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This Sunday, there were a few notable plays that happened for the first time this year.

Darren Sproles of the Chargers had the first Kickoff Return TD, and it was a long one. He fielded it in the end zone and returned it 103 yards for a TD. Just a reminder to make sure you have your Length of TD rules set up with a range of 0 to 110 yards, since all of the various Return TD types can be over 100 yards if they start in the end zone.  Reggie Bush of the Saints had a Punt Return TD, but there were two of those last week already, so hopefully your rules already account for these plays.

The Lions scored a Safety without doing much because Derrick Frost, the Punter for the Packers, mishandled the snap on a punt attempt and let the ball go out of the back of the end zone.

Another first time event this week was a Blocked Punt TD when the Titans blocked a punt attempt by Kyle Larson of the Bengals. Keith Bulluck blocked it and then fell on it in the end zone to score the touchdown. Note that if you set up your Team Defense scoring to include the Number of Defensive TDs rule, it only includes Interception and Fumble Return TDs by default. So you’ll want to add the Blocked Punt TD and Blocked Field Goal TD rules if you want this TD to be included in your team defense scoring, or you can add the Number of Defensive and Special Teams TD rule, which includes all of these types: Interception and Fumble Returns TDs, Blocked Punt and Field Goal TDs, and Punt and Kickoff Return TDs. And this is another example of a 0 yard TD, so make sure your “Length of” TD type of rules start at 0 yards instead of 1 yard.

There were actually two of these types of blocked kick scoring plays on Sunday. Jason Baker also had a punt attempt blocked by Darrell McClover, and then Brandon Lloyd of the Bears recovered it and returned it for a 9 yard Blocked Punt TD.

Last but not least, this week was the first time some 2 point conversions were successfully executed. The Colts scored a 2 point rush when Dominic Rhodes carried it in. Then the Chargers, Chiefs, and Broncos each scored a successful 2 point pass.

The NFL has made it official as of Saturday evening:  The originally scheduled game for Week #2 between the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans has been canceled for Week #2, and it will rescheduled for Week #10.

Therefore, the Ravens and Texans both have a BYE in Week #2.  This information has been updated on MyFantasyLeague.com now, and a message has been posted for all owners and commissioners to view at the top of their league home page, so hopefully all of the team owners with players from the Ravens and Texans can get their lineup submitted again without any players from those teams.

The NFL has announced a schedule change for the Ravens-Texans game this weekend.

Here is the official statement from the league:

“Due to the importance of allowing the Houston area to focus on its recovery from the expected arrival of Hurricane Ike on Friday, the Houston Texans’ home game Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens has been re-scheduled for Monday night at Reliant Stadium at 7:30 p.m. Houston time (8:30 p.m. ET). The game originally was scheduled to be played on Sunday, Sept. 14 at 3:15 p.m. Houston time (4:15 p.m. ET).

The NFL schedule for your league on MyFantasyLeague.com has been updated to reflect this change, so you don’t need to do anything different except possibly to make your starting lineup decisions if your league has gametime lineup deadlines.

Just like the NFL can be a game of inches, Fantasy Football can be a game of inches when the week is done and you find out your team lost by 1 lousy point. Or worse, if you are in a league that uses decimal scoring, you could lose by one tenth of a point! It’s agonizing when you are on the wrong end of a close game like that. But depending on your league’s bylaws with regard to the official stats, there might be a change in your score long after the Monday night game is in the record books. Why? Read on…

There’s a somewhat hidden truth in the stats for fantasy football: Official NFL Stat Corrections. Every week, a couple of days after all of the games are final and your fantasy scores have been calculated, the Elias Sports Bureau (which is the official statistician for the NFL) reviews all of the games on tape and sometimes issues official stat corrections if needed.

For example, one of the most common stat changes occurs when a sack is awarded to a defensive player that wasn’t originally credited with the sack during the game. This can happen when the wrong player’s number was written down as part of the official scoring during the game. It can also happen when a head coach appeals the ruling on a play and asks for it to be reviewed by Elias. Another relatively common example is when a passing play is changed to a rushing play (or vice versa) because after reviewing the tape, the Elias Sports Bureau determines that the pass was actually a backwards lateral instead of a forward pass. In other words, nothing is truly final until the Elias Sports Bureau has a chance to review it. And that takes time. Often several days, and sometimes even longer depending on the situation.

So this presents a dilemma for fantasy football leagues. Unfortunately, there is no set date or deadline for corrections to be made, so they can happen anytime. Granted, the games are usually reviewed within a couple of days, and by Wednesday or Thursday, any significant stat corrections will be made available to the various stat providers and passed along to fantasy sites like MyFantasyLeague.com at that time. Therefore, as soon as we are made aware of any official change, we work with our stats providers to verify the changes and then post them on your For Commissioners > Statistic Changes menu. From there, you can review all of the changes that were made, and decide whether or not to apply them to your league. You can also choose to apply all changes automatically each week.

Back to the dilemma. If your league decides to accept the official stat corrections, it could very well change the outcome of a fantasy game in your league… As in, two or three days after your league’s standings have been updated… As in, two or three days after a team in your league has been celebrating and trash talking about squeaking out a hard fought 1 point victory… As in, from the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat, all because somebody reviewed a play and decided it was scored incorrectly during the game… As in, this could get ugly unless your league has agreed to a hard and fast set of bylaws on how to deal with official stat corrections!!! So it’s time to make sure that loophole is closed for your league. Decide now whether or not you will be accepting stat corrections for your league, and then stick to your decision. We give you the option of whether or not to incorporate stat changes into your league. It’s up to you to decide if you want to accept the changes and also accept the consequences that go with it later in the week. For example, if a stat change results in a change of a win to a loss (or vice versa) for some teams, that could also affect your waiver wire order, and therefore affect how the latest hot free agent player is awarded.

For what it’s worth, stat corrections are much more common on the defensive side of the ball, especially for leagues with IDPs (Individual Defensive Players) that award points for sacks and tackles. Significant changes don’t happen nearly as often for offensive players. Ironically, though, here in 2008 Week #1, there were a couple of changes in rushing and passing stats. The most notable is Jay Cutler, who originally was recorded as throwing for 299 yards. But after reviewing the game film, it was determined that he actually had 300 yards of passing. For most leagues, that’s going to mean a potentially significant change in fantasy points for Cutler.

So there you have it. Hopefully your league has already discussed this issue. If not, it might be time to bring it up! You can use your league message board, or create a league poll, to discuss it. We’ll talk more about these fun communication tools in a future post!

The scoring rules are perhaps one of the most important parts of any league.  Even with thousands of fantasy football leagues on MyFantasyLeague.com, there probably aren’t any two leagues that are exactly identical as far as the scoring rules.  This makes each league unique, but it can also cause confusion and controversies about how a stat should be scored, or how a scoring play should be interpreted.

To help with that issue, we highlight and document every strange or unusual play each week, so you con confirm that your rules have been properly set up in your league.  Just go to the “Help > Strange Plays” menu item in your league to view the summary each week.

This week’s “controversy” for a lot of leagues involved the “fake” field goal that resulted in a Passing TD for the Bills.  As noted in our strange plays summary, this is scored by the NFL and shows up in any typical box score as just a regular passing TD.  Therefore, the stats are scored that way for your league.  The NFL does not track “fakes” or other events like this at all, so there isn’t any automatic way to have it scored for your league as a special type of touchdown.  The raw stats and the box score for this will always just show it as a passing TD play.   It does show Brian Moorman (punter) as the person that threw the pass, but that is really the only indicator that it was an unusual play, unless you scrutinize the play-by-play listing to see what exactly happeend on that touchdown.

If you want this touchdown to be counted as a TD for your Punter position, then be sure to add “Passing TDs” as an option for your Punters.  However if you want to score this as a TD for your Special Teams or Team Defense position, then you will have to manually track this type of “fake” play and add it using the “Setup > Adjust Scores and Standings > Player Score Adjuster” screen in your league.  You don’t want to add the Passing TD rule to your Special Teams position, because otherwise it will count all Passing TDs for the entire team.

So the bottom line is that “fake” plays, either on a punt or kickoff, are not tracked as a raw stat by the NFL, so therefore they cannot be scored automatically for your fantasy football league.  Our recommendation is to treat them like any other passing TD rather than trying to find them each week and score them as a special teams play.

Kickoff is almost here!  Where did the summer go?  Now that your draft is complete, it’s time to set your starting lineup and go after that crucial first win of the season for your fantasy team.  If you’re looking for guidance and advice, we have just the thing for you…

Check out the FantasySharks.com Lineup Coach. It is available right from your Starting Lineup page.  Just click on the link at the top of that page and you’ll be taken to the lineup coach.   It uses our Open Developer’s API to fetch league information for your specific league, including the scoring rules and starting lineup requirements.  Then it combines that data with the weekly player stat projections from FantasySharks.com and ultimately makes recommendations about which player to start or bench this week.  Very cool stuff!  It also displays current injury information along with a short comment about each player.

Note that this feature is part of the “Fantasy Links” section of your league, so if you don’t see the link to the LineupCoach, be sure to ask your commissioner to turn that option on in the “For Commissioners > Setup > Menu Setup” screen (it is on by default).

With only 2 days left before kickoff, most leagues have already drafted and are starting to submit their lineups for Week #1.  But there are still quite a few leagues that conduct their fantasy football draft on these last two nights.

So we wanted to give one more reminder to all of those commissioners that will be running a live draft on MyFantasyLeague.com — the Pause Timer link is your best friend!  If you are in a live draft, and someone makes an incorrect pick, or loses their internet connection, or anything else unexpected, then start by doing the following:

Click on the Pause Timer button in the Live Draft Room (only the commissioner has access to this option).

Then calmly figure out how to resolve the issue - for example, you can use the Undo Pick button to change a pick that was made in error.  Then after everything is up and running again, you can use the Reset Timer link to resume drafting as normal.

Just some last minute advice to help your draft in the case of a crisis! 

There’s another great resource of customized fantasy football rankings available to you for your fantasy draft.  Check out the MFL Power section of the FFToday.com web site.  Mike MacGregor has used our Open Developer’s API to create a customized cheat sheet for your league.  Just enter your 5-digit League ID from your league on MyFantasyLeague.com, and then it does the rest of the work for you.  Their system imports your league scoring rules and rosters (in case you have a keeper or dynasty league), and then it combines that with their stat projections to generate a customized cheat sheet for your draft!

In addition to a draft cheat sheet during the preseason, they also have MFL Power tools for in-season weekly rankings, and for customized player news and injury information for your fantasy team.  Be sure to check it out.

One of the most powerful reports that is jam-packed with options is our Top Performers/Player Stats report.  You can access it from the “Reports > Players > Top Performers” menu item. Right now, since the season hasn’t started yet, it shows the top performing players based on your league’s scoring rules for all of last season.  You can see, at a glance, the players that scored the most points in your league last year, broken down by week.  There are controls at the top to change the time frame, or the number of players to display, as well as selections for showing just a specific fantasy team and a specific position.  And you can click on almost any of the column headers at the top of the report to sort by that column.  If you want to limit the report to just fantasy free agents that are available to be picked up, you can do that as well by changing the “Overall” pull down menu.

But that is only the beginning!  You can also click on the Advanced Search link that is just to the right of all of the pull down selection boxes.  After you click, you’ll see a whole new selection of controls.  From here, you can choose more than one position, or more than one fantasy team to display at the same time.  In addition, you can show the raw stats instead of the weekly fantasy point totals by changing the “Fantasy Point Scorers” pull down list.  For example, if you select “Rushers” from that list, then it will show all of the common rushing stats for the players on the report, such as rushing attempts, rushing yards, rushing TDs, and fumbles lost.  It will also show the receptions, receiving yards, and receiving TDs.  Other selections include “Passers” and “Receivers” as well as “Kickers“, “Returners“, and “Defenders.”

The other additional option on the Advanced Search screen is the NFL Team pull down list.  With that option, you can choose to view all players from just one NFL team if needed.  All versions of this report will show a player’s status, so you know right away if a player is available to be picked up on the waiver wire, or who to propose a trade with.  There are also quick links to initiate a trade or make a waiver move.  And the Bye week of the players is displayed as well, along with the salary and contract if you have a salary cap league.

So be sure to check out this report and give it a work out!  We’ve also recently added a couple of extra “quick links” to this report from the “Reports > Players” menu.  The new “Top Passers“, “Top Rushers“, and “Top Receivers” menu items take you directly to the Advanced Search version of this report with some preselected options.

With the busiest fantasy football drafting weekend behind us, it’s time for most leagues to settle in and start analyzing how well their draft went. For team owners, this means taking a close look at your roster compared to the other rosters in the league to figure out the strengths and weaknesses. It’s the last chance to brag about your awesome team that you just drafted before the reality of Week #1 hits and your roster is put to the test in a real-life game. So with that in mind…

We’d like to introduce the “Draft Recap” report! It’s a tongue-in-cheek analysis of your league’s draft, based mostly on the ADP Rankings we discussed yesterday. In other words, it looks at the players you drafted and which round and pick you selected them, and then compares that to the overall average round and pick that those players were selected in by all the other leagues at MyFantasyLeague.com. It’s a quick and dirty way to compare how well your team did in the draft on a relative scale compared to the others.

The best part is that we’ve taken it a step further by throwing in some random quotes about the draft, and turning it into a fun recap that should hopefully provoke some trash talking amongst your owners here during the rest of the pre-season. So give your Draft Recap a look. You can access it from the “Reports > League > Draft” screen by clicking on the “Draft Recap” link at the top of that page.

Here’s a sample excerpt from a Draft Recap:

Coach Jeff Smith had an impressive showing in the recent 2008 fantasy draft. Their Fighting Tigers franchise came away feeling exuberant about their top grade in the league based on analysis by MyFantasyLeague.com.

The Fighting Tigers made their best pick of the draft in round 3, selecting Tony Romo with the 27th pick of the draft, as compared to the 16th spot he should have been selected in, according to ADP rankings. “You draft the best available player,” Fighting Tigers coach Jeff Smith said.

They made their worst pick of the draft in round 4, selecting Selvin Young with the 46th pick of the draft, as compared to the 64th spot he should have been selected in, according to ADP rankings. “He’s a project,” Fighting Tigers coach Jeff Smith said.

Keep in mind that this report is intended as harmless entertainment, and is not by any means a thorough technical analysis of your league’s draft. Hopefully your owners will get a kick out of the report and enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed concocting it
Also be aware that this report is still in a developmental stage, so we’ll continue to enhance it for next season. As it stands right now, it is primarily intended for standard redraft leagues. It does not really read well for keeper or dynasty leagues with rookie-only drafts, and therefore it does not show up as an option for those types of leagues.