How many times have you given yourself a fantasy football loss, even when you still have players going (or your opponent does) on Monday Night Football? How many times have you said, “It would take a miracle for me to win?” I’m guilty and odds are you are too. Last night going into the Monday Night game, my fantasy football team was winning by 2 points – my opponent had Brian Westbrook. Surely Westbrook would be good for 3 points, right?

Before the game started I already counted myself out. There was no way I could win.Westbrook is one of the best running backs in the NFL. Sure he has a history of injuries, but what are the odds he gets hurt at the start of the game? I didn’t plan on watching last night’s Eagles vs. Redskins game. I didn’t want to see Westbrook shred the Redskins and put a dagger in my fantasy football week.

Around 9:00 PM I get a text message from my opponent: “You’ve got to be kidding me!” he says. Not knowing what’s going on, I quickly check my iPhone for updates on the game. I couldn’t believe that Westbrook got injured at the beginning of the game, after scoring 1 fantasy football point. He got a concussion and didn’t return to action. I had won my fantasy football matchup by one point.

You never want to celebrate a player’s injury – that’s just wrong and is bad karma. But this just goes to show you that it’s not over till it’s over, especially on prime-time Sunday/Monday night games. Anything can happen.

Last week we featured the Fantasy Football Newb, David M. Well it turns out that his team Murphy’s Law is now 2-0. In today’s video segment, Fantasy Football newbie Dave from IT covers his 2nd week and discusses plans for this week – including his match-up with his interviewer, The SuperFavres. Now both at 2-0, Dave M. and Mike M. are the only undefeated teams in the league. After this week, there will be only one.

Did you struggle in the opening week of Fantasy Football last Sunday? That’s probably because you didn’t have my list of sleepers, top performers and who to sit in front of you. I don’t like to toot my own horn, but I was the top scorer in our Fantasy Football league last week. So take my advice and ride these players to the top of your league standing.

Sleepers:
QB – Brett Favre – Facing the Lion who Drew Brees threw 6 TD’s against last week. Not to mention, 0-18 last 18 games.

WR – Laurent Robinson – Strong week 1 after a strong preseason, in his 3rd year which is widely regarded as the breakout year for WR’s…. look out for this guy as long as his QB can be at least respectable, he is targeted frequently. This is the only one I’m iffy about. Only start him if you have no other options.

RB: Fred Jackson – Looked really good as an all purpose back running and catching the ball last week vs a good NE Patriot’s defense. Start Jackson until week3 when Bills #1 back Lynch comes back.

TE – Todd Heap – Faces San Diego who’s defense should be improved with the return of Shawne Merriman…onlyt thing is the just can’t seem to guard TE’s. They gave up over 90 yards last week to Zach Miller of Oakland which does not have a good passing offense around inaccurate QB JaMarcus Russel. Start Todd Heap, TRUST ME!

Who To Sit –

QB – Donovan Mcnabb – Do not wait for Andy Reid to make a decision, Mcnabb will not play on Sunday…pick up an extra QB if you have to and set your starting line ups not to include him now.

RB – Pierre Thomas – I think his knee is giving him more problems than we know about, owners should start Mike bell instead who looked really good last week besides a fumble.

K – Kris Brown – Brown who was ranked in the preseason as a top 5 kicker was the most dropped player in Yahoo leagues last week after a terrible 1 point performance in most leagues. Nuff’ said!!! (Yeah I had him in one of my leagues)

DE – Dallas – They let Tampa Bay run all over them in the first half, expect more of the same except all game vs NY Giants.

Top Performers –

QB – Aaron Rodgers – The obvious pick would be Drew Brees every week but I like Rodgers vs a suspect Bengal pass defense.

WR- Larry Fitzgerald – Reggie Wayne was the top WR last week vs the same Jacksonville defense Larry F. will face this week, expect Larry to capitalize as he always does.

RB – Adrian Peterson – Facing 0-18 Detroit who just let a backup…Mike Bell…run all of them for 143 yards. I wouldn’t be surprised by a 200 yard game from “All Day”.

DE- Washington Redskins – Facing St Louis who couldn’t even get on the board last week. Expect a lot of man on man action with Haynesworth on top of Bulger all game.

Rookie of the week:

WR – Percy Harvin – I like Percy to continue his strong start to the season vs a terrible Detroit pass defense. Seems to be good ol’ #4 Bret Favre’s go to guy so far this season

Sticking with the fantasy football theme this week… let’s turn our attention to the subject of several of our past videos: The Corporate Gangsters. The Gangsters were on the wrong end of a Week 1 fantasy beat down. He put up only 45 points! That has to be some sort of record. Check out this video we shot of Dave C. talking about his team and the moves he made to get things on the right path for Week 2.

In this segment, Fantasy Football newbie Dave from IT recaps his results from last week’s action and weighs in on his strategy for the upcoming days. Having won his round last week, Dave’s mulling over changing his offensive players including swapping out his quarterback for another big-name QB who had an unusually good weekend. Our own stats guru, Zeke even throw his 2 cents into the fray.

How would you advise David M. ?

By now you should know that we take fantasy football very seriously at Football Fanatics. No one comes out of the womb with a wealth of football knowledge already consumed in the back of their brain … well, maybe Zeke did, he’s our resident guru and human sports almanac. Most of us learn the game over time. We watch games, become familiar with players and remember key events and statistics over the years.

At some point, we all joined our first Fantasy Football league. Maybe you started in 1995 or 2001? Well David M. (part of the IT team) is playing fantasy football for the first time ever this season! In fact, before the 2008 season he didn’t know much about football at all. Here’s a quick video of David talking about his newly drafted fantasy team and his expectations for the year.

Side note: David won his week 1 Fantasy match-up by like 30 points.

Here at Football Fanatics we take Fantasy Football seriously. For some it’s not just a game – but a lifestyle. Hours and hours of preparation went into the league setup and live draft. Everyone has their teams drafted, their team names picked and now the NFL season is officially underway. Several members of the staff feel that their team is the best or that other teams won’t win a game. So much so that a “friendly wager” was placed. Watch the video for details: