Andy Richardson

You learn lessons every week, with this week's being, Don't trust early Sunday injury reports. A whole lot of media outlets, perhaps in their eagerness to be the first ones to report the news, said that Calvin Johnson would play yesterday, and maybe a whole lot of people (including me) waived Dennis Northcutt a little over an hour before the game, in favor of a player more likely to start. More significantly, maybe a whole lot of people put Johnson in their starting lineups, then headed out to the ballgame or Home Depot or something.

As it turned out, Johnson was inactive, and probably a lot of people took zeroes with him in their lineups. Northcutt didn't catch a single pass, so no big deal for me, but some certainly got burned. In another erroneous report yesterday morning, some were saying that Bernard Berrian wouldn't play. He not only played but caught the game-clinching touchdown. Please note I'm not knocking fantasy sites, who by and large are relying on what's coming from major media news outlets, but rather the outlets themselves. If you're in the business of reporting actual news, it's a lot better to get a story right than to get it first.

OK, on to the games, and there were a lot of compelling early ones before Favreapalooza II. Let the rolling diary begin....

1:00 p.m. Jerricho Cotchery is playing for the Jets, they got that one right. Early grab by Dustin Keller -- maybe that's what they need to do, get him involved early, kind of like things used to be with another New York tight end, Jeremy Shockey. (Turns out to be correct: Keller has a huge day.)

Quick touchdown by the Eagles. Fantasy owners everywhere checked to see which of their stars it was. It was none: it was Leonard Weaver, who nobody started. Next Giants possession, moments later, Eli Manning is picked off. Poor throw, plus Domenik Hixon seemingly not looking for it. A few plays later, a touchdown to Brent Celek is erased by a holding penalty. Argh! Next play, end-zone throw for DeSean Jackson, broken up. Then, same exact play to Celek for a touchdown. Nice! Extra point blocked, costing me 3 points in the league where I have David Akers. Not nice.

Long punt return by Devin Hester. Could have been a touchdown but the punter made a tackle. I bought a sweater at Old Navy last week the same color as the Bears' orange jerseys. Thought you ought to know.

1:15 p.m. In Detroit, Marc Bulger throws a ball to Randy McMichael similar to the TD to Celek, but McMichael, hearing footsteps, doesn't really go for it. Weak.

In Indianapolis, Frank Gore bursts through the Colts defense on a 64-yard touchdown run. I immediately begin worrying about suicide pool pick of Colts.

Another catch by Keller. Good to see. Mark Sanchez gets clobbered. On another QB, might have been a penalty. Just sayin.'

Another fumble for Steve Slaton. For three weeks I've been saying I'm worried about the guy losing work if he keeps putting the ball on the ground and threatening to trade him. Of course, he keeps scoring, so it's tough to do. Well, Gary Kubiak has apparently had enough too: Ryan Moats replaces him. It was inevitable, but it's a major blow to those of us who need Slaton (and have no hope of getting Moats). Oh yeah: Owen Daniels leaves early with the dreaded sprained knee. Reportedly out for the season. Bad week for those of us relying on Texans' fantasy stars.

In Baltimore, Knowshon Moreno also loses a fumble; big hit. He won't be benched. In Buffalo, rushing touchdown for Terrell Owens. His first? I'll have to look it up.

1:30 p.m. Thomas Jones looks like he has an extra spark right now. Excited that he's the guy for this year and maybe beyond, perhaps. Looking good. Sanchez throws deep to a well-covered Braylon Edwards, but Edwards draws a flag.

Derek Anderson interception. Next possession, a botched handoff to Jamal Lewis. Painful watching the Browns.

Fumble by Justin Forsett. He's not going to earn more playing time that way.

Rams intercept Matthew Stafford in the end zone (tipped ball). Defender runs out of the end zone, ducks back in to avoid a tackle, and gets tripped up for a safety. You can't make this stuff up.

1:45 p.m. Sanchez throws for Cotchery; it's nearly picked and run back 100 yards for a touchdown. Nice drive though.

Touchdown for Deion Branch. Nice throw by Matt Hasselbeck, particularly since he overthrew Justin Griffith for a touchdown on the previous play. If you started Branch this week, congratulations.

2:00 p.m. Matt Forte with a nice run. The Browns will do that to you. Later, he scores. If I had him anywhere, I'd be thinking about dealing him. (Forte later scores again. This is the good part about watching the Browns: if your players are facing them.)

Joe Flacco nearly sacked, dumps it off to Ray Rice as an outlet, and Rice takes it 20 yards downfield. Sweet play. Next play, a long run by Rice. Appears to be some heated emotions down there. Broncos defense showing a few cracks.

2:15 p.m.Bears settling for field goals, drawing boos from the home crowd, but they're up 9-0 and moving the ball at will whenever I check in on the game. Greg Olsen catches a ball in the red zone. Relax, fans. When the Browns are down 9 points the game is over.

Rams touchdown on fake field goal. Josh Brown to tight end Daniel Fells. Pretty little play, and now Brown has been involved in one more touchdown this season than Steven Jackson.

Should DeSean Jackson be the No. 1 pick in leagues where long touchdowns have particularly high value? He gets wide open against the Giants for a long score. A few minutes later, Jeremy Maclin makes a very tough grab in the end zone.

Vernon Davis touchdown. I take back the bad stuff I sad about him over the years. The guy is a top-5 tight end.

2:30 p.m. Ravens kickoff return touchdown. Followed by a Broncos drive that ends in a Moreno touchdown. Good game.

Crazy goings-on in Dolphins-Jets. Jets convert a long field goal, but Ted Ginn runs around the Jets' special teams for a 100-yard kick return touchdown, and then the Dolphins force a Shonn Greene fumble return touchdown. Not a great month or so to be a Jets fan.

3:00 p.m. More craziness in Dolphins-Jets. Davone Bess, who'd dropped a pass that might have helped the Dolphins into field goal range at the end of the half, fumbles a punt to set up a pass from Sanchez to Keller to the goal line, and a Sanchez bootleg for a touchdown. It was almost as if Sanchez was the only guy who knew what the play was. Classic moment: refs in the middle of the pile are looking for the ball, thinking there's a fumble, while Sanchez is alone in the corner of the end zone spiking it between his legs. Seriously, I think Sanchez, the crowd, and the one ref signaling touchdown are the only ones who know what's going on.

Let's stay here for a while: Dolphins return ANOTHER kickoff for a touchdown. The first was Ginn's speed, the second was him juking tacklers out of their socks and going the distance. Jets quickly answer, catch and run by Jerricho Cotchery and a TD to Braylon Edwards where Edwards fights to the goal line and then Keller sort of shoves him over. Big question now, will the Jets actually kick to Ginn? They do. The crowd oohs with disbelief. Ginn is tackled, finally, and the loudest sarcastic cheer I've ever heard at the Meadowlands rains down on the field. Funny.

3:30 p.m. Giants making a run at a comeback, when LeSean McCoy scores a touchdown. A nice block by Maclin -- who a week or two ago made a nice block to help Jackson score a long touchdown -- will be noticed by the Eagles. Nice job, rookie(s).

Touchdown for the Colts: from Joseph Addai to Reggie Wayne! You don't see that every day. Nobody was near Wayne.

Dolphins go up by 11 points. And go for 2, and fail. Don't these guys have a sheet or something that tells them when to go for 2 and when to kick the extra point? Minutes later, Sanchez leads the Jets down the field for a touchdown with a spectacular diving grab by Keller, who I'd about given up on last week. Let me just say: Mark Sanchez is going to be fine. Something like 9 completions in a row at one point. He then makes a great throw to the fourth wideout on a 2-point conversion to pull within 3...but it's erased by an illegal shift that nobody saw but the ref who called it, evidently. Jets remain down by 5. Still a stupid decision by the Dolphins. Speaking of witch (Sorry, Halloween hangover), er, which, Jets kick to Ginn again.

Cut to Lambeau Field as Favre takes the field. Boos louder than cheers. Not surprising, just disappointing. How dare you play for the Vikings!? Well, um, they were the ones who wanted me....

3:45 p.m. Ryan Moats scores his third touchdown of the game. If you even had Houston's third-string running back on your roster, I'm impressed. As a Slaton owner, of course, I'm really wishing I'd traded the guy like I threatened to do the last few weeks. Little doubt his fumble is what prevented him from being the guy who scored those touchdowns.

Steven Jackson touchdown! Rams win! I'm not sure which I'm more happy about. Rams deserve it; they're better than the Lions.

4:00 p.m. Colts survive, I'm still alive in my suicide pool, so I'll still talk about it for at least one more week. I hope that somebody else out there cares.

Jets lose, driving down near the goal line but unable to return the favor the Dolphins did to them a few weeks back. The erased 2-point conversion is huge, as they could have kicked a tying field goal rather than trying to convert a 4th and long. Tough loss. (Afterward, the Jets are shall we say less than complimentary about the Dolphins. Some bad blood between these AFC East also-rans, I guess.)

Late games: Like most people, no doubt, I watched a lot of Packers-Vikings. Not sure I can add anything new to the volumes that are being written about it, just that the fan reaction was about as expected, and it didn't matter. In both games, the Vikings took huge leads and made mistakes to let the Packers back into it, but there's not much doubt who has the better team right now. And clearly, the differences are more to do with the running backs and defenses than the quarterbacks, although Favre is playing awfully well these days. The Vikings are a very good team. And Percy Harvin might already be a star. ... Check out the highlight package of the Titans-Jaguars game. I sometimes worry about starting two running backs in the same game, thinking if one guy does well, the other one probably won't. Both had monster days, and you really need to see a couple of their long touchdowns to appreciate them. Jones-Drew shook a whole bunch of tackles on his 79-yard TD run, while Johnson just darted past, through, and around tackers on his game-clinching 89-yarder. And oh yeah, Vince Young played well and David Garrard didn't.

Monday, Monday: It will be nice to have a game free of conversation about some quarterback facing his former team, some coach getting in a war of words with another team's linebacker, or some other drama. How about just two really good football teams with two really good coaching staffs, quarterbacks, and players? This is the game, and even though it ends too late -- especially for those of us on the East Coast with 2- and 4-year-olds with no concept of Daylight Savings Time who have been up since 5 -- there's nothing I'd rather watch tonight.

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