Going Off

Matt Forte
Arian Foster
LeSean McCoy
Jahvid Best
Hakeen Nicks

The season is going to be full of these types of performances - early explosive games from mid-tier players that can either be the birth of a superstar or an aberration that disfigures a player's stats at season end. Scoring 3 touchdowns in a week is tremendous, but if a player finishes with 8 touchdowns, it can hide what might have been some mediocre other weeks.

This war vet is always capable of going off.
See? He goes off like Arian Foster.

This is not to say that the above list is filled with mediocrity because those are all good, breakout players. Instead, I aim to focus on week 3. Who will be the surprise players to explode this week? It is virtually impossible to be right about these things - and picking Ray Rice or Maurice Jones-Drew is hardly noble - but it is fun to speculate.

QB Alex Smith
HB Fred Jackson
WR Devery Henderson, Roy Williams
TE Brent Celek
D Ravens, Bengals

I think Smith has some confidence and a chance to put together one of his late season games from last year. I thinking he throws a couple in, but this prediction is about that elusive third throwing touchdown.

Fred Jackson looks good when he runs. Many things would have to go right for this to be a good prediction, but I can imagine scoring from 8 yards out. Then later from 6. And tacking a garbage touchdown on late in the game. I have a pretty delusional imagination. Seriously, my dreams are almost always futuristic first-person Japanese video games.

I picked two WRs because I am in charge. both can score, but that is not what I'm looking for - these are not meant to be sleeper picks in the traditional sense. The Cowboy offense is being hyped this week. I've seen a prediction that Romo throws for four hundred yards. My dreams aren't that fantastic, but I can see scoring in this shootout, so Austin and some others make good fantasy plays. Still, I'm going with the mercurial Roy Williams. I am envisioning some guy in a bar laughing away the afternoon and drunkenly pointing out over and over again that Roy Williams has two - "no wait now three!" - touchdowns. Then the poor guy goes home and finds out that his opponent was short on wideouts and had Williams in there. It happens every week.

"Trust me, I'm Tony Romo, I know what I'm doing."

Devery Henderson is my Saint receiver of the week. I heard some crazy stat that he and Brees are third all time on the list of QB/WR tandems with the most 25+ yard touchdown. The list includes Brady and Moss, and Romo and Owens. Impressive. I'm saying that he does it twice on Sunday.

It's hard with the defenses to not go matchups, but I thought I'd put two because the Ravens just look mean and I think they get a little primal this weekend. The Bengals is actually a trap pick. The Panthers will probably gut them even though they have not been effective yet, but I'm going to say that the Cinci defense bottles up the run enough to make Clausen look new.

"Mmmm, see? My kisses make you sneeze Adderall. I'm the Jesus of study drugs."

Some (read: all) of these predictions are likely not going to happen as I've said they would. Nonetheless, they are interesting and fun to imagine, and that is how my Mantasy lives. It bathes in a tub of pipe-dreams and dries off with empty Wonka Bar wrappers. When it has no papers, my Mantasy rolls discarded scratch lotto tickets, and eats free Play Station 3 vouchers when it gets the munchies. My Mantasy is, for lack of a better word, hopeful. It is best to let it be so. I would never tell you that your Mantasy is misbehaving, because if you have one, you know how bad that would feel. A Mantasy is to a fantasy owner what a daemon is to a character from the Golden Compass - separating one from the other is just cruel. James Cameron based his Ikran upon his Mantasy, and rightfully so, they are majestic creatures, but hard to handle. Each Mantasy must be tamed in order to be flown, but once a pairing has been made, it is a sacred bond that must be respected and cultivated like a bonsai tree.

Don't tell my Mantasy that the contest is over. It hates losing.

Ride on, my Mantasy owners. Until the end of week 3, you all might have this week's Arian Foster or Jahvid Best. Or Chris Johnson will lead all scorers once more. Who knows?