Week 3: Fantasy Football In-Review - a podcast by Jonny and Donny

More often than not the most common catch-phrase in the NFL is "Defense wins championships". I believe even by week 3 it is safe to say that it will be the offense taking center stage for whichever team takes home the Lombardi trophy this winter. Points and touchdowns are being scored at a record pace around the whole league (except for Kansas City, sorry Jamaal Charles owners) as the NFL turns a new leaf in solidifying itself as a passing league. And anyone that has a problem with that, Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers would like to have a word with you. Now let us move on to the games this past weekend and what we learned in week number 3.

If I were to have told you at the beginning of July, lockout or not, that the Bills of Buffalo and the Detroit Lions would head into week 4 both 3-0, have scored a combined 214 points, orchestrated a total of 3 combined come-from-behind victories and a win over the New England Patriots, chances are you would have thought I took an illegal hit to the head courtesy of Dunta Robinson. But you would soon find out that my predictions were actually reality. Although I had a lot of optimism for both of these teams coming into this season, I never in my wildest imagination could have predicted this. Matthew Stafford has hooked up with Calvin Johnson for 6 touchdowns so far and the Lions as a team have already scored 101 points. Aside from his week one scare of cramps, Matthew Stafford has stayed healthy and as long as that constant, it appears the Lions will continue to roar. Look out Dallas DB's.

As for the Buffalo Bills, wow. Last week I said that I think by the last quarter of the season, at the latest, Ryan Fitzpatrick would become a legit starting fantasy quarterback. It seems  as if that chapter has already begun. Fitzpatrick is leading the charge in Buffalo and more recently and importantly, a win over the New England Brady Bunch on Sunday. Leading up to the game the majority of people were giving Buffalo a serious chance in the game but not in the style the Bills ended up winning the divisional match-up. Although Brady threw for 387 yards, 2 touchdowns including 16 receptions and 217 yards to his buddy Wes Welker, who ran circles around the Bills secondary, as the game went on the Bills proved they no more are pushovers to anyone including the Patriots. The Bills defense intercepted Tom Brady 4 times including one by Drayton Florence which was returned for a touchdown in the 4th quarter. During the last drive of the game Fitzpatrick lead his team down the field into the Patriots redzone setting Rian Lindell up to boot through the game-winning field goal thus ending the Bills 15-game losing streak against the Patriots. The Buffalo Bills are for real and are contenders in the AFC East. Look for them to put a pounding on the lowly Cincinnati Bengals this weekend. START RYAN FITZPATRICK.

Although we are not Ryan Fitzpatrick owners, Jon and I were finally able to squeak out our first win of the season in our ESPN league in close fashion coming out on top 92-86. We recieved a fairly balanced attack from our players this weekend including a team high 26 points from Matthew Stafford (378 YDS, 2 TD's). We did however make the mistake of sitting Felix Jones (3 REC, 155 TOTAL YDS) this week in favor of Mike Tolbert (3 REC, 43 TOTAL YDS). It seems as if Tolbert is losing more and more value as the weeks go on and when Ryan Mathews (4 REC, 149 TOTAL YDS, 2 TD's) has games like the one he had this Sunday, all the more reason to trade Tolbert while you can. Hopefully this week Felix Jones does not fool us again because the shoulder injury is making it really hard to keep him a constant in our starting lineup.

As for our Yahoo! league, I was able to put up a league- and season-high total of 205.16 points in my dominating 86.68 point win over Dan (@dannysuperstar). All I can say is thank-you Wes Welker. As previously mentioned this man has put up gaudy numbers every week so far and it seems as if the sky is the limit for his fantasy production. Welker ended up posting larger (by a small margin) fantasy points than his quarterback in our PPR league, I did not even think that that was even possible! Along with Welker, Darren McFadden (3 REC, 176 TOTAL YDS, 2 TD's), the newly acquired Calvin Johnson (7 REC, 108 YDS, 2 TD's) and Mark "GQ" Sanchez (27 COMP, 369 YDS, 3 TOTAL TD's) contributed to an amazing week 3. I am looking for the production to be no different come this weekend with Beanie Wells expected to play, James Starks hopefully getting the start and all the carries with Ryan Grant (kidney) possibly not playing and Darren McFadden to continue his dominating ways against the vulnerable New England Patriots defense when I take on Matt (@deadasmatt) this weekend.

It also seems as if the tide may be turning for Jon after losing his first 2 match-ups of the season when he captured a win in his impressive 144.56-96.24 stomping over his week 3 opponent. Jon went against the grain started Ryan Fitzpatrick this week while sitting Tony Romo (22 COMP, 255 YDS) and boy did that decision ever pay off. Giving Tomlinson (5 REC, 154 TOTAL YDS, 1 TD) the week off in favor of Deion Branch (ZEROS ACROSS THE BOARD) in the flex spot did not pan out to well for Jon but it goes to show his players are starting to turn it around and help add wins to not only his record but the NFC West's win total. Thankfully you do not have to face me again in the regular season Jon.

With our leagues' news out of the way, time to get to the Booms, Busts and Waiver Wire Pickups of the week.

BOOMS:
WES WELKER (NE-WR): I have mentioned him enough and there is no way you cannot after he put up the receiving numbers he did this week, and 19 rushing yards. Welker is past previous knee surgery and will continue to be an elite WR as the year goes on.

JERMICHAEL FINLEY (GB-TE): Welcome back to the world of fantasy football Jermichael. We knew this was evident and it could not happen any sooner for all of his fantasy owners. Finley torched the Bears linebackers and secondary for 7 REC, 85 YDS and an astonishing 3 TD's. I imagine after this game Rodgers will be looking his way much more often. Quick side note: I am sorry Greg Jennings owners, in the long run this may not fair to well for you and his yearly fantasy production.

Honorable Mentions: Joe Flacco (Bal-QB), Darren McFadden (Oak-RB) (against a Jets defense), Torrey Smith (Bal-WR...SLEEPER ALERT)

BUMS:
CHRIS JOHNSON (TEN-RB): It is about time this (insert your own variety of adjectives HERE) is on this list. Arguably the biggest non-injured bust of the year. Although Johnson has been catching the ball like a WR (13 REC), he has 98 rushing yards on the season. 98!!! At this point last season Johnson had already accumulated 301 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns. He is virtually splitting time with Javon Ringer, and it also does not help his cause that Matthew Hasselback is throwing the ball like a MVP caliber quarterback. This week the Titans face off against a not so dominating team in the Browns and are now without star wideout Kenny Britt (knee) for the rest of the season. If Johnson once again fails to put up anything close to what we know he is capable of, my advice to all you Chris Johnson owners is get anything you can for him at this point because it will only get worse. Hello Hanley Ramirez of football.

FRANK GORE (SF-RB): Gore is another running back that at the start of the year was deemed to have fabulous stats in a more often than not anemic offense. However that has not been the case for Frank Gore and it seems to only be getting worse for him. This weekend Gore was only able to muster 42 rush yards and lost a fumble against the Seattle Shi-- I mean Seahwaks. Gore has also been battling several minor injuries this year which does not help his cause. Normally I try to keep guys off this list where unfortunate injuries have been their downfall (ie. Arian Foster, Jamaal Charles and Michael Vick who I almost chose for this list this week) but the rumblings coming out of San Francisco now is that Gore will be splitting carries with Kendall Hunter. I do not know if this is because of the injury or lack of production but either way Gore, who looked to be a lock for a strong season in August, and his owners now have a reason to panic. Handcuff him with Hunter if you still have a chance.

Honorable Mentions: Rashard Mendenhall (Pit-RB), Philip Rivers (SD-QB), Matt Forte (Chi-RB)

WAIVER WIRE PICKUPS:
KENDALL HUNTER (SF-RB): **LOOK ABOVE** This choice is based solely on the situation Gore is currently in. If Hunter continues to score touchdowns and Gore continues to not produce or stay healthy, you may be looking at the new starting running back in San Francisco.

BERNARD SCOTT (CIN-RB): CEDRIC BENSON YOU MAY PROCEED INTO THE COURT ROOM. It is only a matter of time before Cedric Benson heads to jail for 3 weeks and Bernard Scott becomes the feature back in Cincinnati. It does look like Benson will play this week against the Bills which could of worked out very well for Scott. However, their upcoming schedule is very favorable for the running game in Cincinnati (vsBUF, @JAX, vsIND, BYE, @SEA, @TEN). So the sooner Benson is put behind bars, the sooner Bernard Scott's potential, value and stats HOPEFULLY sky-rocket.

Honorable Mentions: Matt Hasselback (Ten-QB), Denarious Moore (Oak-WR), Torrey Smith (Bal-WR)

I think we can all agree that Sunday's, but a long-shot, are the best. And if what we have witnessed in the first 3 weeks is any sort of a precursor to the way the season will unfold, week 4 will be an explosive one. Look for big games out of Mike Wallace against Houston, Chicago defense against Cam Newton, and anyone Green Bay against Denver. Dont't forget to check us out on Twitter (@thesportsreps) or myself (@DBraemer, I am an often user on Sunday's just as a warning), our podcast's are also available on iTunes and as always anything Sports Reps is always here on our website. Good luck in your week 4 matchups.

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