The Fantasy Football Blog

Eli Manning (AP)

No more overreacting. Just reacting. We’re far enough into the season that nothing should shock us that much.

REACTION 1 — Eli Manning (NYG-QB) is sure starting to look like his older brother, Peyton Manning (IND-QB). The pair posted similar numbers Sunday as Eli (296 yards, four TDs in win vs. St. Louis) continues to come into his own in his second year, and Peyton (264 yards, four TDs in win over Tennessee ) got back on track after a slow start.

Eli is fast becoming a very, very good fantasy starter, especially against teams with defenses in the bottom half of the NFL.

REACTION 2 — The Patriots finally hit the injury wall. A team can only lose so many highly important players before it finally slips. New England lost two of its top three defensive players for the year (Tedy Bruschi-MLB, Rodney Harrison-SS) and the Chargers were perfectly matched up with a great running back (LaDainian Tomlinson) and a great tight end (Antonio Gates) to take advantage of those holes.

REACTION 3 — For the first time this weekend, I spent Sunday afternoon outside of my living room. I’m generally very picky about watching NFL Sunday outside of my (remote) control, but a group of us went to Smokey Bones in Springfield for the Sox-Yankees/Pats-Chargers combo. Great atmosphere, and I was able to keep track of virtually all my players by swivelling in my chair and finding each game between innings and pitches.

REACTION 4 — I did bail out of the Baltimore-NY Jets game as my survivor pick because it just seemed too good to be true. I went with Cincy over Houston and nearly tore my hair out willing the Bengals to down the hapless Texans. They eventually did, 16-10, but I was worried that I made the wrong choice all the way down to the final whistle. By the way, the Ravens also won (13-3).

REACTION 5 — Did anyone outside the population of Northern California and Arizona watch the Sunday night game (49ers vs. Cardinals in Mexico City)? If you did, you either have a serious football problem or your fantasy matchup was on the line. I guess you could be something with a serious football problem AND a fantasy matchup that was still on the line, but let’s admit that to our wives (or husbands).

THE BIG MONDAY NIGHT QUESTIONS
Green Bay at Carolina (ABC, 9)

Much like the Sunday night game, is anyone outside of their fanbases and fantasy owners going to watch?

Does Brett Favre (GB-QB) have one more magical Monday night in him? You know John Madden and Al Michaels (and Favre’s fantasy owners) are hoping so.

Are Ahman Green’s (GB-RB) legs too tired to get back to the performance of the last several years? If so, is he the biggest bust in fantasy football this season?

Is Steve Smith (CAR-WR) going to carry a few of his fantasy owners to big comeback wins this week? How about Donald Driver (GB-WR)?

See you Tuesday with Roster/Injury updates