On Sunday morning as I was getting the lineup set for my fantasy football team, I was faced with the decision of starting Ahmad Bradshaw or Rashard Mendenhall as my second running back. As I scrolled through recent Twitter updates, I noticed that ESPN’s Bill Simmons was faced with a similar dilemma of Bradshaw or Broncos rookie Knowshon Moreno. He ended up picked Moreno and I decided on Mendenhall, after all, he was coming off a great game last week against San Diego. Now, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but I am a huge Bill Simmons fan. I read his columns religiously and therefore I should have been aware of the Simmons Jinx that was to follow. Here is what he Twittered shortly after making his roster change: “Just spent 20 mins figuring out if I should start Moreno or Bradshaw in fantasy. Went with Moreno. Pencil in Bradshaw for 220 yds + 3 TD’s.” As soon as I saw that tweet, I should have instantly sent Mendenhall to the bench and put in Bradshaw because after that, there’s no way he wasn’t going to have a big game.

Unfortunately, I went with my first instinct, just like my teachers in elementary school used to tell me, and just like I thought, Bradshaw put up these numbers: 11 carries, 110 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 reception for 55 yards. That’s 165 total yards, 2 touchdowns, a total of 32 fantasy points (in my league) and an afternoon of regret. As a matter of fact, Bradshaw scored the first two touchdowns of the game which were, you guessed it, his first two touchdowns of the season. Ahmad had 23 fantasy points before the first quarter was over.

As it turns out, Matt Ryan and Michael Turner went berserk on San Francisco and I ended up winning my fantasy game for the week, but the fact remains, never take fantasy football advice from Bill Simmons (and I mean that in the nicest way possible). Anyway, what the Giants did to the Raiders on Sunday was put their foot on Oakland’s throat right from the start and never let up. At the 12:37 mark in the second quarter, the Giants already had a 28-0 lead and Eli Manning was sent to the sidelines to play coach for the rest of the game while David Carr logged some minutes.

Believe me, the Giants are not known for blowing teams out and scoring 44 points on a regular basis. They are more known for getting the job done, quickly and efficiently, and then running the ball to speed the game up a little. The thing about Sunday’s game though, is that even with Manning out and most of the second team offense in the game, the onslaught continued. This is a testament to the futility of the Oakland Raiders. Never before, in my entire life as a football fan, have I watched a game and actually felt sympathy for the opposing quarterback.  Towards the end of Sunday’s game, with JaMarcus Russell still sailing passes 40 yards over his receivers’ heads and looking absolutely helpless in the continuously collapsing pocket, I couldn’t help but actually feel bad for the guy. It might be the first time I could ever recall feeling sorry for someone who completed 8 passes, fumbled the ball away 3 times, was sacked 6 times and still managed to rake in a million dollars. It’s just that there’s no other way you can describe JaMarcus Russell other than “awful” or “jaw-droppingly horrific” and for him to still have a job as an NFL quarterback when he has thrown a total of 1 touchdown pass in 5 games, intrigues me.

Once I got past my amazement of just how bad the Raiders are, I was able to enjoy this victory and the fact that Eli Manning seemed like his normal, healthy self during the 20 minutes that he did play. Manning was taken out shortly after his 9-yard touchdown pass to Hakeem Nicks gave the Giants a 28-0 lead and after a quarter and a half of play, he finished 8/10 passing for 173 yards and 2 touchdowns. His first touchdown pass was a 30 yarder to Mario Manningham, a beautiful pass that Manning placed right in his receivers hands in the back of the endzone to put Big Blue up 21-0.

The Giants took a 14-0 lead late in the first quarter after Eli Manning found Steve Smith down the near-sideline for a 43 yard completion to set the Giants up at the Oakland 36. The ball was perfectly placed and hit Smith in stride as he pulled in the longest catch of his career. Bradshaw then scored two plays later. New York took the opening drive of the game 77 yards in 14 plays to take a 7-0 lead on Bradshaw’s first touchdown of the game.

It’s probably safe to say that by the third quarter most Giants fans were already looking forward to next week’s super showdown at the Superdome with the New Orleans Saints. It will be a battle between two of the league’s remaining 5 unbeaten teams, the 5-0 Giants and the 4-0 Saints. As Tom Coughlin would say, it’s just one win at a time, one week at a time and next week is the first big test that the Giants will face this season.

Other thoughts from the around the league in Week 5:

• Two teams that emerged this week as possible contenders: The Cincinnati Bengals and the Denver Broncos. Yes, you just read that correctly. The 4-1 Bengals and 5-0 Broncos are having such a huge influx of people jumping on their respective bandwagons that there is now a waiting list.
  
• The Cowboys needed an astronomical day (10 rec. 250 yds. 2 TDs) from Miles Austin, primarily a kick-returner, to barely edge out the 0-5 Chiefs in OT. Not really a huge step in the right direction for Dallas. How Jerry Jones could even contort his plastic face into a smile after watching that game is beyond me.
• With Kansas City’s loss on Sunday, the Redskins will now face a team with no wins for the sixth consecutive game on Sunday. I don’t have the Elias Sports Bureau on speed-dial, but I’m pretty sure that this is first time something like this has happened in NFL history.
• The big, bad Jets defense had no answer for the Dolphins offense last night. Miami ran the Wildcat all over the field, much to the disdain of the Jets new mouthpiece, Bart Scott. Scott and Rex Ryan, who have done enough trash-talking for the entire league this season, shutdown the Wildcat in the playoffs last year when they were both with Baltimore. Newsflash: THIS IS NOT LAST SEASON. Better yet, you don’t play for the Ravens anymore Bart, you play for the Jets, who right now are not even the best team in their own city.