FanHouse Josh Reed

If you're looking for a white-knuckle, nail-biter of a Monday night game, it might be best to look elsewhere -- like to Oakland, where the Raiders host San Diego late, though that might not be much help either. New England has won 11 straight against Buffalo, including two last year minus Tom Brady, and posted a 20 1/2-point average margin of victory during that win streak. On top of that trend, the Patriots' home crowd will be understandably jacked up to see Brady back on the field, and will do its best to make Terrell Owens' regular-season Buffalo debut a miserable one.

The Bills would love to signal in the T.O. era with a huge road win. But they will need a near-flawless effort to get it done.

From now until the regular season begins, Fantasy Flings is where you'll find interesting story lines about your favorite teams from training camp. If there is a position battle, a nagging injury, a comeback story or a youngster rocketing up the depth chart, we'll let you know the fantasy implications.

Buffalo Bills
Wide receiver Terrell Owens returned to practice on Monday, but it was only in a limited fashion. He spent time doing station drills but when the team went 11-on-11, Owens took off his shoulder pads and sat out. He's still listed as day-to-day with a sprained toe. Getting extra time with the first team is veteran Josh Reed. Reed caught 56 balls last season and scored once but is forming a stronger relationship with quarterback Trent Edwards during training camp. CBS Sports reporter Mark Ludwiczak says that Reed has stepped up in Owens' absence. "I've had a chance these last couple of practices to work with him and I just love the way he carries himself, the way he plays the position," Edwards said. It's not terribly likely that Owens will miss regular-season time from this nagging injury, but he is missing out valuable bond-forming time with his new quarterback Edwards. The extra time it's taking Owens to get back to full strength could also foreshadow durability issues to come later in the season.

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With Fantasy Football season ready to kick in high gear, FanHouse is here to preview each and every team -- one per day until we've done them all.

Meet The ...
City/team so desperate for attention they signed Terrell Owens to a one-year deal! Seriously, it could pan out well -- but we all know that Roger Goodell is in the middle of not-so-quietly handing this franchise to Canada (hello publishing date irony!).

Of course, a big season from the Bills could do some good in staving off that run for the border, but that will require a number of very good things to happen: Marshawn Lynch needs to return from suspension with a vengeance, Fred Jackson needs to be happy, Owens needs to be really happy, Trent Edwards needs to be good and, well, yeah, there are lots of ifs. But there's also a lot of value on this team for fantasy owners that might slip under the radar.

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With attention spans dwindling, we forego full game-by-game previews to give you the essentials you need to know about every contest this glorious NFL weekend. Click here to go back in time.

The 1s

St. Louis (2-13) at Atlanta (10-5): If Atlanta takes care of business here, they could be facing the Arizona Cardinals at home in their first playoff game. Could a scenario get any better for a rookie quarterback? Hey Matt Ryan, I know it is the playoffs and all, but this is one of the worst sports franchises in the history of football. Also, they've won just one game since Veterans Day.

If this shakes out, Ryan might be the most blessed kid since the one Mary conceived.

Pick: Atlanta

Hear that? It's the pitter-patter of fantasy football season approaching. Fantasy FanHouse is here to get you ready by previewing every team from a fantasy perspective.

Meet the ...
Beast Modes. Sorry, that's just all I think about when I start analyzing the Buffalo Bills. I can't help it. My mancrush on Marshawn Lynch just runs too deep. I actually loved the Bills as a sleeper team last year and think the same thing in 2008. Trent Edwards and Lynch are an up-and-coming young duo and Lee Evans obviously has gobs of talent, even if it comes on sporadically. However, this team is young, which means growing pains in real and fantasy football.

Breakout
I'm classifying 'Beast Mode' Lynch as this year's breakout on this squad. Yes, he had 1,000 yards last year, but when doesn't a back break 1k these days? I think he's going to flirt with 1,500 this season and will end up catching substantially more balls out of the backfield than last year. If you check his game logs, he didn't really start to come on strong until Edwards took over, but he was a model of consistency when he was on the field. If he stays healthy for the whole season, you can pencil in 1,700 total yards.

Hear that? It's the pitter-patter of fantasy football season approaching. Fantasy FanHouse is here to get you ready by previewing every team from a fantasy perspective.

Meet the ...
Beast Modes.Sorry, that's just all I think about when I start analyzing the Buffalo Bills. I can't help it. My mancrush on Marshawn Lynch just runs too deep. I actually loved the Bills as a sleeper team last year and think the same thing in 2008. Trent Edwards and Lynch are an up and coming young duo and Lee Evans obviously has gobs of talent, even if it comes on sporadically. However, this team is young, which means growing pains in real and fantasy football.

Breakout
I'm classifying Beast Mode as this year's breakout on this squad. Yes, he had 1,000 yards last year, but when doesn't a back break 1k these days? I think he's going to flirt with 1,500 this season and will end up catching substantially more balls out of the backfield than last year. If you check his game logs, he didn't really start to come on strong until Edwards took over, but he was a model of consistency when he was on the field. If he stays healthy for the whole season, you can pencil in 1,700 total yards.

Two rookies made strong impressions in Buffalo yesterday. Trent Edwards was excellent in leading the Bills to their first win of the season and he's earned rave reviews. The focus on Edwards allowed the other rookie to avoid the brunt of the spotlight but Darrelle Revis' poor game had a lot to do with Edwards' great one.

Edwards picked on his fellow rookie all day. He threw at Revis 11 times, completing nine passes for 83 yards and drawing an illegal contact penalty. Most of the plays came with Revis isolated on slot receivers Josh Reed and Roscoe Parrish. Edwards kept finding those two receivers for first downs, moving the chains and moving the Bills on two long second half scoring drives. After the game Revis sounded a bit shellshocked by what he'd been through.

"Well, I just keep on playing," he said. "I was in the slot a couple times, and it's basically something that they seen and adjusted to it, and they made plays out of it. It's just (that) they made good plays. They threw the ball in there, in the slot . . . it's crazy in there, and it's something they seen. They seen matchups and they made plays."

There was a silver lining for Revis and the Jets, however. When the Bills looked for Reed on third down just after the two-minute warning Revis made a terrific play and broke up the pass. That gave them the ball back to make one last attempt at winning or tying the game. It fell short but Revis' play showed that yesterday's abuse may be tomorrow's game-changing defensive play.