Here's me, earlier tonight:
Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Marques Colston, Reggie Wayne, Marvin Harrison, Reggie Bush, Deuce McAllister, Joseph Addai, Dallas Clark, Adam Vinatieri, Olindo Mare: If you've got one of these guys, in almost any league, with almost any conceivable roster, you start 'em.
Thinking about starting one of these defenses? Eh... think again.
Wrong. Utterly wrong. Brees: 192 passing yards, two INTs. Colston: 6 for 47. Bush, 12 for 39, with six receiving yards on four catches. McAllister: 39 on 10 carries, with seven by air. I noticed that there was something going on with the Colts defense after the third week in the preseason, but I don't think anybody thought that the Colts would come out and shut down the league's No. 1 offense like this. I certainly didn't.
At least I'm not the only Junior Genius out there. The Colts defense wasn't even on a roster in either one of my leagues.
Colts lessons: 1. The Colts lost four defensive starters, but it may have been addition by subtraction. Jason David, the Colts CB who signed with the Saints, was victimized all night, while the new Colt corners played solid, frustrating Cover 2. And Cato June's replacement, former special teamer Freddie Keiaho, is a football player. 2. Peyton Manning has been the best QB on the planet for years, but he looked like a cold-blooded assassin out there in the second half. 3. This is probably going to fluctuate for a while, but Reggie Wayne looks better than Marvin Harrison right now. Kinda of reminds me of the period when Isaac Bruce was ceding the No. 1 WR mantle to Torry Holt in St. Louis... 4. Joseph Addai is as good as advertised. 5. The Colts are going to pass the Bears in my Power Ranking, barring some superhuman performance by Chicago. And by that I mean Brian Urlacher will have to be able to change the weather and Rex Grossman will have to start melting steel with his mind...
Saints lessons: Actually, I don't want to draw too many lessons
from this one for New Orleans. It was a bad game and they never got
their offense into any kind of rhythm. If they drop another stinker
next week against division foe Tampa, we'll start talking. But let's
face it: Their two best offensive players were Eric Johnson and Aaron
Stecker. And Reggie Bush? Apparently that bathtub-full-of-chili prank by Manning really threw him off his game...
Picks: I had the Colts as a Just Guessing pick to win, but not only did I take the points and the Saints, I listed them as a weekly Best Bet. So 1-0 straight up, 0-1 ATS.
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