Two out of three ain't bad

I have a friend who is a huge sports fan, yet who would prefer if fantasy sports never existed. He was watching the Steelers/Broncos Monday night game from the perspective of a Patriot fan. I, on the other hand, was hoping Rashard Mendenhall would get 11 points and that Ben Roethlisberger would get 9 for my buddy Bill.

Admittedly I was an underdog to win, given that the Broncos had the No. 8 fantasy run defense (and No. 3 in real life). Yet I had my win wrapped up in the third quarter, while Bill sweated out most of the fourth quarter until Big Ben threw a 7-yard completion to keep a drive alive. The last-minute TD only made a 'W' seem not as close as it actually was.

I continue to be snakebitten in my non-dynasty hockey league, scoring the fourth-most points but only to lose to the #1 team last week. In my dynasty league, I held a slight lead for most of the week and maintained throughout. That's a daily transactions nleague, but I didn't have much wiggle room with injuries to Daniel Briere and Shawn Horcoff.

Back to football: I nearly ate crow on my first trade, as my opponent was livin' large on Kurt Warner's 5 TDs and 37 fantasy points. Roddy White, meanwhile, didn't find the end zone. Mendenhall obviously redeemed me from my second big trade, with Calvin Johnson nearly matching Roddy's numbers.

All this means I've moved into a first-place tie with a 5-4 record. If the season were to end today, I'd be the division winner, since I've got the most points among the three. It's so much more enjoyable checking my usual fantasy research sites coming off some Ws.