Yeah, Patrick Willis, three. As in those three defensive TDs you and your teammates scored that nearly ruined the week for me.

Up until Philip Rivers’ explosion late Sunday night, this space was earmarked for a “woe is me” rant about how one of my fantasy teams had the misfortune of going up against an opponent that got more than 39 points (39!) from the 49ers defense (and I’m a 49ers fan!). Three second-half touchdown passes by Rivers, including two to Antonio Gates, changed my fortunes substantially since Rivers is my QB in one league and Gates is my tight end in the other. As a result, I find myself comfortably ahead in both leagues heading into the Monday night game, and I’ll be pulling against the Packers’ passing game. The Outlaws of the Marsh are up by 39 and still have Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell to counter the opponent’s duo of Aaron Rodgers and Donald Driver. My other team, The Thamesmen, are up by 23 and still have Adrian Peterson and Mason Crosby while my opponent in that league has Rodgers and Greg Jennings. Barring some ridiculous performance, it looks like I’m in good position to go 2-0 this week.

Now then, back to ranting about the 49ers’ ridiculous defensive performance, which included three touchdowns, five sacks, one interception, and zero points allowed. I’m usually a pretty good sport about running into a defense that has one or two fluke scores, but three?!! But on this day, at least, I guess I can’t gripe too much about fluky defensive scores, as one of my teams benefited from one of those 49ers touchdowns — the interception return by Patrick Willis — while my other team got a not-too-shabby 17 points from the Bears defense, thanks in part to a 102-yard kickoff return by Johnny Knox.

Week 4 Highs and Lows

• Won’t you know it. The first week I bench Calvin Johnson is the week he goes over 100 yards, but he still couldn’t find the end zone and now his starting quarterback is out. But going from Matthew Stafford to Daunte Culpepper shouldn’t be too big a concern for Johnson. In the five games that Culpepper started last season, Johnson averaged 74 yards per game and had three touchdowns, and that was in a stretch in which the Lions played four straight against teams that finished with winning records, including three division winners. What is a definite concern, however, is the Lions’ opponent this week — the Steelers. The Chargers showed in the second half Sunday that you can throw the ball against Pittsburgh’s defense, but it’s doubtful the Lions can do the same, especially with Culpepper’s tendency to get sacked and fumble.

Rashard Mendenhall had 45 yards rushing on the season going into Sunday night and proceeded to run for almost four times that.

• Speaking of the Steelers, it looks like they’ve finally worked out the kinks in their running game, with Rashard Mendenhall coming out of nowhere to rumble for 163 yards and two TDs against the Chargers in place of the injured Willie Parker. Parker had just started getting going the previous week before a turf toe kept him out of this week’s action. It’ll be interesting to see how the Steelers handle the backfield. My guess: If Parker returns to health, we might be looking at another dreaded 60-40 split.
• Here’s a tip: Start any and all offensive players you have who are going up against the Lions, who are dead last in points given up and not so good in yardage allowed either. The Bears’ Matt Forte, who had been averaging just 50 yards a game and 2.5 yards a carry through three weeks, ran for 121 yards on just 12 attempts Sunday against Detroit.
• What’s gotten into Drew Brees? After throwing nine TD passes in the first two weeks (including six in Week 1 against me), he has been shut out in the last couple games, and the Saints’ scoring output has dipped by almost half. The good news is that the Saints’ running game continues to impress, no matter who’s carrying the ball.
• More and more, Eli Manning is showing that he’s locked in on Steve Smith, who caught 11 of Manning’s 20 completions Sunday. The Giants’ offense is clicking on all cylinders, but here’s the bad news if you don’t own Manning, Smith, or Brandon Jacobs: Those three guys get most of  the action early in the game for the Giants, and if New York goes up big early, as it has done lately, it’s content to rely on Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw to ground out the win, meaning other players are not likely to post big numbers unless they get it early.

Allowing Brandon Marshall to catch the pass was just the beginning of Dallas’ ineptitude on this TD play.

• I love LaDainian Tomlinson, but it’s looking more and more like the former all-world fantasy stud is about done. There was a lot of talk in the preseason about how he feels great after changing up his offseason training regiment. Let this be a lesson to you: In the preseason, every injury-prone player is completely healthy and every has-been is ready to bounce back. And then the season starts. I hope LT does bounce back, but with the injuries and unimpressive performances so far, it’s not looking good.
• A couple of fool’s gold performances by wide receivers from this week: Brandon Marshall had 91 yards and a TD, and Santana Moss had 74 yards and a TD. Until the Broncos’ last drive, Marshall had only three catches for 40 yards, about in line with what he has done so far this season. And then he caught a pass downfield and managed to weave through the entire Dallas defense for a 51-yard score. Chalk that one up to luck and a lot of bad pursue-and-tackle by the Cowboys. As for Moss, 59 of his 74 yards came on the touchdown play, and he had only one other reception. That has been a problem with Moss ever since he went to Washington. He does a lot with the catches he gets, but he just doesn’t seem to catch enough passes consistently.