SI.com Experts League: Week 1 recap

By James Quintong, SI.com

While everyone was excited to see the NFL season finally kick off, the first week of action in the SI.com Experts League provided few fireworks and a surprising number of routs. Only one matchup was really close, and even that was marred by some second thoughts when setting starting lineups. Just like many other fantasy leagues, those who had Marshall Faulk and LaDainian Tomlinson were sunk in Week 1.

For a refresher on the owners and their teams, click here. For reference, this league uses the traditional scoring system on the Fantasy Football game.

Here are this week's standings and how the games played out:

Joe Levit 89, Mike Nazarek 84: Levit's team seemed to put things away with the late afternoon games thanks to big performances from Jeff Garcia (24 points) and Shaun Alexander (23), making up for a four-point performance from Marvin Harrison. However, Nazarek tried to make a late push Sunday night as Charlie Garner (19) and Derrick Mason (15) came up with nice games but not enough for a win. Unfortunately, he left Joey Galloway's 19 points on the bench in favor of Curtis Conway's two. Plus, Marshall Faulk had just four points, and the Dolphins defense had no points at all. It couldn't even record one sack against a quarterback who went down a record 76 times last year.

Bob Harris 93, Ryan Houston 67: Not much of a contest here. Harris had six players in double digits, led by Daunte Culpepper's 21 and Torry Holt's 17. Of his backs, receivers and tight ends, only Quincy Morgan (1) failed to score a touchdown. Houston had a big game from Randy Moss (21), but No. 1 overall pick LaDainian Tomlinson had just five points, sinking his team like many others this weekend.

Duane Cross 93, Dave Gawron 74: Much like the Falcons, Cross did just fine without Michael Vick. But he did it with Joey Harrington, who lit it up for 19 points against the woeful Cardinals, and doubled up with Charles Rogers (16) and his two touchdowns. Add a team-high 21 points from Garrison Hearst, and you've got a solid week. Gawron started Peyton Manning, who did little this week with eight points, while Steve McNair (17) and even Jon Kitna (13) scored more points. That blunted great games from Travis Henry (23) and Tiki Barber (15), who was cheated out of a goal-line touchdown by Brian Mitchell, of all people. Tim Brown (12) was on the bench in favor of Jerry Rice (4), but given last year's numbers, that's to be expected.

James Quintong 95, Richard Harris 68: Priest Holmes (29) cleared up many doubts with a huge game, but it was the play of Chris Chambers (24) that really made the difference for my team and compensated for mediocre outings from Donovan McNabb (10) and Curtis Martin (4). Harris had an excellent outing from Hines Ward (21), an double-digit efforts from Jamal Lewis (12), Fred Taylor (12) and Matt Hasselbeck (12). Unfortunately, Taylor and Lewis scored no TDs and Hasselbeck didn't throw for many yards. Plus, Tony Gonzalez (1) was a bust with just 18 yards receiving.

Sam Lubeck 82, Ryan Hunt 59: Lubeck was boosted by Clinton Portis' 27 points and Aaron Brooks' 13, and had even more points sitting on the bench with Jay Fiedler (18) and the Giants defense (20). Hunt had nice games from Ahman Green (23) and Kurt Warner (16) -- remember that interceptions, fumbles and concussions don't count against the final score -- but the next highest-scoring players was the Bucs defense at seven points. No one else had more than three points, including Peerless Price (3), David Boston (2) and Corey Dillon (3).

Kirk Bouyelas 72, Corey Roberts 64: Ricky Williams (18), Joe Horn (14) and, surprise, Jason Elam (13) put up the big stats for Bouyelas, making up for Tom Brady's (4) awful performance. Thankfully, interceptions don't count against him. Roberts' squad had a decent outing from Rich Gannon (16), but studs like Terrell Owens (11), Amani Toomer (9), Edgerrin James (8) put up yards but just couldn't find the end zone.

James Quintong is Fantasy Sports Producer at SI.com