Week 1 Recaps
Hellions swagger past Bock Boys
The Champs begin their title defense in grand fashion, and two dramatic Monday night comebacks punctuate Kickoff Weekend. All this and more in...

The Week That Was in Fantasy League Football

Picking up where they left off in 2000, the Western Division and Super Bowl Champion Irwin Hellions had their way - yet again - with Thomas' Bock Boys at Purgatory Field. Edgerrin James and Curtis Martin combined for a commanding 23 points on the ground, and Jimmy Smith proved he was fully recovered from his offseason surgery with a two TD, 12 point performance. The Bock Boys, by contrast, struggled mightily on offense. Having lost Robert Smith and Jamal Lewis during the offseason, the Bock Boys drafted four running backs to try to reestablish a ground game. Of those four picks, only Priest Holmes saw action against the Hellions, and was held to 1 point. Daunte Culpepper, largely responsible for getting the first-year Bock Boys to the playoffs last year, had a rough 3-point outing that featured four turnovers. Amani Toomer provided the only real offense for Thomas, posting an impressive 10-point effort Monday night. The Boys' Eagle defense posted a respectable 13 points-against, but were again outmatched by Irwin's Buccaneer squad, which stripped Thomas of 18 points. In a stunning statistic, the average margin of victory for Irwin's three home wins over Thomas is a staggering 40 points.

Jody's 2001 campaign started with an inspired come-from-behind home victory over the division rival Stereco. Heading into Sunday night, the C.W.O.T. trailed Sims by 18 points, thanks largely to big games by the Stereco's Ricky Williams (9 points) and Albert Connell (7). Aside from Tim Brown and his 10-point game, the rest of Jody's offense struggled to put additional points up. So, like they have so many times before, the C.W.O.T. turned to their Dolphin defense to get them back into the game. The Fish did not disappoint, posting 16 points to bring Jody to with two heading into Monday Night. If they were to win their first game since Week 8 of last season, the Stereco would need Tiki Barber to outduel the C.W.O.T.'s Kerry Collins in primetime. Yet it was not to be, as a confident and aggressive Collins threw his way past Barber 14-4 to complete the comeback, securing the defending Eastern Division Champions their fourth opening day victory.

Jody's inspired come-from-behind victory notwithstanding, the largest rally of the weekend belongs to the Piana Raze, who trailed the freshly renamed P.W.O.P. by 23 points heading into Monday night. It was then that Piana's Bronco triumvirate of Brian Griese (16 points), Jason Elam (7), and Terrell Davis (5) posted a staggering 28 unanswered points to upend the Profiteer$ and score and important divisional road win. Despite being tagged with their third consecutive opening day loss, P.W.O.P. had to be pleased with the production of their top two draft picks. Second-overall pick Ahman Green rumbled to 13 points and kicker Joe Nedney contributed another 6 in the loss. The Profiteer$ also debuted their new Oakland Raider defense (acquired after the draft), but they were upended by Piana's stellar Saints squad 21-13. The win was Piana's fourth on opening day.

Perhaps finally avenging their Super Bowl III defeat at the hands of the Brewmeisters, the Abstract Machines outgunned Anderson in Week 1's only interdivisional matchup. The Machines dynamic ground duo of Marshall Faulk and Corey Dillon blew past Anderson's duo of Fred Taylor and Duce Staley 19-9, and Elvis Grbac outdueled Peyton Manning 8-7 in his Machines' debut. Yet it can be argued that the true deciding factor of the game was on defense, where the Machines' Rams squad - so awful a year ago - blitzed past the Brew Crew's heralded Mighty Titan team 19-9. As if an opening home loss wasn't bad enough, Anderson's kamikaze receiver Ed McCaffrey fractured his leg upon turning in an 8-point game, and is likely gone for the season.

In the most defensive game of the week, the now Naughty Figs continued their unexplained domination over The Pimps to post their first ever opening day win. The Figs received solid outings from Lamar Smith (11 points), Jamal Anderson (7), Rich Gannon (7), and the Ravens defense (15); all of which were needed to overcome The Pimps' 24-point defensive effort turned in by the Packers. Yet The Pimps offense was mostly horrid, punctuated by Jeff George's self-destructing minus(-)5 point effort. Rod Smith's 10 points Monday Night were needed just to avoid the shutout. The five points were the fewest scored by The Pimps since they scored six in a 6-4 victory over Piana in Week 6 of 1999. This marks the seventh regular season loss in eight weeks for The Pimps, whereas the Naughty Figs have now won six of their last eight games.