Fantasy frustration

There's nothing more frustrating in fantasy football than making a decision to start or bench a player that directly results in a loss. Examples: In Week 1, I started Matt Schaub at quarterback instead of Donovan McNabb. McNabb lit up the Panthers while Schaub stunk against the Jets, and I lost. Had I started McNabb, I would have won. In Week 2, I sat Schaub and started Mark Sanchez. Sanchez had a solid game (163 yards and a touchdown) against the Patriots, but Schaub went off to the tune of 357 yards and four touchdowns. I lost by 5 points.

But, I lost any and all right to complain after Monday night's Colts-Dolphins game. Going into said game, my wife, Paula, was losing by 50.7 points, and wasn't terribly optimistic about her chances, despite having Peyton Manning and Dallas Clark in her lineup. We woke up Tuesday morning to find that Manning passed for 303 yards and two touchdowns and Clark caught seven passes for 183 yards and a touchdown.

Could the improbable comeback be a reality?

Nope. Manning and Clark combined for 50.6 points, an outstanding game by any standards, but one tenth of a point too little for Paula to avoid defeat. And, of course, there were a couple players on her bench who, if they'd been in the lineup, would have given her a victory.

Such is the life of a fantasy football player.

The Cowboys and their cattle

Is it me, or does Jerry Jones seem like the kind of guy who’ll do anything to make a buck? The owner of the Dallas Cowboys, who are playing in their brand-spanking new $1.15 billion stadium this season, was all smiles the other night when a record crowd of 105,121 packed into the venue, where you can get a 20-inch pizza for the bargain price of $60.

About 30,000 of those fans, though, couldn’t even see the field. Purchasing a $29 “Party Pass” allowed fans to stand and watch the game, but the crowd at times went a four or five dozen deep, and many were forced to watch the game from the stadium’s huge TVs hanging above. Some didn’t seem to mind and were just happy to be there. Others, though, felt they didn’t get what they paid for.

“I didn’t get a chance to walk up to the field and take a picture,” Charles Manhard of Dallas, a 38-year-old valet company owner, told reporters. “What’s the purpose of this? I can do this at home. I’ve got a 64-inch TV.”

The cheapest seats for the game against the Giants — which ranged from $75-99 — had sold out, and the only remaining seats to buy ranged from $129-299. That made the $29 standing-room-only tickets look like a great deal to see the team’s home opener.
According to the team’s front office, about 8,000 SRO tickets have been sold for the next game against the Panthers.

Still, not everyone who attended last Sunday’s contest left in bad spirits.

“I’m probably just stating the obvious, but the best feature was simply the price,” said Cowboys fan Keith Evashevski, who made the trek to Dallas from Wyoming. “To be involved in an NFL game in 2009 and spend just about or under $30, I think that’s pretty good.”

That’s surely what Jerry Jones wants you to think. Besides, that stadium isn’t going to pay for itself.

R.I. HS Football Poll Week 2

Another week down and the top five teams haven't moved an inch. As far as local teams, Middletown and Portsmouth (who meet on what's shaping up to be a very interesting Thanksgiving Day) switched spots, with the Islanders slipping into the No. 6 after a rout of Exeter-West Greenwich. Tiverton, ranked No. 8 last week, suffered its first loss of the season and dropped out of the Top 20. Just to reiterate, the first number after the team name is total points, the number after the dash is where it was ranked last week. Any number in parenthesis is first-place votes.

1. La Salle(6) 158 - 1
2. Barrington (2) 154 - 2
3. South Kingstown 143 - 3
4. Cranston East 137 - 4
5. East Providence 122 -5
6. Middletown 103 -7
7. Portsmouth 97 - 6
8. West Warwick 92 - 9t
9. Ponaganset 78 - 12
10. Johnston 75 - 14
11. Woonsocket 74 - 16
12. Westerly 71 - 9t
13. St. Raphael 61 - 15
14. Mount Hope 56 - 18
15. Moses Brown 49 - 20t
16. Lincoln 48 - 19
17. Hendricken 42 - 13
18. Cranston West 37 - 11
19. Cumberland 22 - NR
20. Classical 15 - 20t

Others receiving votes: Tiverton 11, East Greenwich 10, Hope 5,
Narragansett 5, Tolman 4, Shea 1.

Participating publications: The Chariho Times, The Coventry Courier, The Cranston Herald, The East Greenwich Pendulum, The Narragansett Times, The Newport Daily News, The Northeast Independent, The North Kingstown Standard Times, The South County Independent, The Warwick Beacon, The Westerly Sun.

What's going on out there?

So far, the NFL season is off to a less-than-spectacular start. Your team is 1-1, hasn’t looked particularly impressive in either game and very easily could be 0-2 (even though it should have won both). And your star quarterback is getting hit more than Juan Manuel Marquez did on Saturday night against Floyd Mayweather.

All of a sudden, some fans might be wondering if the high expectations before the season were way off. Maybe this team isn’t as good as everyone thought they’d be.

What is going on with the Packers and Patriots?

Well, the Packers are struggling with stupid penalties and offensive line troubles. Aaron Rodgers has no time to throw the ball, and when he does, frequently he holds on to it far too long. As a result of both problem, he’s been sacked a league-high 10 times in two games.

About 1,000 miles to the east, Tom Brady hasn’t looked much like the Brady of 2001-07. Aside from the last five minutes against the Bills in Week 1, he’s been pretty average, at best. And coming off his knee injury, he just looks uncomfortable in the pocket and seems terrified of being hit.

If the Patriots and Packers keep playing this way, there’s no hope of them living up to this season’s expectations.