NEW YORK - I blame myself.
It occurred to me as I watched Jeremiah Masoli throw pass after pass to Ed Dickson without a defender in sight that it was all my fault that he was having a breakout game. All my fault because I had shown in him by not dropping him. And he just didn't want to let me down.
He did all of this from my team's bench of course, but still. I blame myself.
Luckily, Yellow Fever didn't need Masoli's Bear-killing ways in dispatching the Holmoe Phobes by a count of 137-109, as new quarterback Blaine Gabbert went for 34 fantasy points in compiling 414 passing yards and three touchdowns on the same day that incumbent quarterback Robert Griffin was benched for ineffectiveness and summarily injured himself for the season. So that sorted out some roster issues. Holmoe Phobes would have been better served playing quarterback Austen Arnaud of Iowa State over more-heralded Taylor Potts as Arnaud put up 31 fantasy points largely on the strength of his legs. Inexplicably, Holmoe Phobes has yet to realize that Matt Grothe is out for the season.Rag's Doombringers continue to bring the hurt as they crushed Syd lines up under center to the tune of 176-119. Ouch. Jerrod Johnson put up 53 fantasy points for Rags in accounting for 290 passing yards and six total touchdowns, with three each coming through the air on the ground. Toby Gerhart ran for 200 yards with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind for Rags, who also got 20+ point efforts from Eric Decker, Brandon LaFell, and Garrett Graham. Even backup Anthony Dixon of Mississippi State went for 22 points. The good news for Syd lines up under center was that Tebow finally had a Tebow-esque game, though LaMichael James' 17 points and Joe McKnight's 10 did not hold a candle to the Doombringer juggernaut.
Wide receiver Danario Alexander of Missouri powered the Rock Runners past Team 1 125-92.5 with 170 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Running back Dion Lewis of Pittsburgh contributed 21 points with 101 total yards and two rushing touchdowns to offset strong performances from C.J. Spiller and the Ohio State defense for 1.
The closest matchup of the year so far saw dballers_are_all_loose sneak by TimeForSomeAction 95-93.5. Todd Reesing of dballers_are_all_loose and Mardy Gilyard of TimeForSomeAction cancelled each other out with 29 fantasy points each, and TimeForSomeAction just didn't have quite enough support from a supporting cast that including a total of 10 points from Jimmy Clausen and Nic Grigsby.
Energia del Burro defeated The Ghosts of Ty Willingham 98-17. That's right. 17. Someone didn't pay attention this week.
LEAGUE STANDINGS
| West Division | |||||||||||
| Team | W | L | T | PCT | GB | Strk | Div | Wks | PF | Back | PA |
| dballers_are_all_loose | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | W4 | 3-0-0 | 0 | 488.5 | 51.2 | 347.8 |
 Yellow Fever
|
3 | 1 | 0 | 0.750 | 1 | W1 | 1-1-0 | 1 | 474.2 | 65.5 | 450.2 |
| Holmoe Phobes | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0.500 | 2 | L1 | 2-2-0 | 1 | 494.5 | 45.2 | 440.5 |
| Rock Runners | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0.500 | 2 | W2 | 0-2-0 | 0 | 405.2 | 134.5 | 438.8 |
| The Ghosts of Ty Willingham | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0.250 | 3 | L3 | 1-2-0 | 0 | 274.8 | 265.0 | 407.5 |
| East Division | |||||||||||
| Team | W | L | T | PCT | GB | Strk | Div | Wks | PF | Back | PA |
| Rag's Doombringers | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0.750 | 0 | W3 | 3-1-0 | 2 | 539.8 | 0.0 | 443.0 |
| Syd lines up under center | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0.500 | 1 | L1 | 2-2-0 | 0 | 488.0 | 51.8 | 451.2 |
| Energia del Burro | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0.500 | 1 | W1 | 1-1-0 | 0 | 435.5 | 104.2 | 383.2 |
| TimeForSomeAction | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0.250 | 2 | L3 | 1-1-0 | 0 | 423.0 | 116.8 | 447.5 |
| 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0.000 | 3 | L4 | 0-2-0 | 0 | 286.2 | 253.5 | 500.0 |
PICK'EM STANDINGS
1. class of 87 - 50
1. Easy-So-Feel-Me - 50
3. dunno - 49
3. Clean Cut Media - 49
3. Montezuma's Revenge - 49
3. Oaktown4ever - 49
3. vanman1013 - 49
8. NorcalNick's Picks - 48
8. I just blue myself - 48
8. Bears Necessity - 48
8. YoQuieroOski - 48
8. rjnarayen - 48
Still a bit of a jumble, and for the first time in a few weeks we have a tie at the top. One good week could push anyone here into a solo lead, so let's see how that goes. Trends from this past weekend:
- Nine people correctly picked South Florida against Florida State.
- Seven people incorrectly picked Bowling Green to cover against Boise State.
- Seventeen people picked Iowa over Penn State.
- Everyone pushed on Houston/Texas Tech!
- Most people picked Washington State to cover against USC.
- Six people picked Oregon. Not to name names, but their names are NorcalNick, HolmoePhobe, Avinash, gigglingone, Takimoto, and katster. You know, in case you want to blame someone.