I've been away for this long, and all you're getting is talk about football? I'd be pissed, too. Sorry, Greg.

* As happy as I was that the Pats won their opener, I hope they're not going to look that sluggish all season, especially during this opening part of the schedule. Too early to panic, but I would like to see them get Dillon more running room.

* I got killed in both of my cut-throat games on the opening weekend, as I went with Denver and St. Louis, figuring that playing Miami and San Francisco would be the shortest routes to wins. Whoops. Even worse is that St. Louis was my pick in ESPN.com's eliminator game, meaning that I managed to get knocked out even earlier than last season, when I took Green Bay in week 2.

* I did manage to win my first FFL game of the season, which means I've already gotten 25% of my win total from last year. I managed to overcome my application of strategery that resulted in Curtis Martin starting over Deuce McAlister, which was pretty lucky.

* On the college front, it would make some sort of sense in the season where I've put Notre Dame on personal probation that they'd open the season 2-0 and crack the top 10. I think that's too high too quickly, and their game against Michigan State has classic let-down potential. A week too late for Craig, though.

* Though I suppose Craig was somewhat pleased to see Ohio State lose at home to Texas. In the back of my head a USC-Texas tilt for the national title seems pretty likely, though the Big XII title game is usually ripe for an upset (as Texas should know, given their upset of Nebraska back in the day).

* I was mildly irritated that that team from Newton moved up in the rankings after beating BYU and Army. Not the most challenging start, really, though probably a smart one given that they get to jump right in with Florida State as the welcoming committee to the ACC.

* Can someone at Temple finally give in to reality and drop their program to 1-AA? Please?