New England Patriots  38, Miami Dolphins 24

Another opening day, another passing record for Tom Brady (520 total yards, 4 TDs, 1 INT).  Brady was simply unstoppable in running the Patriots no-huddle offense to perfection and breaking the Patriots’ single game passing record.  Chad Henne (475 total yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT) was great himself, matching Brady mostly throw for throw and making for a fantasy scoring bonanza.
Wes Welker (8-160, 2 TDs) had an outstanding game, including outrunning the Dolphins secondary for a 99 yard TD reception, showing that he is fully over his ACL surgery from the end of the 2009 season.  The two-headed tight end monster for the Patriots were also quite effective, as both Aaron Hernandez (7-103, 1 TD) and Rob Gronkowski (6-86, 1 TD) should sneak up into fantasy starter consideration in most leagues.  Even Deion Branch (7-93) got in on the action, and the only disappointment was Chad Ochocinco (1-14), who was improbably invisible on a night when his quarterback threw for half a thousand yards.
For the Dolphins, most every pass catcher was useable for fantasy purposes, with Brandon Marshall (7-139( leading the way, and Davone Bess (5-92), Anthony Fasano (5-83), even Brian Hartline (4-47, 1 TD) put up useful fantasy stats.  While all of that was nice, Henne probably won’t be passing for over 400 yards on a regular basis, so Marshall and Bess are still the two receiving options to own.
The Patriots ground game was fairly quiet, with Danny Woodhead leading the way (14 car., 69 yards; 1 rec., 6 yards) and BenJarvis Green-Ellis doing most of the short yardage work (7 car., 34 yards, 1 TD).
Reggie Bush (11 car., 38 yards; 9 rec., 56 yards, 1 TD) actually looked fairly decent as the lone running back for the Dolphins, at least keeping the Patriots defense honest so Henne could go to work.  Bush should continue to be useful as a good RB3/Flex play going forward.

Oakland Raiders  23, Denver Broncos  13

Neither quarterback showed much in this one, and Jason Campbell (105 yards, 2 TDs) got the win while passing for very little yardage.  Kyle Orton (317  total yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) got some garbage time yards, but up until the game started to get out of hand, Orton’s numbers were pedestrian at best.  Campbell nor Orton are worthy of much fantasy consideration at this point.
With Campbell passing for so little yardage, none of the Raiders receivers posted fantasy relevant numbers.  Darrius Heyward-Bey (4-44) led the way for the Raiders receivers, but that wasn’t saying a whole lot.  One of the favorite sleepers of fantasy experts, Jacoby Ford (3-22), did next to nothing, but the Raiders didn’t need him to.  Until the Raiders are forced to pass in a game, the true colors of this receiver group probably won’t show.
Brandon Lloyd (6-89) led the way for the Broncos receivers, and the rest of the stats were divvied up fairly evenly amongst the rest, as Orton completed passes to eight different players.  Eric Decker (3-53, 1 punt return TD) also looked good and might be a future star in the making.  Daniel Fells (3-32) got the start at tight end, but barely posted noteworthy stats.
Darren McFadden (22, car., 150 yards; 1 rec., 6 yards) continued his trend of victimizing the Broncos defense, gashing them for over 150 total yards.  None of the other backs did anything of any value, proving that McFadden is one of the only true feature backs in a league that seems to be in love with the RBBC.
Speaking of RBBC, Knowshon Moreno (8 car., 22 yards; 2 rec., 35 yards) and Willis McGahee (4 car., 3 yards; 5 rec., 32 yards) both played quite a bit for the Broncos, and both did quite a bit of nothing.  If the Broncos continue to not muster a semblance of a respectable passing attack, the running lanes will continue to be clogged with defenders for the Broncos RBs.  At this point, both runners should be looked at as no more than RB3s/Flex plays.

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