Home openers spoiled for many

After last week's sizzling start that saw the Gehlke Bros. notch identical 13-3 records, it stood to reason that we'd be ripe for a letdown. We just didn't expect it to happen in Week 2. The football gods demonstrated their fondness for the roll of spoiler, allowing several upsets that ruined the home openers for some of the league's biggest names.

Tennessee found itself an unlikely 0-2 after getting outdueled by visiting Houston, 34-31; and Philadelphia with Donovan McNabb's cracked ribs got dismantled by New Orleans, 48-22; less than a week after a Monday night opening win, the Chargers missed a last-minute chance to salvage a home opener against the Ravens, 31-26. But it was Dallas that suffered the week's biggest disappointment, losing its first game in a new billion-dollar stadium to their arch rival N.Y. Giants, 33-31.

Did we say biggest disappointment? That distinction probably goes to the Senior Bro, who sided with the loser in each of those four games, as well as five others, and finds himself 2 games behind both Ben and Sean in the season standings. It was only by virtue of the fact that no one had a great week -- 9-7 was the high-water mark -- that the damage wasn't worse.

Big moments from Week 2:

* Ben is the only one to pick the Jets in their 16-9 home win against the Patriots.

* Sean rides the Saints' victory to splits over both Senior Bro and the Chaos Kid.

* Ben cheers as the Giants topple the Cowboys.

* Peyton Manning lifts the Colts to a 27-23 win at Miami, continuing the Senior Bro's infamous Monday Night Curse.

* Glenn avoided further catastrophe with Arizona's rare 31-17 road win at Jacksonville.

It's suddenly a two-person race now, as Junior Bro and the Chaos Kid notched identical 9-7 records to tie for the week. Glenn's 7-9 finish drops him two back of the leaders, with 15 weeks left to solve Sunday and Monday nights. At least we all correctly guessed winners Minnesota, Atlanta, Washington, and Denver. We all got tripped up in the upsets by Houston, Oakland, Cincinnati and Chicago.