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.