There are injuries, weather, bad calls and quarterbacks looking in another direction.

Then there’s DeSean Jackson.

Back at the scene of Brian Westbrook’s infamous sportsmanlike slide that ran out the clock on a win over the Cowboys and ended many a fantasy championship run last season, the Eagles got a Leon Lett-like play from their rookie receiver.

Jackson burned the Dallas defense for an easy long touchdown pass in the second quarter, except that he apparently didn’t get enough practice time in training camp to get used to the NFL rule that in order to score, you have to actually bring the ball with you into the end zone.(I’m not sure exactly what the Pac-10 requires for touchdown status, but I’m looking into it.)

The cocky (and apparently idiotic) second-round pick purposely dropped the ball behind him just before he crossed the goal line, and Wade Phillips’ challenge brought what had been ruled a touchdown back out to the 1-yard line. The Eagles scored on the next play but on a Brian Westbrook run instead. Anyone who started Donovan McNabb or Jackson this week got screwed out of a touchdown.

Of course, Sunday’s late games featured another scenario, whereby referee Ed Hochuli no doubt changed some fantasy outcomes. His horrible ruling that an Jay Cutler fumble was an incomplete pass gave Cutler the chance to throw one more touchdown pass and a two-point conversion pass rather than absorb a turnover. The scores also meant at least eight more points for any fantasy owner who started Broncos receiver Eddie Royal.

These are just a couple of reasons why I almost always end my fantasy advice e-mails with “good luck.”

Tags: brian westbrook, dallas cowboys, desean jackson, donovan mcnabb, fantasy football, football, nfl, philadelphia eagles, wade phillips

This entry was posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 9:15 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.