Fantasy Football -- Halleluja!

Things are finally starting to turn around for me.

To start things off -- the Yahoo! league with the Minnesota Boys: I finally won my first game. My first victim was Cory, but I consider myself pretty lucky, since he's an excellent running game in Shaun Alexander. It just seemed, on my part, that my guys finally lived up to my expectations for once. Daunte Culpepper finally played a great game -- passing-wise -- but other than that, I really didn't have any stand out players.

Next week, I'm up against Mike -- the battle between 1-6 teams. We've both been struggling all year long, not really finding anything that just clicks, but in the end, hopefully I'll pull out the victory to pick up my second win in a row.

Now, the heartbreakin' league -- the ESPN one with the South Dakota Boys. Let's just say that I should be sitting at 5-2 right now, but instead, I'm 3-4. Weeks 5 and 6 were particularly rough, losing both of those games by a total of 9 points. I could've killed myself -- since it was a situation where I should have played someone else off the bench.

Bye weeks have been the killer. I've been in situations where I had to pick up really point-less players (pun intended) and they, really, would not give me any significant points.

Last week, Week 7, I pulled something off that I cannot even explain. With Tom Brady and Byron Leftwich, both quarterbacks, on bye weeks -- plus Marc Bulger injured -- I was screwed to find a new quarterback for Week 7. I had to sacrifice a position player, so I decided to play with no kicker, which is pretty much the best play in that situation. I picked up Kelly Holcomb, quarterback for the Buffalo Bills.

It all culminated into the Monday night football game between the Atlanta Falcons and the New York Jets. I had T.J. Duckett, running back for the Falcons, plus the Falcons defense. My opponent for Week 7 was completely done, with all of his players completed on Sunday. I was about 18 points behind -- thinking that it's in the bag, then I find out that Duckett is out with a high-ankle injury. "Shit."

So, all of my hopes are resting on the laurels of a strong Falcons defense. Through most of the game, things were going my way. The Falcons managed to sack Jets quarterback Vinnie Testaverde a couple of times, even forcing a few fumbles. The biggest points getter was a fumble returned for a touchdown, which was a crucial 6 points.

But in the end, the Falcons did give up 14 points to the Jets, which equates 1 point for me. After the initial update, ESPN had me losing by 5 points. Again, I was gyped!! To my surprise, I checked the ESPN web site again and they had me up by one win and the win, finishing 107 to 106.

Good fortunes are on my side finally, plus a picked up a few dark horses for next week, so I should be off and running.