Viva Murillo!

When you're five weeks into the season, you probably have a good idea about your team. Either your strategy is paying off or you're struggling to score points. This is a big week, since byes and injuries are starting to tax rosters and owners might start to see games as "must win" to keep their playoff hopes alive. If you pay attention to all the games each week, you might scrutinize them even more now. You want to pay attention to everything.

But if you do that, you might miss the big picture. We're all football fans, and some exciting things are happening this year. The Broncos are 5-0 and the Bengals are 4-1 (a fluky catch in week 1 is what separates these two teams and could theoretically have home-field advantage implications in the playoffs). They take their place among traditional leaders such as the Colts. In the NFC, a lot of talk concerns Brett Favre and the undefeated Vikings, but the Eagles are -- once again -- looking like Super Bowl contenders. Throw in the undefeated Giants and Saints, and there are no real favorites on either side to make the trip to Miami in February.

All football fans know those facts, but are you really paying attention? Did you watch the post-game interview with Broncos coach Josh McDaniels or were you scouring the Internet for news about Calvin Johnson's injury? Did you watch the amazing finish in Baltimore, where Ray Lewis clashed (literally) with Chad EightFive on the go-ahead drive, or were you checking to see if overtime between Kansas City and Dallas would mean more catches for Jason Witten (it didn't)?

You can see everything and still miss something. The NFL and the networks that carry that content pretend that every season has amazing drama and compelling stories. But that's not really the case. Sure, you can find something if you're really looking, and fans in certain cities will always have reasons to be happy, but some years are less dramatic and exciting than others. Not every Super Bowl can have a David Tyree-like catch like in 2008, or late-game heroics like we saw earlier this year. Sometimes the season simply plays out and we look to our fantasy teams to provide excitement on Sundays.

But this year looks different so far. Young quarterbacks like Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco had great rookie campaigns, but actually seem to be building on them this year. The Saints look like more than a team with a great offense and nothing else. The Bengals aren't being pushed around; they're doing the pushing. Even the Lions seem to be hanging around in games when you'd expect them to get destroyed. They're not very good, but they look a lot better than a team that went 0-16 last year.

I know you're focused on fantasy football. So am I. But I'm also making a concerted effort to watch some football without the scrutinizing eye of a fantasy owner. If you're the guy watching eight games at once with a laptop that refreshes the latest stats, make sure you take a breather every so often and simply enjoy the contests -- even the ones where you have no players to root for or against and won't affect your favorite team. Otherwise, you're going to miss some special performances and stories. Analysts say that every year, but it really seems to be true this season. Pay attention while you're busy "paying attention" and good luck this week.

You can reach Michael Murillo at vivamurillo@gmail.com.

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