NFL Week 3 Recap:
Tough week for fantasy scoring…and a lot of parity out there in the Fantasy Football arena…tough week for us calling games…even The King got beat by the Blind Monkey in picks…I got destroyed by the night games…went 6-10 forced against the lines (even though I said not to play the Zona game, I still count this as 2 losses). 8-Ball went 6-10 as well…not unusual right? The Blind Monkey did what he did and rolled up an 8-8 record. Year-to-date, outright games, the King moves 17-8 and to 23-27 against the spreads and over/unders. 8-Ball moves to 13-10 outright games and 14-26 against the spreads and over/unders. Stay tuned this week to see how 8-Ball does against the Blind Monkey. We did a very good job all-in-all with start/benches, and as always there were a few surprises…
Chiefs/Eagles: The game went over as 8-Ball predicted, but we both thought the Chiefs were gonna step it up…Cassel disappointed, Bowe did not play and LJ stunk it up, which we called! Bobby scored a touchdown, so he did not kill me this week but still did not meet expectations. McCoy had a decent day as a fill in and Kolb did not disappoint. I told you to play both Celek and D. Jackson which both panned out this week..
Skins/Lions: 8-Ball nailed this game calling the Lions money line as well as the under…Last week I wrote, “I am starting Cooley and Santana Moss and that’s it.” 8-Ball said “Portis is going to let you down. Kevin Smith was productive and I also told you to consider Bryant Johnson as a solid flex start this week which he was…last week “ I think he catches 4 or 5 balls and scores…not bad for a flex player.” An excellent called game!
Packers/St. Louis:…Last week “Green Bay is going to annihilate St. Louis this week.” Which they did. Both 8-Ball and the Blind Monkey said to take the Pack and the over…how could you go against both of them? Pretty well predicted outside of Finley not scoring and Driver calling the touchdown and not Jennings. Don’t sweat about Jennings, he will be fine. 8-Ball also called a solid game for S-Jax, which is easy to do but he lived up to it. Pretty well called game!
San Fran/Minny: The Vikes won but did not cover the spread and the game went over instead of under, so 8-Ball got shut out in this one. Although he didn’t call it, the King said “Sidney Rice steps up and scores a touchdown“ which he did. We expected a bigger day out of Peterson but who wouldn’t. We called Davis to score a TD and he exceeded the expectation. 8-Ball predicted a touch for Berrian which did not happen, the King said to bench him. We told you to bench Shiancoe…not bad on the calls in this one.
Tennesse/Jets: Wow the Jets are 3-0…8-Ball hopes you started Cotchery, even though he got an unexpected score, he told you that he is consistent and is worthy of a start. Leon Washington continues to disappoint…8-Ball had LenDale White with 25 yards and a touch and he got 27 yards and a touch. The call was on Tennessee and the over and it went in fabor of the Jets, but met the over…tough game to call and we did okay...not great, but okay.
Falcons/Patriots: Blown call on the offensive firepower we were expecting. Again, Welker did not play and Edelman failed to step up as we thought. Turner met our expectations, however the rest of the Falcons disappointed. Moss did his thing without the touches, Galloway did not score and Fred Taylor had a great game. The Pats covered as called, but the stats were nowhere near close. Especially with Brady, who we saw having a huge game…continues to disappoint fantasy owners.
Jags/Houston: Did not see the Jags winning and did not see it going over. We all knew MJD would be solid. Slaton ran for over 6 yards a carry but still disappointed. Schaub had a good game as called, Walter unexpectedly blew up…Daniels caught a touchdown as expected. Walker did fine without a touch down. Holt did what the King said he would…decent on the stats…bad game call.
Giants/Buccs: Manning threw 2 touchdowns as predicted but had 100 less yards. Smith and Moss caught the touches versus Boss and Mario…Jacobs met expectations and I told you to sit all of Tampa Bay’s team…which you should have. Called the Giants and the over…bad call on the over as the Buccs were worse than I could imaging….
Browns/Ravens: last week I wrote “No one on Cleveland should play…every Raven must play. Enough said.” Well every Raven beside Clayton who disappointed the King for the second straight week. Called the game 35-0 and the under and it was 34-3 and under. Nailed the Ravens for the third straight week on both the line and the over/under…
Chicago/Seattle: I did not like the game going in for fantasy, but some folks stepped up…8-Ball called the Bears and under and they covered but went over. Cutler had 3 touchdowns and a solid game which we did not expect…8-Ball nailed Hester for decent day and a touch…Forte did not score as expected and he continues to let his owners down. Wallace pretty much met expectations, Julius and Burleson exceeded them. We missed on a few here.
New Orleans/Buffalo: The Saints met 8-Ball’s score dead on 27…only problem was the Bills missed by 24! Bills and the over for 8-Ball turned into Saints and the under. Everyone on the Bills missed projections…and so did everyone on the Saints…except for Bush. A warning went out before the game to not take the over…but from fantasy, unless you owned and started Thomas...you were likely disappointed unless you played against these guys this week.
Dolphins/Chargers: Not much production from the Dolphins as expected, so this was a good call. The Fantastic Four from the Chargers (Sproles, Gates, Jackson and Rivers) somewhat disappointed due to lack of touch downs, but Sproles was really the only one that let us down that hurt his owners…I called the Chargers covering, but not enough points put up to push it into the over I was calling for.
Denver/Oakland: Denvers defense did not score a touchdown like I expected but they did well if you listened and started them…the game itself was called under with Oakland winning…all I got to say about this one is I blew it on Oakland’s running game as McFadden fumbled 3 times and Russell did nothing…a bad read by the King on Oakland stepping it up at home against what I feel is the most unlikey 3-0 team in recent memory…I said to start Buckhalter and he did okay…missed the Moreno touch and Marshall’s. The once heralded favorite target of Russell (Zach Miller) must sit from now on!
Steelers/Bengals: Called the over, which was a good call. Gotta admit the Bengals are a pleasant surprise…Benson stepped it up, but he was the only one worthy of a start this week from Cincy…Caldwell had a big game and moving forward it will be hit or miss with these 4 receivers in this offense…hard to sit Ochocinco…but it will be hit or miss. Big Ben let me down and so did Santonio Holmes. I called Walker as a play this week, if you were thin, and he did not disappoint. Parker, well exceeded what I thought he would do and this had to make his owners happy…I am still not buying on Benson, by the way, but he did have a solid game. Thought the Steelers would cover the line easy…obviously missed it.
Indy/Zona: Heading into the night games, the King was .500, I know I said to stay away from this game, but I still force our picks against the spreads and the over/unders to measure our “true” score…not just selected games…The last two games 8-Ball should have prognosticated because he was on top of his game when we were discussing them on our prognostication show and I missed on all the lines…Called Manning for 3 td and 288 yards…he blew this out of the water. Warner missed by 2 touchdowns. Outside of Boldin, everyone on this team missed, except for Wells who did what was expected, nothing.
Dallas/Panthers: I told you cats to sit Romo and his receivers, which was the right call. Witten produced but still no TD…eventually I think he might just get one. Felix’s proneness to injuries opened the door for Choice this week. The Panthers blew it, I thought they had a chance…thought they would step up and it all lasted for a half. I knew I was in trouble pre-game (especially being a Lions fan) when Matt Millen was the only one who picked Carolina to win…out of the thirty five guys (exaggeration but it is a lot of dudes) they have on the pre-game show picking the winners…as soon as he said it I just knew it was a curse! I was right about Dallas…very very wrong about the Panthers. The thing that upset me most about this game was the play where Romo threw (I might even say floated) a 25 yard or so pass to Roy Williams to the right near the sideline and some dude from Carolina jumped all of what appeared to be 3 inches off the ground, fanned on the ball that even I (6’0, 250) would have jumped up and swatted that thing away…good God I say, this cost me a win in one of my leagues…scored the 3rd most points and lost the week because some dude can’t jump! I thought they checked this stuff out at combines? Check back Thursday morning for our show…
