NFL Week 3 Wrap-Up: Bills Paid

Another outstanding week in the NFL Survivor Pool saw nearly 2/3 of the pool eliminated before the afternoon games had even begun on Sunday. 43% of the pool held the Buffalo Bills, 9-point favorites against the Raiders in Buffalo, as their Week 3 pick, and – as a roomful of NFL Survivor participants followed the game together within the ‘Discuss’ tab of the Survivor scorecard – the Bills rallied off 17 points in the final eight minutes of the game to win 24-23 on a 38-yd Rian Lindell FG as time expired. Kyle Davis was the last one to make it out of the morning alive when his Giants then dispatched the Bengals in OT. Mike Natelli and Brett Mullin became the Survivor Pool’s 8th and 9th casualties after the Patriots took a shockingly large dump on the field against the Dolphins in New England.

In the USC Division of Fantasy Football, Dan Goldman’s TriCrownThreat claimed Team of the Week honors with a 137-point performance. Goldman’s consistent outing featured five players scoring between 18 and 21 points. The Commish's XFactor rang up the third-highest Week 3 total in the ALACS with 126 points, but experienced its first loss at the hands of TriCrownThreat. Points elsewhere in the USC Division were bipolar in dispersion, with five teams scoring above 117 points and five teams failing to reach 70. Two mid-week trades played a major role in Week 3 USC Division performances. Jon Goldberg took a beating all week in the USC Division for a deal in which he traded Joseph Addai and Chad Johnson to Alex Rosenbloom for Plaxico Burress, Ronnie Brown, and a bag of marbles – but Goldberg had the last laugh on Sunday when Brown’s 5 TDs propelled Ecto Cooler to 117 points. Recently acquired Reggie Bush scored 25 point to push Chris Chasin’s Thugs from Cali into the ALACS weekly Top 10 for the first time. Brendan Meyer’s Roxy Returns continued to pace the ALACS with both the highest overall point total and the best overall breakdown.

Ronnie Brown provided storylines in the GU Division as well – albeit from Jordan Van Horn’s bench. Apparently down on the Miami RB, Van Horn had offered him all over the league leading up to Week 3 but found no takers. According to a Team Van Horn representative who requested anonymity, Jordan has now upped his asking price to a first-string WR. Nate Duckett’s Pilate’s Dog led the GU Division with 130 points, far and away Duckett’s strongest showing of the year. Drew Schoentrup’s BirdShit In Your Eye staged a late comeback to beat Wills Barnes’ Team BigMan 106-104 on the strength of Nate Kaeding’s meaningless FG with 2 minutes left in the MNF game. Tim Hokit's Hail Hokit posted a third consecutive strong week to move into a tie at the top of the GU standings with Mike Marty's One-Eyed Wonder. Hokit has the challenging task of managing a team that has seven byes in Week 4 of the season.

In the LO Division, Kasey McCabe’s AllStar Tards scored their third consecutive win – a shocking development after McCabe was roundly chastised by the league for spending $28 on Eli Manning in the LO Auction. The real story in the LO Division is the consistent dominance of Andrew Gay’s Nutty Poologs, who have rung up totals of 108, 106, and 112 points in the season’s first three weeks, earning Gay a 27-6 record in Breakdown despite trailing the league leader by 27 points overall. The Nutty Poologs stand alone in 1st place after Week 3. Elsewhere around the LO Division, the most exciting matchup of the week pitted Mike Lazar’s 0-2 Laser Boots against Mike Shoff’s 2-0 Harmony Souljaz. The Harmony Souljaz were down 83-81 going into the MNF game that featured Antonio Gates (Souljaz) and Darren Sproles (Boots). On the strength of Sproles’ 7 points, Lazar held on to win 90-89.

In the NFL Pick ‘Em Game, Steve Duin and Billy Schreyer made up for their depressing fantasy football performances – they both are in last place in their respective divisions – by going 12-4 with their Week 3 NFL picks, rocketing them both up the standings. Steve’s 27-19 overall record leads Billy Schreyer and Kyle Davis by one game.

Finally, in the NCAA Pick ‘Em Game, Joe Simich went 5-5 to hold onto a slim lead at the top of the standings. Joe is now 26-14 overall, trailed by Corey Rhodes and Matt Crevier (8-2 in Week 4) who both of whom sit at 25-15.