ROSENBERG: We're number 2! ... and that will do

Congratulations, Dad. I didn't want that stupid trophy anyway.

I needed a miracle Monday night after my fantasy football chuck wagon blew three tires and took a cannonball through its windshield on Saturday in the opening round of my championship showdown with Pop.

Drew Brees, my miracle worker all season, almost delivered it.

With Steve Smith, A.J. Green and Jason Witten going Larry, Curly and Moe on me (7 catches for 58 yards? You stooges don't even get a copy of the home game!) and Michael Bush unable to turn off the end-zone force field, I found myself glaring at an 850 to 200-point deficit with half my lineup done for the day and time taunting me.

Thanks to strong performances from David Akers (the best last pick in a draft ever) and the Lions defense/special teams, I was able to cut the gap to 850-580 with Brees and Marques Colston a day away. But even with Brees, the great equalizer, waiting in the wings, the numbers were not in my favor, as Dad still had two Falcons — Tony Gonzalez and Roddy White — plus the Saints' Darren Sproles remaining on deck.

If I was going to pull off my greatest escape to date, Brees had to pull one last rabbit out of his helmet.

As usual, the newest member of my personal fantasy hall of fame was game, methodically marching the Saints up and down the field against the Falcons and leaning heavily on Colston, just as I had scripted.

When Brees connected with Colston for a second-quarter touchdown, I not only had a pulse, I was suddenly standing at the door of victory, one more semi-big play from assuming control.

Unfortunately, Sproles (Dad's secret weapon all season) defused my comeback plans in the second half, first with a 36-yard run, followed by a 92-yard kickoff return and lastly by catching the TD pass that put Brees in the record books in the final minutes.

In the end, I finished another Brees-to-Colston scoring hookup shy of defending my title.

Though disappointed, it's hard to be too upset over a second-place finish, a 20-week winning streak bridging two years, and topping the 1,000-point mark in every week this season.

My team, beyond Brees and Colston, wasn't much on paper, but it was consistent, which masked many of its deficiencies and, overall, made it one of my most enjoyable fantasy playing experiences.

Congratulations to those of you still giddily bouncing around your living rooms while singing along (poorly) to Queen's "We Are the Champions", and good luck to those of you will be attempting to restore order to the universe in championships today.

And to help you get a jump on 2012 ...

If we drafted today: 1. QB Aaron Rodgers, 2. RB Arian Foster, 3. RB LeSean McCoy, 4. QB Drew Brees, 5. Tom Brady, 6. RB Maurice Jones-Drew, 7. RB Ray Rice, 8. RB Marshawn Lynch, 9. WR Calvin Johnson, 10. RB Adrian Peterson, 11. QB Cam Newton, 12. QB Matthew Stafford.

Sticking around

In the past, we've shut things down with the completion of football season and gone into hibernation until catching baseball fever in spring, but we're staying open for business this year. So stay tuned for player rankings, position breakdowns and strategy recommendations in the coming weeks.

Bee fantasy sports columnist Stu Rosenberg can be reached at srosenberg@modbee.com or (209) 578-2300.