Cowboy Nation Week 4 Power Rankings

“Kick my brains around the floor
These are the days
It never rains it pours
Under pressure!” – David Bowie “Under Pressure”

The pressure is indeed on. Week four brings a new element into the fantasy season. By now, if your draft day golden-picks aren’t producing, it might be time to scramble for salvation. Three teams remain unbeaten. Add one to that and Cowboy Nation only has four teams above .500 after three weeks of play. Everyone is still alive. Even 0-3.

1) The Raging Sherpas – Shea Dixon: (3-0) Tom Brady, with a QB rating of 141.8, is the hottest passer on the hottest team in the league. Marion Barber III, while splitting time, is the 12^th leading rusher in the league. He also happens to lead the league in rushing TDs. Terrell Owens sits among the top five WRs in both the TD and receiving yards categories. Calvin Johnson hasn’t been much of a disappointment either, though the move for Brandon Marshall or Isaac Bruce could come any week now. Still, the #1 pick LT remains slow to start, with only 130 yards rushing and 1 TD on the ground through three weeks of play. The Sherpas will need him to get going if they hope to hold off the opposition for the long run.

Last Week’s Ranking: 1

2) Walker TX Ranger – Brian Norris: (3-0) Is this team the real deal? We know Carson Palmer’s passing attack is. Maroney has looked great, and I’m sure I don’t need to even start to explain the rookie explosion Adrian Peterson is having on the Minnesota turf. Greg Jennings, who was overshadowed as a rookie last season by Marques Colston, is off to another hot start in Green Bay. Then there is Mr. Moss, who is proving that he is still among one of the top WRs in the league (given you’re on the right team). This team is looking solid. At 3-0, and the only other team (Sherpas) to drop 100 points in all three weeks of play, owner Brian Norris might have a top-notch playoff team on his hands after all. Yet on a sidenote, we all remember the great Jim Rome conversation with Saints QB Jim Everett. http://youtube.com/watch?v=9HNgqQVHI_8

A similar conversation recently ensued after Week 3 of play between TX Ranger owner Brian Norris and Raging Sherpa owner Shea Dixon:

Norris: Continue to call me the WAC and Sun Belt

Dixon: I bet I do.

Norris: I bet you won’t.

Dixon: Sun Belt

See you in Week 7

Last Week’s Ranking: 4

3) Shreveport Battlewings – Lou Fleming: (3-0) The Battlewings remained hot once again, and fantasy stud Marc Bulger added a whopping 1 point to the Battlewings 97 point total. Fortunately, Brian Westbrook was part of the melee in Philly, adding 40 points at the RB spot. Chad Johnson is one of the top WRs in the league, and Bulger hasn’t performed, but this team may not make it all season running three mediocre WRs and one solid RB. Loosing Brandon Jacobs will eventually take its toll on the undefeated Battlewings.

Last Week’s Ranking: 2

4) Hurricane Dean – Dean Mijalis: (2-1) Hurricane Dean is sitting pretty. McNabb is on point. Plaxico Burress is having a Pro Bowl season. Marvin Harrison is, well, Marvin Harrison (though the numbers hadn’t reflected it yet). Only 2 cowboys caught passes in Sunday night’s game. Of course their was T.0. But then there was Jason Witten. With Phillips in charge, Dean is sitting pretty with Witten as the #2 option behind T.O. in one of the league’s most explosive offenses. But wait. Steven Jackson out three weeks? No worries. The young Marshawn Lynch is waiting on the bench, and thus far this fantasy season he is the hotter commodity. And that is that. The lone 2-1 team in the league rounds out the top four. It’s a dogfight from here on out.

Last Week’s Ranking: 3

5) I’m 40, I’m a Man – Jon Kastanos: (1-2) Kastanos is the first team to pull through from the 1-2 ranks. Tony Romo is back in at QB after sitting the week in place of Jake Delhomme, who was injured in the Carolina game. Joe Addai is looking better than his rookie campaign. Willie Parker and Donald Driver look on par through three weeks. Solid draft picks have this team in good shape heading into Week 4. The one question that remains is Reggie Brown. The Eagles let out a barrage of offense this weekend. Yet Brown was nowhere to be found, amassing just two points. Team Kastanos will need more from Brown, who they expected to be the top contributer at the #2 WR spot.

Last Week’s Ranking: 5

6) Intramurals Brothers – Matt Conway: (1-2) What is there to say? This team was losing because Ronnie Brown was not producing at all, and Boldin and Roy Williams weren’t throwing out gaudy numbers to make up for it. Now, everyone is. Mark Roy Williams down for 26 points. Add another 30 points for Boldin. Toss in Ronnie Brown’s 40 points and you have a winner right there. No need to mention Rivers got his first start for the Brothers, which makes him 1-0 as the QB of Coach Hawkins team. This team is hot. P.S. Rudi Johnson did nothing this weekend. The Brothers could have made it much worse on team WHO DAT.

Last Week’s Ranking: 12

7) Greek Mafia – Andrew Mijalis: (1-2) Now this team is kicking into gear. They have a win under their belt and are ready to roll. Papa Vince is bringing in respectable numbers at the QB position, while Shaun Alexander and Clinton Portis looked great. Boot that with Larry Fitzgerald and TJ Housh and this team looks really, really strong. And word out of Mafia-land is that deals are looking to be done to acquire a TE for this team. Guess that Ben Olsen “steal of the draft” didn’t pop off as planned. No worries. This team is heading nowhere but up.

Last Week’s Ranking: 8

8) WHO DAT – Jason Burklow: (1-2) Leinart or Cambell? That is the question. It was Cambell this week, where he performed a little below par for what team owner Burklow expects out of a QB. Then again, Leinart did worse. Reggie Wayne was quiet, while Santonio Holmes, as can be expected, was quieter. Could DeShaun Foster make a push for the starting line-up this week? 24 points is a lot to have sitting on the bench. DAT better find out, for they have dropped two straight and are on their way down the power chart.

Last Week’s Ranking: 6

9) Kirilenko Meets Ivan Drago – Patrick Crawford: (1-2) This team is roller coaster-like. Lose one week. Win the next. Lose one week. Well, you get the picture. Frank Gore finally stopped bulldozing people, which wasn’t good for Drago’s cause. Kitna remains on fire, as well as big daddy LaMont Jordan. Steve Smith only drug up 1 point in the QB fiasco that was in Carolina. Then there is that #2 WR spot. Hell, might as well leave it empty. Lee Evans does nothing. Patrick Crayton did nothing when he was asked to step up. Guess its is time for Lions WR Shaun McDonald too take over….

Last Week’s Ranking: 7

10) Baby Matrix – Andrew Ashby: (1-2) Calling all WRs? Javon Walker? Are you out there? Jericho Cotchery? Is that you I see with 5 fantasy points? Times are tough in Matrix camp. Being 1-2 is definitely in the thick of things, but no help at WR is tough. Travis Henry was a nice touch this weekend, and the season-ending injury to Deuce McAllister should give Reggie Bush more touches. At least Hasselback is getting points. Then again, so is Matt Schaub, who remains on the bench. Will a QB decision be made or will we see the Matrix stick with the gameplan. Dropping three straight games is nothing to smile about.

Last Week’s Ranking: 9

11) Team Beastmode – Daniel Roane: (1-2) Levee! Get this team together, son. This team badly needs a running game. Trade time! Who wants Maurice Jones Drew? Silence. Carnell Williams? Silence. Brian Leonard? “Ohh, me!” screamed undefeated Walker TX Ranger coach Brian Norris. “I can let him sit in the “empty” roster spot I have on my bench and I can laugh that you drafted him.” Oh, and the Saints suck. Which means Brees is having a bad year. Which means Colston is as well. At least Braylon Edwards is doing well. And there is always the 15-30 points of Peyton Manning. Outside that, team owner Roane needs to think trade talks before his team drops a second game in a row.

Last Week’s Ranking: 11

12) The Bottom Dwellers – Ryan Smelley: (0-3) Word out of Cowboy Nation is that people are beginning to root for the Bottom Dwellers to go 0-13. Drew Brees is in the downward spiral that is the Saints. Torry Holt is in the downward spiral that is the Rams. Larry Johnson is the bust of the draft. Even the Bears defense got trounced on. Hell, nothing is going right for this team! Oh wait, they have Jacobi Jones!

Last Week’s Ranking: 10

Cowboy Nation Week 3 Power Rankings

Week 3 Power Rankings:

“Patience is the companion of wisdom” - St. Augustine

After two weeks of play, a handful of preseason contenders find question marks across the board, while some less talented teams have sprinted out of the fantasy gates. Heading into week three, patience is what many owners need a heavy dose of. Cowboy Nation shakes down as follows:

1) The Raging Sherpas – Shea Dixon: (2-0) It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that the team with the #1 pick in the draft is the frontrunner out of the gates. What does come as a surprise is that the Sherpas #1 pick, LT, has a combined 22 points in two weeks of play. Fortunately Tom Brady, Terrell Owens, and Marion Barber III have looked like Week Three Pro Bowlers. Unfortunate for other owners, the rookie Calvin Johnson has scored in both weeks, and consensus fantasy king LT has yet to get his motor running.

2) Shreveport Battlewings – Lou Fleming: (2-0) The second spot is a tough one to grab heading into week three. The Battlewings, who drafted towards the bottom with the 8^th pick, have not seen the desired production out of their Brian Westbrook pick. Throw in the light production of Bulger (relatively speaking) as well as the injury to Brandon Jacobs and Fleming can find some relief in knowing they have yet to drop a game. Questions remain if the streak continues with Julius Jones and Brian Westrook carrying the running game.

3) Hurricane Dean – Dean Mijalis: (1-1) In the opening week of play Dean was just shy of the 100 point mark, and that is with the #2 pick in the draft, Steven Jackson, chipping in a mere 3 points. Marvin Harrison and Burress have been on target, with Burress the surprising hotter of the two. No touchdowns out of either of Dean’s two running backs through two weeks of play is simply a slow start. At 1-1 with underperforming players, Hurricane Dean looks like one of the tougher teams in the league.

4) Walker TX Ranger – Bryan Norris: (2-0) Call it the WAC, CUSA, or even the damn Sun Belt. The Rangers are undefeated, and have dropped over 200 points in two weeks of play. So what’s not to love? For one, no competition. Neither of his opponents have put up over 90 points. Second, Carson Palmer, or for now the Fantasy Colt Brennan, can’t carry this team every week. Nor will Randy Moss be one the league’s top wide out’s all season. On additional negative notes, the Maroney-Peterson combination doesn’t seem lethal for the long run in a league riddled with pairs of top backs, especially given that a rookie won’t remain on pace . A solid kicker in Viniatieri and defense in the Chargers is a bonus for this team. At the same time, a team can’t go all season relying on two heavy hitting point makers. However, the streak could continue against Baby Matrix, a team riddled with question marks, next week. A 3-0 start for the Rangers? It seems far fetched given that just a few weeks ago this team looked like one of the worst in the league.

5) Team Kastanos – Jon Kastanos: (1-1) Kastanos, who picked 11^th in the draft, went back-to-back with his pick of Willie Parker and Willis McGahee. Before Week One, McGahee was shipped out for the #5 pick in the draft, Joe Addai. Addai has produced, but little has come from the team’s WR corps, where the combination of Donald Driver, Santana Moss, and Reggie Brown have produced very little. Andre Johnson, who was shipped out in the McGahee trade, sure would have helped out the cause. For something to chew on, Team Kastanos would be 2-0 right now had they not made the league’s lone trade. To add salt to an open womb, having Johnson and McGahee’s statlines these past two weeks would have also made them the league’s leading scorer. Again, hindsight is always 20/20.

6) WHO DAT – Jason Burklow: (1-1) As mentioned above, Who Dat got the positive edge thus far, production wise, out of the pre-season trade with Team Kastanos. The only negative, red-hot WR Andre Johnson is now out indefinitely with a sprained knee. He is doubtful this weekend, and will probably not be back the following week either. DAT should survive in the mean time with Deion Branch, who had a solid performance in week two. QB Matt Leinart has been so-so points wise. Team owner Burklow has also yet to find a second RB, where both Derrick Ward and Ahman Green have shown solid fantasy production. DAT has no problem offensively thus far, sitting among the leaders in points scored. This team is not slowing down any time soon if things continue to play out as they have.

7) Kirilenko Meets Ivan Drago – Patrick Crawford: (1-1) I know, I know, no love. This team got hit by the Walker TX Ranger wave in Week One, where the Rangers threw down 104 points. But QB Jon Kitna has been Appalachian State Hot, Hot, Hot! Will it last? In a Mike Martz offense, taking Kitna with the draft’s 79^th pick is making Crawford look good. Dropping 111 points in Week Two makes them look better. However, questions remain for a 2^nd solid WR, where Ivan Drago’s 4^th pick in Lee Evans has already seen the bench for Patrick Crayton. With no WR help in sight, Ivan Drago has to hope that LaMont Jordan and Frank Gore remain to pile up points in weeks to come.

8) Greek Mafia – Andrew Mijalis: (0-2) Without a win does not seem like much to brag about in a list of Power Rankings, but Greek Mafia has surely been the shock of the league. On paper, this team came out of the draft red hot. Through two weeks of play, not so much. Vince Young has 32 points through two weeks, which is on par for what Mijalis is looking for at QB. Coaching decisions have also caused questions with the team. The team’s second pick and the 19^th in the draft, Clinton Portis, was benched in Week One for Brandon Jackson. Jackson was outperformed by 11 points. In Week Two, Portis made his first appearance and attributed 12 points in a loss. At the bottom of Mafia’s bench in Week Two, Jamaal Lewis was quietly carrying the ball 28 times for 215 yards and a TD. That’s 27 fantasy points. The decision on the two fantasy RBs to start next week against Ivan Drago will be big. Dropping to 0-3 is a tough hole to crawl out of.

9) Baby Matrix – Andrew Ashby: (1-1) Baby Matrix impressed in Week One. No doubt. Dropping 99 never hurt anyone’s chances of winning. Hasselback played great, and first round pick Travis Henry added some much needed points given the sophomore slump of Reggie Bush, whose 9 points in two weeks don’t combine for more than were he was picked at (a high 13). Fact of the matter is, the Vikings defense will not get 30 points a game probably again all season. That means points must come from elsewhere. And how much longer can the Matrix hold out on Matt Schaub, who is itching to play as the league’s hottest player off the bench.

10) Googly Moogly – Ryan Smelley: (0-2) “The league needs to watch out for Ryan Smelley.” Those were the words that rang from Team Kastanos owner Jon Kastanos during their Monday night match-up, where they were currently tied at 90 points a piece heading into the third quarter of Monday night’s Eagles/Redskins game. And, he’s right. Smelley put up a laughable 42 points in Week One. In fact, only ONE starter scored more than ten points (Torry Holt with 13). However, that does mean that Drew Brees, Larry Johnson, Deuce McAllister, and Darrell Jackson all went for under ten points. In fact, the four only combined for 16 points. This couldn’t happen all season, could it? Well, it happened in Week Two. Brees managed 14 points in a blowout loss, while both Johnson and McAllister stayed under the ten point mark. Holt put up 13 once again, while WR Joey Galloway made up for the lack of points with a monster 25 point game. Don’t expect that to happen every week for Galloway. Nor can you rely on Brees, Johnson, Deuce, and Jackson to never produce. This is a team that it waiting to bust open. The question is, will it come in Week 3 against the powerful Hurricane Dean?

11) Team Beastmode - Daniel Roane: (1-1) Peyton Manning? Check. Kellen Winslow? Check. Patriots defense? Check. And…that’s about it for Beastmode thus far. Sophomore Marques Colston has hit the Saints bump in the road, and Hines Ward isn’t much to talk about as a #2 WR. Then there is Brian Leonard and Maurice Jones Drew. The tandem-back has combined for only 9 points in two weeks of play. Carnell Williams has 24 points alone, and he is sitting on the bench. This team has nothing bright in its future unless Payton gets “Hall of Fame” like on them in a single season, amassing 7 touchdowns a week and winning all of the team’s fantasy games alone. Ain’t happening. Taking Manning with the fourth pick in the draft now seems like a mistake, for Team Beastmode has no running game and has hit a rut with wide receivers. Had he not taken Manning, Jones-Drew, Ward, and Colston Roane’s draft position could have landed him Frank Gore, Tom Brady, Reggie Wayne (or Moss/A Johnson) and Marion Barber III. Sounds like a team that wouldn’t be at the bottom of the fantasy barrel.

12) Intramurals Brother – Matt Conway: (0-2) Uh, oh… The Raichlens are winless. Time for a name change! This team needs a kick in the rear, and Coach Hawkins is just the man for the job. Then again, team owner Matt Conway has seen little in way of production thus far from his draft decisions. Jay Cutler is playing as good of football as he will all season, and his points still aren’t through the roof. Anquan Boldin has had an unexpected sluggish start, but that can also be chalked up to Leinart getting back into the swing of things. And don’t forget they throw to Fitz. Surely, this won’t happen all season for the Raichlens..I mean Brothers. They can get wins back. One thing that they can’t get back is the team’s second pick and the 15^th overall in the draft, where they took a struggling Ronnie Brown. A handful of other RBs and WRs would have dug him out of a hole that Brown can’t get out of. This could be the bust pick of the draft.