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After 33 years of futility, frustration and failure, the Arizona Cardinals have officially earned the title of “CHAMPIONS.” Thirty-three years!?! How significant is that? Well consider that only four players on the roster were even alive the last time the Cardinals won their division. Current head coach Ken Whisenhunt, who should be nicknamed ‘Savior’, was not even a teenager yet and current coordinators, Todd Haley and Clancy Pendergast, were most likely perfecting their multiplication tables. So what’s the point? It’s been a really long time since the Cardinals could call themselves Champions and we won’t even go into how long it’s been since they hosted a playoff game (1947, for the record).

As for yesterday’s game, the Arizona Cardinals did what they had to do to get a win. It wasn’t the best game that the Cardinals have played but it was effective. Kurt Warner had another great game, completing over 72% of his passes for a touchdown and an interception. He spread the ball around evenly with Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin and Steve Breaston each registering at least five receptions and combining for 225 yards. Those three guys have already made their case for being the best trio in the league and they just cement themselves as the pinnacle of the NFL every week. As for the defense, all they did was hold the Rams to 10 points, force three turnovers and score two touchdowns of their own. They didn’t get a ton of pressure on Bulger but they forced two Steven Jackson fumbles and held the Rams’ running game to just 85 yards on 24 carries (3.4 ypc).

For the Arizona Cardinals the practice report is pretty good considering their 10 games into the season. Mike Gandy and Clark Haggans are the only ones who didn’t practice at all because of injuries, but both are expected to play. Roderick Hood, one of the biggest question marks for Sunday, missed practice to attend a funeral. Darnell Dockett and Travis LaBoy were limited. The best news is that Eric Green, who been slowed by a gimpy knee went through a full practice. Green’s health will be very important if Hood’s unable to go on Sunday.

As for the Giants, Brandon Jacobs, Aaron Ross, Chase Blackburn didn’t practice at all and Gerris Wilkinson was limited. It’s sounding more and more like Jacob is probably going to play on Sunday as he expected to practice tomorrow.

The Arizona Cardinals are roughly a day and a half from taking center stage in a primetime game against the San Francisco 49ers. We’ll take on last look at what the Cardinals have to do on MNF tommorow but for now here’s what the injury situation of both teams look like.

The worst news for the Cardinals, depending on how you look at it, is that Eric Green is probably the farthest from playing right now. He couldn’t practice on Friday and is officially listed as questionable, but this could have been what led to all the speculation on Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie making his first start. Green was the only guy who couldn’t practice. Leonard Pope went through a full practice for the first time in weeks and is officially listed as questionable. As for the rest of the guys, Ben Patrick, Travis LaBoy and Mike Gandy are questionable while Sean Morey and Jerame Tuman are probable. Larry Fitzgerald was removed from the injury report. Hopefully we’ll get one last update from the Cardinals tommorrow.

As for the Niners, Dashon Goldson, Arnaz Battle and Barry Sims are still being ruled out for the game. Roderick Green is questionable while Jonas Jennings, Ray McDonald and Delanie Walker are probable.

Nine weeks into the first full Fantasy Football season I have ever played, and I am The Man. Don’t know how I have done it, quite honestly, but Big Blue View is lording over Division I in our little Fantasy squabble.

Here are how things stack up, overall.

1. My Team (9-0) — Somebody beat this guy, already. Nobody goes unbeaten around here.
2. Benwa’s Boys (6-3) — Dude’s got Drew Brees. What more does he need?
3. Big Blue View (6-3) — Yours truly is chugging along nicely. Oh, and I would like to thank those of you who have dropped Plaxico Burress, Tony Gonzalez and Philip Rivers into my lap.
4. Tyree’s Helmet (4-5) — Might be the only Tyree who sees action this year.
5. Body By Mangino (4-5) — You can try, but you aren’t catching me.
6. The Ron Dayne Experience (3-6) — Predictably bad. How can a team named ‘Ron Dayne’ anything expect to be good?
7. The Blue Gunners (3-6) – Latest victim of Big Blue View.
8. Who’s The Boss (1-8) –’NyerinKY’ started this season by trying to trash talk me. Shoulda known better!

Just because the Cardinals are on a bye, doesn’t mean that the fantasy world stops. We’re still rolling on in week six of the season and the standings are still pretty tight. Generically named, Division 1 is seperated by just a game and division two is also pretty close. Certainly no one is out of the running and a couple of good weeks can put any team in the lead. Keep up the good work guys.

Week 5 is quickly approaching so don’t forget to set your lineups. Injuries and ineffectiveness are playing havoc with peoples rosters so don’t forget to check back early and often. There are also several teams on their bye weeks so make sure you’ve got a full lineup. The race is tight in Division 1 and in Division 2 we’ll have to make sure that Shaunzy doesn’t run away with it.

As always, fantasy rocks and GO CARDINALS!!!

Well one week of fantasy football is in the books and several owners are already dealing with major injuries and/or poor early game performances. A total of 16 personel moves have went down since the Broncos finished thier beat down of the Oakland Raiders. Here’s how the matchups played out:

Shaunzy’s Steelers jumps all over No. 7′s Beer Bong 134.45 to 57.05

Shaunzy, our only non-Cardinal fan of the group, struck gold with McNabb, Gore and Burner Turner combining for over 100 points. Burress also chipped in with a nice game he could have the best backfield in the league with ‘Fast’ Willie Parker on the bench. #7 was done in by Carson Palmer’s pathetic performance and the 5 points put up by Wes Welker didn’t help much either. He also had a decent running back on the bench as rookie, Chris Johnson scored over 18 points.

Rosenhaus’ Payday beats Down Red Zone 95.9 to 82.3

Rosenhaus got a great game from his runningbacks (MBIII & Reggie Bush) as they combined for over 46 points, but what put them over the top was a 12 point game from his kicker (John Kasay). He’ll definitely need better games from Bulger and Holt though to stay successful. Red Zone got a good game from Romo, Hines Ward and TO but he was ultimately done in by a poor game from Maurice Jones Drew and his defense, the Vikings. A better game by those two could have made this a much closer matchup.

BHC Monsoon squeaks by Disgruntled Boldin 94.25 to 91.05

The closest game of the week came down to three of the least glamorous fantasy positions, tight end, kicker and defense. BHC’s trio combined for 24.7 while Boldin’s trio combined for only 12.8. Both teams should be solid though considering that they got good production from skill positions and have solid benches.

Danish Beserk’s smothers Dockett’s Unsportmanlike Conduct 85.45 to 64.15

Danish got solid contributions from top to bottom with Big Ben, LT and Reggie Wayne leading the way. This could be a dangerous team when Brandon Marshall is added to the mix. Dockett was done in by almost everyone except Peyton. Poor performances from Dallas Clark (-.5), Chad Johnson err Ocho Cinco (2.2) and Marvin Harrison (6.6) helped lead to the low point total.

Smooth Like Butta lucks by Boogatt66 72.65 to 43.1

In the ‘WTF’ game of the week, Boogatt lost two starters for the season (Brady and Burleson) and Willis McGahee was a late scratch. With Boogatt limping towards the finish line, SLB won with a less than impressive finish. Boogatt has decent depth on the bench and has already picked up Matt Cassell to compete with another Matt (Hassel-bad-back) for the starting job. SLB will have to get better performances from his wide receivers (Santonio Holmes & Braylon Edwards combined for less than 4 points) in success in his future.

For all of those anxiously awaiting the start of the regular season and thus the start of the fantasy football season, wait no more. With the Redskins and Giants kicking off tonight, make sure that you’ve got your rosters set and are ready to have a great season. This is our inaugural season but that doesn’t mean that we can be highly successful. If anyone has  problems please let me know (cgolden36@gmail.com) and as always….GO CARDINALS!!!

Revenge of the Birds may still be in the infant stages but the future is bright and our first season wouldn’t be complete without our very own fantasy football league. Thanks to AOL Fanhouse and Fleaflicker, we’ve got a great platform for our first league. Once all the teams get signed up, we’ll talk about how and when to hold the draft. If anyone has any ideas or preferences, please comment here and/or e-mail me (cgolden36@gmail.com) and we can talk about it. We’ve got members from the US and overseas so it might be difficult to get everyone together for a live draft, but we won’t close the book on that completely just yet. The way that I understand it, we can pre-rank players and have an automated draft so that’s an option as well. Anyways welcome to ROTB’s first season of fantasy football and remember to stay with your team throughout the season (there might just be a nice Cardinals-related gift out there for the winner). Stay tuned and we’ll get thing kicked off very soon…

Charles Golden

Revenge of the Birds.com

Join the Revenge of the Birds fantasy league for a chance to beat the SBNation blogger. At the end of the fantasy season, the blogger may even decide to publish YOUR post on Revenge of the Birds. Or there may be other prizes — check this page and your favorite SBNation blog regularly for details. Click on the Register Now button in the left sidebar and choose which league (Revenge of the Birds) you want to join. It’s quick and easy. But don’t wait! We’ll be selecting the league participants at the end of the month.