After Week 3 in the NFL, we have plenty more surprises, and a few other cases of "Yup, saw that one coming". I'm not going to list the guys like LT, who was due for a big week, or guys who everyone expected to do well. I'm focusing on guys who gave performances that far exceeded expectations. Or, the guys who fell way short.Here are your Studs and Duds for week 3, starting with the best of the week:


RB: Ronnie Brown
Every list of this nature should begin with Ronnie Brown. Against a Patriots defense that was supposed to be solid this week, he had a game for the ages. With 4 rushing TD's and a passing TD, he led all players in points with 39 points*. I had Ronnie Brown on one of my fantasy teams (out of 5), but unfortunately I had him relegated to the bench, behind Frank Gore and Marshawn Lynch. That move cost me about 20 points, but fortunately I won anyway against Gene(Dodge#9) who you may or may not be familiar with.

QB: JT O'Sullivan, Kyle Orton
Who would have thought that these guys would have outscored the likes of Peyton Manning, Jay Cutler, Donovan McNabb and Tony Romo? Not me. But they did, ranking up a solid 18 points each. If you started one of these guys, then you were probably pleasantly surprised with their performances this week. Or maybe, since you started them, you expected it. Which makes you a hell of a lot smarter than the rest of us. Or maybe just crazy.

WR: TJ Houshmandzadeh, Brandon Lloyd
Just when everyone was giving up on the Bengals' offense, they gave us reason to believe. Same with the Bears, although no one really gave up on that offense, they just never believed in the first place. Houshmandzadeh and Lloyd each put up 20 points this week, tying for 2nd among all WR's, trailing only Brandon Marshall.

TE: Kevin Boss
After the Giants traded Jeremy Shockey, many expected Boss to get more looks this season. Until week 3, it hadn't really happened. But Boss had 51 yards on Sunday with a TD, paying off big time for the owners who stuck with him.

Defense/Special Teams: Eagles
Against a Pittsburgh offense that was considered to be pretty good, the Eagles defense was spectacular. They scored 24 fantasy points, on the strength of a safety, 2 fumble recoveries, this an interception by Asante Samuel, and only 6 points allowed. Kudos to the Eagles defense on an outstanding week.


And now, on to the duds... the ones who disappointed us the most this week:

QB: Matt Cassel
It might be a little unfair to put him on this list so soon. Perhaps expectations were a little too high, as ESPN projected him to have 24 points against the Dolphins. Clearly, he's not ready to put up those kind of numbers yet. But the bottom line is, he had a lousy week, and fell short of the expectations that many had for him, no matter how over-inflated those may have been. 1 TD, 1 INT, 1 fumble, and only 131 yards against a Dolphins defense just isn't very good.

RB: Earnest Graham, Brian Westbrook
For much of his short career, Graham has been on the "stud" list. And Brian Westbrook is one of the most consistent RB's in the league. Not this week. Graham and Westbrook COMBINED for 28 yards, 0 TD's and 2 total fantasy points. That was sure to cost some people a win this week.


WR: Plaxico Burress, Terrell Owens
Burress was supposed to explode against the pourous Bengals defense, right? And Owens is supposed to get 100 yards and a TD every week, right? Wrong. Not this time. Plax had only 45 yards and didn't manage to find the end zone, and TO managed only 17 yards without a score. Randy Moss could have been on this list as well, but I can only pick on the Patriots so much in one week

TE: Kellen Winslow, Jr.
Against the Ravens defense, Winslow managed only 2 catches for 13 yards, resulting in one fantasy point. Sure, the Ravens have a decent D, but this guy was projected to get about 11 points, and that's a huge letdown.

Defense/Special Teams: New England Patriots
There's not much to say here. 38 points to the Dolphins is unacceptable. Many people thought that the Patriots would be the best defense this week, and they were the worst. In most scoring systems, you LOST points this week if you had the Patriots. Even though they were stingy with the points against the Chiefs and Jets, Ronnie Brown tore through them like an old newspaper.

Those are your studs and duds for week 3. Have any more that we didn't mention? Feel free to share them here, as well as your thoughts on upcoming weeks.

*All scoring is based on ESPN standard leagues