Jarrett only scored 73 points his first time out, so you're ahead of the rookie curve.
Now we turn to Yeung. After two lackluster seasons and five sub .500 seasons-in-a-row, Brian is off to his best start ever. In fact, his 121 is only the
second time he has ever broken 100 points in a week one game (2005's 117-point showing). Is this a new "day"? Guess time will tell that tale. In the
meantime, it looks like the Michael Turner gamble is paying off (28 POINTS!) and Drew Brees is back to his old form. If Steven Jackson can get his act
together and Dwayne Bowe can hold on to some catches (yes he had 14 points, but imagine what he COULD have had), every day might feel like
Brian's B'Day!
Serrano Dominates as Lukin Falters
So here’s some info: Josh Lukin suffered his first week one loss… EVER. Josh is still undefeated in Weeks 5 and 12 (the only ROFFLer to undefeated
in multiple weeks and only one of two teams to have any weeks undefeated – Cantor is the other, with no losses in Week 9). Josh has had a great run
in our league: At 47-32, he is tied for most wins lifetime (Navid) and is in second for total points (he has just 134 points less than Navid). And where
has all this lead him? Two 10th place finishes, two 6th place finishes and two third place finishes.
So what am I getting at? I have no idea. I just know Josh is in trouble: Palmer stunk (and seems to be stuck stinking), Colston is out with an injury and
besides Reggie Bush (and was that a fluke?) nothing else exciting really happened. Unless, of course, you look at the other side of the screen. Nick
had an incredible day: Four players over 10, and two of them over 20. Willie is back (it seems) and Matt Schaub is arguably the best QB to make it out
of last week unscathed. Add on some good opportunities with Brandon Jacobs and Todd Heap (he’ll bounce back) and Nick looks like he could have a
promising (winning?) season.
Dave Wins the Battle, But May Have Lost the War
Let’s ignore the Brady incident for a moment and let Dave enjoy this: He won. He scored just a hair less than 90. He had extremely productive days
from Johnson, Witten and Barber (and Barber will live to see another day). Add Brady’s points to Cassel’s and Dave had a 94-point week. Not too
shabby. Ok, now reality: He lost his number one pick, the man he put his whole season on. And he played a junky team (Rich? Where have you gone
buddy? Is this a trend or a fluke? Get moving). I think Bill Simmons said it best this week (Yes, I know we all read him, but humor me):
“It's the most devastating fantasy injury of all time. When you remember Brady was a top-seven pick in every league and played exactly eight minutes of the season…
I mean, how could that ever be topped? The only comparison: Bird's aforementioned injury, when he lasted six games before packing it in… But eight minutes? Has
an injury ever affected more people, between the Patriots fans and the fantasy owners? And that's before we get to everyone who might potentially waste their
top waiver-wire pick on Cassel this week, or the way this affected Moss, Welker, Maroney. … Really, this was the first fantasy apocalypse that didn't involve
Daunte Culpepper. I picked Brady sixth overall in my West Coast league. There's no going back. My NFL season and fantasy season were murdered on the
same play.”
Sherman Comes From Behind… Um, To Win
Jason has just dominated Brock since 2006. In their last three regular season meetings, Jason has scored over 100 points all three times and beaten
him by as much as 49 points. Tac on Jason’s semifinal beating last year, and he has owned Brock recently. It didn't look like history was going to
repeat itself going into Monday night. Cutler is a fine QB, but he needed to have a stellar day to bring back Sherman from a 21-point deficit. Good
thing he did: 24 points later, Jason had a 3 point victory.
You know, as ugly as Double G\Nose game was, this one was absolutely gorgeous: Of the 18 players these two sent into battle this weekend, only
FOUR ended up with less than 10-points (YOWZA). And two of those were kickers (we don’t expect much from them anyways). Add these two to my
notice above re: Parker cause they are both going to be scary good this year.
Best of luck to everyone this week.
Swami, 4-3 last week, will be have predictions entered by the Saturday night
Is it me or are these games becoming more and more stressful? I think its because we all realize the importance of stringing a few wins together. Get 6
and you'll be a contender. Get 7 and you're in the playoffs. Every game is more important than the next. Especially when you figure that we only have
6 games where all of our starters play (f*ing bye weeks).
So the first week is in the books, but not without a little Monday stress for Apartment 10F. Week one had a lot of storylines in it: VA suffers his first
ROFFL loss. Tanks come from behind and now sit alone at the top (guess his computer was right… at least in Week 1). Pigs remain dominant. B’Day
looks resurrected. And even with some terrible losses, Dave manages to scrape out a win. Let's take a look at the whole, long, stressful week:
Tools Win in the First Close Game of 2008, Take Jew Bowl Lead
I had planned to write a description of the game – from Santana Moss kicking it off with a TD on Thursday night, to Jay’s four players making me stress
till the bitter end on Monday night. Rather, I would like to share this email exchange from my non-girlfriend Emily to me, Tuesday morning:
From: Epstein, Marc
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 10:15 AM
To: Rogovin, Emily
Subject: Last Night
After I went to bed last night, Oakland scored a BS TD in the final 2 min of the game. Had they not done that, I would have lost by 3. Instead, I
won by 3. I do feel a little bad about that.
From: Rogovin, Emily
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 10:28 AM
To: Epstein, Marc
Subject: RE: Last Night
You know what’s bullshit? Your “I do feel a little bad about that” comment. Whatever happens in those 4 quarter counts. You would have been so
pissed if you had lost, so be equally happy that you won. Take your win, and be proud of it. “I do feel a little bad about that” is NOT something a
championship team owner would say…get that out of your system, stat.
Ok. Fine. She’s my girlfriend.
Nose Wins an Ugly One
It’s hard to say that Nose won this game cause let’s be real: No one won this game. Nose had the least points of any winning team and would have lost
had he been playing anyone else this past weekend. And Double G had the lowest point total. Period. With the exception of a few bright spots (Nose’s
Roeth and Lynch; Double G’s Favre and Megatron) there wasn't much exciting to talk about. I see a glimmer of hope coming soon (Nose’s Colt’s D
can't be THIS bad; Double G’s Portis will run against lesser defenses). For now, let’s forget this happened and move on.
Pigs Break Nomads Strangle Hold
Talk about the turning of tides: First Parker breaks up the Nomads hold on our playoffs (although technically Jay knocked him out) and now he breaks
out of the Nomads hold over him. Since 2004, Navid has never lost to Parker, and in that time never scored less than 115 points in a game (and broke
130 in three of those four games). But ugh – I mean, look at Nomads WR core: Edwards, Williams and Taylor. All seemed like viable picks on Sunday
morning. But then the games were played and they combined for a total of 18 points. Now look at the bench and the young and untested Mr. Eddie
Royal: 9 catches. 146 yards. 1 TD. 26 points. Ouch (Not to shabby for a 13th round pick.) Points left on the bench is never fun to watch.
Meanwhile, I would be remiss to not alert the league to be scared. Be VERY scared. Parkers team was dominated by a HUGE day by McNabb,
Westbook and the Tennessee D. They'll calm down, but Addai, Holmes and Welker (yes, Welker… I think Cassel may rely on him MORE cause he’s
going to be dishing them short) are sure to get hot. It’s going to get ugly for a lot of us. Thank goodness I get Parker in Week 11 when his team should
be slowing down a little. Right... RIGHT?!?!
B'Day Breaks the New Kid In
While Brian completely dominated this game, beating the rookie by over 22 points, you have to take a second and applaud the day VA had. Our first
rookie since Jarrett posted an impressive day thanks to Hines Ward (guess they rest of undervalued him a little... and the entire Pittsburgh team), TO
and Peyton. VA did get caught in the Mike Shanahan trap of RB's (if you haven't noticed, there a dime a dozen on the Broncos team), and a poor
showing from Lewis can be scary considering his 2006 season. But all in all, not a bad day. Just 0.13 points shy of 100? Impressive. Oh and PS -
Jarrett only scored 73 points his first time out, so you're ahead of the rookie curve.
Now we turn to Yeung. After two lackluster seasons and five sub .500 seasons-in-a-row, Brian is off to his best start ever. In fact, his 121 is only the
second time he has ever broken 100 points in a week one game (2005's 117-point showing). Is this a new "day"? Guess time will tell that tale. In the
meantime, it looks like the Michael Turner gamble is paying off (28 POINTS!) and Drew Brees is back to his old form. If Steven Jackson can get his act
together and Dwayne Bowe can hold on to some catches (yes he had 14 points, but imagine what he COULD have had), every day might feel like
Brian's B'Day!
Serrano Dominates as Lukin Falters
So here’s some info: Josh Lukin suffered his first week one loss… EVER. Josh is still undefeated in Weeks 5 and 12 (the only ROFFLer to undefeated
in multiple weeks and only one of two teams to have any weeks undefeated – Cantor is the other, with no losses in Week 9). Josh has had a great run
in our league: At 47-32, he is tied for most wins lifetime (Navid) and is in second for total points (he has just 134 points less than Navid). And where
has all this lead him? Two 10th place finishes, two 6th place finishes and two third place finishes.
So what am I getting at? I have no idea. I just know Josh is in trouble: Palmer stunk (and seems to be stuck stinking), Colston is out with an injury and
besides Reggie Bush (and was that a fluke?) nothing else exciting really happened. Unless, of course, you look at the other side of the screen. Nick
had an incredible day: Four players over 10, and two of them over 20. Willie is back (it seems) and Matt Schaub is arguably the best QB to make it out
of last week unscathed. Add on some good opportunities with Brandon Jacobs and Todd Heap (he’ll bounce back) and Nick looks like he could have a
promising (winning?) season.
Dave Wins the Battle, But May Have Lost the War
Let’s ignore the Brady incident for a moment and let Dave enjoy this: He won. He scored just a hair less than 90. He had extremely productive days
from Johnson, Witten and Barber (and Barber will live to see another day). Add Brady’s points to Cassel’s and Dave had a 94-point week. Not too
shabby. Ok, now reality: He lost his number one pick, the man he put his whole season on. And he played a junky team (Rich? Where have you gone
buddy? Is this a trend or a fluke? Get moving). I think Bill Simmons said it best this week (Yes, I know we all read him, but humor me):
“It's the most devastating fantasy injury of all time. When you remember Brady was a top-seven pick in every league and played exactly eight minutes of the season…
I mean, how could that ever be topped? The only comparison: Bird's aforementioned injury, when he lasted six games before packing it in… But eight minutes? Has
an injury ever affected more people, between the Patriots fans and the fantasy owners? And that's before we get to everyone who might potentially waste their
top waiver-wire pick on Cassel this week, or the way this affected Moss, Welker, Maroney. … Really, this was the first fantasy apocalypse that didn't involve
Daunte Culpepper. I picked Brady sixth overall in my West Coast league. There's no going back. My NFL season and fantasy season were murdered on the
same play.”
Sherman Comes From Behind… Um, To Win
Jason has just dominated Brock since 2006. In their last three regular season meetings, Jason has scored over 100 points all three times and beaten
him by as much as 49 points. Tac on Jason’s semifinal beating last year, and he has owned Brock recently. It didn't look like history was going to
repeat itself going into Monday night. Cutler is a fine QB, but he needed to have a stellar day to bring back Sherman from a 21-point deficit. Good
thing he did: 24 points later, Jason had a 3 point victory.
You know, as ugly as Double G\Nose game was, this one was absolutely gorgeous: Of the 18 players these two sent into battle this weekend, only
FOUR ended up with less than 10-points (YOWZA). And two of those were kickers (we don’t expect much from them anyways). Add these two to my
notice above re: Parker cause they are both going to be scary good this year.
Best of luck to everyone this week.
Swami, 4-3 last week, will be have predictions entered by the Saturday night