Week 3

The Eagles match up with the NFL's Island of Misfit Toys today, aka the Oakland Raiders. Fantasy fans spent the offseason cleaning their sheets after wet dreams about Kerry Collins gunning bombs downfield to Randy Moss. Meanwhile Raiders coach Norv Tuner spent the offseason stocking up on Paxil. The Raiders' offense has proven so far to be alternatly electric and ineffective; full of spotty execution and mental mistakes.

This offense will get much of the attention this week as they match up against Jim Johnson's D, but the formula JJ will show Kerry Collins isn't too hard to figure out or interesting. Blitz Collins from random angles, take advantage of the inexperience of Robert Gallery, and let the secondary do their job on Moss just like when he wore Purple. LaMont Jorden might find some daylight without Darwin Walker in the lineup, but even if he gets by rookie Mike Patterson he'll find the Axman right behind.

The more interesting match up is the Eagles' offense with the Raiders D. Interesting if you are an Eagles fan, that is. The Birds could tear this D apart faster than Oakland's Bay Area counterparts got torn up last weekend at the Linc. Assuming TO sees lots of Charles Woodson and double teams, Oakland will be forced to match up their hybrid DE/OLBer's with LJ Smith and Brian Westbrook. LJ is comming off his best game as an Eagle, and he might be able to follow that up with an even bigger game. Facing a combination of Tyler Brayton, Danny Clark, and ex-Eagle Derrick Burgess all day should mean big numbers for 82 and 36. For anyone who doesn't know, the genius behind this hodge-podge D? None other than Rob Ryan, son of the man who walked tall in the Vet almost two decades ago.