Week 1 Recap – Canton Heroes vs. Chudley Canons

So, you had a bad day week one?  I sure did.

When you use your first three draft picks on top of the line running backs, you expect for them to put up more than 20 total points between the three of them.  With Stevan Ridley getting benched in the first half after a fumble to end up with 2.6 points and Maurice Jones-Drew suffering from the Jaguars overall horrible offensive week one output for just 4.5 points, I was in a huge hole that the rest of my team was unable to pull me out of.

So, overall I don’t think I have anything to be worried about.  With Shane Vereen out until Week Eleven with a broken hand, Ridley is far and away the most reliable ball carrier the Patriots have to rely on and they should be running the ball quite a bit in Week 2 once they build up a lead against the hapless Jets (who somehow managed to not stink up the field as badly as Tampa Bay did in Week One for a 18-17 win.)

I have several things to be happy about.  Randall Cobb and DeSean Jackson both showed in Week One that they will be integral parts of their teams’ passing attacks this season and while Pierre Garcon and Cecil Shorts were a little disappointing, my late round wide receiver picks (Dexter McCluster and Rod Streater) I think showed a lot of promise and will be integral parts of offenses that will not be nearly so bad as they were a year ago.

Carson Palmer put up numbers I was very happy with against a very respectable Rams defense.  In fact, he outperformed my opponents QB Cam Newton and he should continue to perform well enough to keep me in contention barring getting exploded on by Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady in future weeks.

Tight end is looking like a definite weakness early with Fred Davis being my only guy at the moment, but it’s too early to panic and there are some decent options on the waiver wire if it looks like Davis isn’t going to be able to put up decent numbers.

Vernon Davis having a big week against me (21.8 points) vs. Davis’ extremely sub-par 2.2 points, plus my running backs being abnormally unproductive in week one lead to me posting just 87.2 points, the third worst week one score in the league.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint.  I’m in pretty good shape moving forward.  Look for Ridley and MJD to not disappoint nearly as much next week against the Jets and the Raiders respectively.

Week One Box Score

Canton Heroes – 87.2

– QB – Carson Palmer – 17

– RB – Ray Rice – 13.1

– RB – Stevan Ridley – 2.6

– WR – Randall Cobb – 17.4

– WR – DeSean Jackson – 16.4

– TE – Fred Davis – 2.2

– Flex – Maurice Jones-Drew – 4.5

– Defense – Broncos – 10

– Kicker – Sebastian Janikowski – 4

Chudley Canons – 120.5

– QB – Cam Newton – 12.8

– RB – Matt Forte – 15.1

– RB – Frank Gore – 12.5

– WR – Larry Fitzgerald – 20

– WR – Steve Smith – 11.1

– TE – Vernon Davis – 21.8

– Flex – Miles Austin – 7.2

– Defense – Rams – 11

– Kicker – Justin Tucker 9

Week Two Match-up – Canton Heroes vs. Fear the Roo (Tom Brady, Chris Johnson, Reggie Bush, Dez Bryant, Jordy Nelson, Owen Daniels, Anquan Boldin, Patriots, Randy Bullock)