- When fantasy owners drafted Tom Brady in the second round, I don’t think they were looking for 115 yards, one TD and one pick in Week 15 against the Buffalo Bills.

- Matt Cassel (331 yards, 2 TD) rewarded those owners that were brave enough to start him after a fairly miserable stretch of games. With Chris Chambers and Dwayne Bowe, the Chiefs have something going in the passing game.

- I’m actually surprised that Matt Ryan mustered 152 yards and a TD in his first game back against a very stout Jets pass defense.

- Jay Cutler (94 yards, 3 INT) had a miserable day against the Ravens. Meanwhile, Joe Flacco (234 yards, 4 TD) shredded the Bears’ defense.

- Ben Roethlisberger (503 yards, 3 TD) had a MONSTER day against what was a pretty stingy Packer defense coming in. Aaron Rodgers (383 yards, 3 TD, rush TD) did everything to win the game but rush Roethlisberger on his game winning drive.

- Laurence Maroney (23 carries, 81 yards, TD) has defied the odds, holding onto the Patriots’ RB1 job even with the return of Sammy Morris.

- Jerome Harrison (34 carries, 286 yards, 3 TD) looks like he might be worth having in a keeper league. He destroyed the Chiefs’ defense.

- Jamaal Charles (25 carries, 154 yards, TD) now has a TD in six straight games.

- Arian Foster (2 carries, 7 yards) lost a fumble on his first and only catch and didn’t see much work the rest of the day. Ryan Moats (13 carries, 46 yards) carried the load.

- Steven Jackson (24 touches, 123 yards) missed practice all week with the flu and was a game time decision, but he grinded out a nice fantasy line.

- The Dolphins managed to keep Chris Johnson out of the endzone, but he still racked up 159 yards on 29 carries and two catches.

- The perception that Chris Wells (17 carries, 110 yards, TD) has taken over as the Cards’ RB1 is correct, but Tim Hightower ran for a TD and caught six passes, so he’s still somewhat valuable in PPR leagues.

- Maurice Morris (22 touches, 161 yards, TD) made the most of his opportunity to start with Kevin Smith out. Arizona actually has a pretty good rush defense, so Morris’s performance is that much more impressive.

- Knowshon Moreno (22 touches, 81 yards) was a big disappointment given his tremendous matchup with the Raiders’ pathetic rush defense.

- Michael Bush (18 carries, 133 yards, TD) destroyed the Broncos’ run defense.

- Leonard Weaver (17 carries, 52 yards) got the most carries against the 49ers, but LeSean McCoy was the one who scored.

- Josh Morgan (7-61-1) really seems to be benefiting from the arrival of Michael Crabtree. He has 22 catches over the last four weeks and has scored twice in that span.

- Terrell Owens (2-20) screwed over whomever was brave enough to start him this week. He has been decent of late, but was a non-factor against the Pats.

- I think an alien took over the body of Chris Chambers (5-114-1).

- Andre Johnson (9-196) is pretty good.

- Calvin Johnson (3-35) is a stud, but he’s not trustworthy when he has a dud (Duante Culpepper, Drew Stanton) throwing to him.

- Brandon Marshall’s line (7-73-1) is somewhat surprising considering he was going up against Nnamdi Asomugha all day.

- Vincent Jackson (5-108-2) didn’t have a great matchup, but he turned in a great fantasy line for those owners who stuck with him this week.

Check back in a bit for the RB and QB positions.

- With an early TD, Antonio Gates (4-33-1) looked like he was going to get off to a big day, but finished with rather pedestrian numbers.

- I’m excited that I benched Todd Heap (5-56-2) in favor of Bo Scaife (5-40) in a league where I lost Owen Daniels midseason. That’s just great.

- In a week where starting TEs were pretty quiet, Kellen Winslow (6-93) and John Carlson (7-86-1) had big fantasy lines in that TB/SEA game.

- Jermichael Finley (9-74-1) is a stud in the making. He has 31 catches for 302 yards and three TD in the five games since he came back from injury. That’s 15.8 fantasy points per game in a PPR format.

- Heath Miller (7-118) had a huge day against the Packers, but how many fantasy owners were starting him after just seven catches (and zero TD) in the last three games?

Check back in a bit for the WR, RB and QB positions.

For 58 minutes of Monday night’s game between the Bills and Patriots, it appeared that New England was headed for a 0-1 start to the 2009 season. The Pats were dominating the Bills in every category except where it mattered most: The scoreboard.

But with just over two minutes remaining in the game, New England cut Buffalo’s lead to 24-19 after Tom Brady threw a bullet to tight end Ben Watson for an 18-yard touchdown. On the ensuing kickoff, Buffalo cornerback Leodis McKelvin (who played well defensively all night) foolishly decided to return the ball out of his end zone instead of taking a knee. He wound up fumbling and the Patriots recovered. Three plays later Brady again found Watson, this time on a 16-yard touchdown to give New England a 25-24 lead. (They would eventually win by that score.)

New England racked up 441 total yards of offense, including 368 passing yards. But this wasn’t your typical Patriot win in which they took control from the start and stepped on their opponent’s throat. Several times throughout the game, Brady looked uncomfortable on his newly repaired knee and New England’s defense looked befuddled by Buffalo’s no-huddle offense. If it weren’t for McKelvin’s fumble, the Patriots probably wouldn’t have walked out of Foxboro tonight with a win.

This loss doesn’t fall solely on McKelvin’s shoulders though. Defensive coordinator Perry Fewell made several mistakes tonight, none bigger than switching to the prevent defense with under five minutes remaining. Instead of staying aggressive like he had been all night, Fewell went to a shell coverage and Brady picked the Bills apart.

And where was T.O. tonight? While Randy Moss was busy racking up 141 yards on 12 receptions, Owens totaled just 46 yards on two catches. He did make another grab, although he had to throw the defender down in order to make the catch and was called for pass interference. Granted, New England did a great job blanketing him all game, but he was non-existent. One would think that for as much as quarterback Trent Edwards scrambled out of the pocket that T.O. could have shaken loose from the defenders once or twice to make more catches.

The Bills let one get away tonight.

Who would have thought that Jay Cutler’s debut for the Bears would go so poorly? How about Jake Delhomme picking up right where he left off in last year’s playoffs? The 49ers beat the Cardinals on the road?!

Below are 10 surprises from Week 1 in the NFL. Feel free to add what surprised you in our comments section.

1. Cutler’s atrocious Bears debut.
When Chicago acquired quarterback Jay Cutler from the Broncos this offseason, fans immediately started believing that their Bears were a legitimate Super Bowl contender. After all, the only thing that had held this team back over the years was not having a franchise quarterback. Now that the Bears had one in Cutler, the sky was the limit. Given the lofty expectations that fans had for the Bears, Cutler’s debut Sunday night in Green Bay was startling. The numbers were bad enough: 17 of 36, 277 yards, 1 TD, 4 INTs. But it was Cutler’s demeanor during the game that was most troubling. He constantly threw across his body into traffic, was rarely on the same page as his receivers and it appeared as though he flat out stopped trying after throwing his third pick of the night. Granted, there’s still a lot of time left. But nobody expected Cutler to get off to this bad of a start.

2. Miami shoots itself in the foot.
Even though Atlanta’s defense rose to the challenge on Sunday, it was still quite surprising to see the Dolphins routinely beat themselves with costly turnovers and dumb penalties. Early in the second quarter, Miami drove to the Falcons’ 16-yard line only to have tight end Anthony Fasano fumble after receiving a bone crunching hit from Mike Peterson. Cornerback Brian Williams returned the gift 53 yards and Atlanta capitalized with a Jason Elam 36-yard field goal. Midway through the third, the Dolphins again drove into Atlanta territory, but quarterback Chad Pennington didn’t see Peterson waiting in the flats and was picked off by the linebacker. The Falcons again capitalized, this time on a Matt Ryan to Tony Gonzalez 20-yard touchdown pass to give them a 16-0 lead. On Miami’s very next series, Fasano fumbled again, only this time Elam missed a 38-yard field goal. Later in the fourth, the Dolphins had a touchdown taken off the board after offensive lineman Vernon Carey was called for holding. This was a Miami team that won the AFC East last year because they did all the little things right. They never hurt themselves with mistakes and always capitalized on their opponents’ miscues. But the opposite happened on Sunday and considering Tony Sparano’s team isn’t talented enough to overcome turnovers and penalties, the Dolphins can’t have what happened in Atlanta become a routine occurrence.

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