Andy Richardson

I made a few bad last-minute decisions yesterday. Benching DeSean Jackson and Owen Daniels, in favor of Justin Gage and Heath Miller. For some reason those choices seemed like good ideas at the time, which they always do and seldom are. Sunday morning lineup decisions: unless they're injury related, they simply shouldn't be made.

Part of the problem, of course, is that I've got so many leagues it's difficult to keep track; a "last-minute decision" can in some cases be referred to as "setting my lineup." This is upsetting primarily because I have no choice but to continue to set lineups and make moves with all of these teams anyway -- it's Job 1 in being a good owner -- and the result is that some teams are slipping in large part because my attention is spread too thin. Now where was I? Oh yeah, week 2....

Patriots at Jets: I always hated Buddy Ryan. His arrogance when he got the head coaching job in either Philadelphia or Arizona, and he announced at his opening press conference, "You've got yourselves a winner!" His taking so much credit for the Bears' Super Bowl team, even though he probably deserved it. His reportedly putting a bounty on the Dallas kicker. Just rubbed me the wrong way, even way back then. But I'm buying his son's line thus far. I thought he got too much attention for daring to suggest he wasn't afraid of the Patriots, and talking up his own team. And his team went out and on both sides of the ball backed it up. Nice job.

Let's talk about Darrelle Revis, who in the first two weeks has shut down Andre Johnson and Randy Moss. Guy can really play. On his interception, he basically outran and then outjumped Moss to take it away from him. You don't see that happen to Moss very often. Deceptive stat of the day: the Jets didn't sack Brady. They were, however, in his face all game and knocked him around pretty good; he was definitely feeling the pressure.

Huge play early: Fumble by Sanchez near his own end zone, and a hustling Alan Faneca got over and fell on it, saving an easy defensive score for the Patriots. Considering they only scored 9 points, that was some kind of important, forgotten play by Faneca. Plenty else to say about this game -- Chansi Stuckey had a TD overturned by instant replay, then fell down with a chance at another one on the very next play (maybe slightly overthrown). He's looking like a legit No. 2, and Mark Sanchez a legit fantasy QB. And a question: Does rookie Julian Edelman's fine game (8 for 98) replacing Wes Welker mean Edelman's really good, or Welker's really overrated?

Bengals at Packers: Speaking of overrated. I bought into the hype about Green Bay, too. Turns out that just like last year they're content to let lesser teams come into Lambeau and put their feet up on the couch and spill popcorn all over the place. Doesn't mean they're not going to have a lot of solid fantasy options, but it won't be as glorious as some were saying, either. Ryan Grant is just an average tailback, and the team doesn't run the ball enough. (Aaron Rodgers, sacked 6 times, probably agrees.) Along those same lines, offensive line depth is an issue, as the team apparently has one good tackle, Chad Clifton, and he left with an injury. Donald Driver has plenty of football left. Greg Jennings didn't catch a pass, although he did drop one. Jermichael Finley gets a lot of looks in the offense. Charles Woodson is the best player on Green Bay's defense by far; a pair of interceptions including one for a touchdown (Carson Palmer helped a lot on that one). More shootouts with the Packers coming, assuming Rodgers stays in one piece, which is good news for fantasy owners, not so much perhaps for Packers fans.

For the Bengals, well, I'm duly impressed by Cedric Benson. Every time I see the guy play these days I think, you know, he's much better than people think. Running hard; just a different player than he was in Chicago. Chad Ochocinco caught his touchdown and did a Lambeau Leap into an area with Bengals fans, including one with a Bengals cheesehead, perhaps a CBS plant. (Or Ochocinco buddy.) CBS then treated us all to a Packers fan giving him the finger for a few seconds on national TV, thanks guys. It was probably for me since I foolishly picked the Packers in my suicide pool. Gone after two weeks for the second straight year. I hate gambling. Especially when I lose.

Texans at Titans: Anyone who was able to trade for Andre Johnson (or Chris Johnson) after week 1, I salute you. I wasn't the least bit worried about either one, and dang did they look good. Andre made circus catches all over the place, including just a jaw-dropping one-handed TD where he tipped it to himself. Well worth seeing. Then there's Chris Johnson, scoring three long touchdowns and on two of them being able to jog almost the entire way, so completely did he beat the defense at the line of scrimmage. My wife said, Is he really slow? I said, No, he's the fastest guy in the league. He doesn't have to run fast on those plays.

Steve Slaton again struggled against a good run defense (next week, the Jets). The schedule gets easier, but a rough start for Slaton. Otherwise, if you own any other parts of the Texans offense, you're a happy man today. They looked pretty powerful against a presumably good Titans defense, although clearly Cortland Finnegan is no Darrelle Revis.

Vikings at Lions: It was a good week for old washed-up quarterbacks. First was Kurt Warner throwing only 2 incompletions in a win against Jacksonville. Then there's Brett Favre, whose Vikings fell behind 10-0 and he at least did more than just hand the ball off to bring them back. He led the team down on a touchdown drive right before half, throwing a pretty rollout touchdown to Visanthe Shiancoe. (Later, he should have had another, but Shiancoe stopped his route on a slant and Favre was lucky to avoid a pick.) He threw a legal block to spring a big run by Adrian Peterson. And he threw only 4 incompletions -- granted, he didn't throw the ball many passes that traveled very far, but still, a good game for the old feller.

For the Lions, you know, they've got Kevin Smith and Calvin Johnson, and little else of fantasy interest. I should have stuck by my plan to just pick the team that faced them every week in my pool, but trusting my own convictions is a failing of mine sometimes. Back to the Vikings: Sidney Rice gets a lot of looks from Favre, particularly in the red zone. (Even though it's No. 3 Percy Harvin catching 2 TDs from him thus far.) Later in the year, when he and Favre get their timing down, he could be a nice option for fantasy owners.

Steelers at Bears: If you're not in a dynasty league, I really recommend it. It's a great way to get way too invested in individual players, under the idea that just maybe you'll have them for their entire career. I'm sure that's why I continue to defend Jay Cutler even after occasional lapses both on the field and off (see, I just referred to his 4-INT debacle in Green Bay last week as "an occasional lapse"), but it also makes the moment where they live up to your faith all that more rewarding. Cutler was big in this game -- would have been bigger but for receivers falling down and dropping passes and such -- and the Bears got the win.

I'm not worried about Matt Forte; Chris Johnson couldn't run on the Steelers either, and the Packers were better last week with top pick B.J. Raji in the lineup than this week with him hurt. I do wonder if rookie Johnny Knox, who made plays all over the field and has the name to be a star, will be Cutler's top target. I wonder if Ben Roethlisberger goes to sleep holding a football -- he definitely holds it longer than he should. Tough guy, but it's gonna get him hurt eventually. If that happens, this team is in serious trouble, because it's certainly not going to win running the ball.

Giants at Cowboys: Priceless moment: Tony Romo throws a pass to Patrick Crayton that should have been a touchdown, but goes through his hands. On the next play, Romo just pulls it down and runs it in. He wasn't saying it or thinking it, most likely, but it looked like a "Fine, I'll do it myself" moment. I can't help thinking that no mediocre receiver has ever been in a better situation than Crayton. Oh wait: Alvin Harper. In fairness to Crayton, who later let another first-down pass bounce off his hands, he got his bell rung at one point and it might have affected him.

Of course, Romo can't be pointing fingers after his awful performance. I think he'll bounce back, but his struggles go with the idea that he is indeed in trouble with this receiving corps a subpar group; too much of the passing game needs him to be better than he actually is. Clearly, New York's passing game was a whole lot better, with Eli Manning and Steve Smith making plays left and right. Marion Barber got hurt, the severity of which we'll find out later, but maybe an opportunity for Felix Jones and Tashard Choice. And Dallas' defense.....um. There are some problems. Maybe it's just me, but two weeks into the season the NFC East doesn't look quite as dominant as some expected. There could be two playoff teams from the North and South instead.

Additional random notes: San Francisco has no passing game; Shaun Hill is not NFL caliber and should not be starting for anyone. But they might be able to win the West anyway. ... If you had either Frank Gore or Chris Johnson, you probably won. Unless you had one and were facing the other, which happened to an opponent of mine; sorry dude. ... Pretty good game for Jake Delhomme -- you know, comparatively. He's not going to get benched after a game like that, and given Carolina's other options. And at least it was a very nice game for Steve Smith. Carolina would have won a lot of other games yesterday, but Atlanta's awfully good. ... There's no stopping Drew Brees, who made a good Eagles defense look bad. And Marques Colston IS a legitimate No. 1. Lance Moore didn't have a ball thrown his way, and then got hurt on a running play, severity uncertain. ... JaMarcus Russell went 7 of 24 for 109 yards. And won. And this is why the very talented Zach Miller is a risky play. ... Buffalo looked very good and should be 2-0. Don't forget, though, that the Bills started out well last year, too, before it all went south. And yes, as a Marshawn Lynch owner I'm very concerned. It almost has to be a straight committee with Fred Jackson when Lynch returns, given how well Jackson has played. ... Guess I'll need to reevaluate expectations for the Broncos defense. ... I saw about half of the Ravens-Chargers game, enough to see the very gloomy news for those of us who have counted on Ray Rice. Willis McGahee is out of the doghouse with a vengeance. It was McGahee, not Rice, getting most of the carries late in the game. This could change, of course. It better.

Monday, Monday: The Colts' defense is banged up and shouldn't be any good against the run or the pass right now. Is Miami the offense to take advantage of it? Not so sure, but an upset would not be surprising. Pretty confident the Colts won't run on the Dolphins tonight. Should be a good game, maybe lower-scoring than you'd expect from a game involving the Colts.

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