Potential Fourth Quarter Killers For Week Twelve

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Carson Palmer
Carson has it going the way the Cardinals were hoping he would initially to start the season. Thankfully for Palmer the Cardinals have a winning record and are right in the mix of things for a possible wild card berth. To keep the critics silenced in searching for a replacement at quarterback in the offseason, Carson will need to continue to ignite the Cards offense with the passing attack. He gets another great matchup to do so against the Indianapolis Colts.

Ryan Matthews
San Diego has been a hot potato kind of team. A loss down in Miami and one in Oakland a month ago are going to be two losses that may cost the Chargers a chance at the playoffs. Even if they don’t make the playoffs they have to be pleased with the substantial improvement of the offense as a whole and Matthews. Matthews has been able to stay on the field and is coming off a big game against the Dolphins. With the Chiefs showing vulnerability against the run Matthews should see a heavy dose of carries once again.

Rashard Jennings
The dagger on the Texans season was likely a month ago. But it realistically came to a deafening blow with a home loss to the Oakland Raiders as twelve point favorites. Houston decided to take out Keenum after a subpar three quarters to see if Matt Schaub could revive the Texans. That did not work either. Oakland gets to head back home and play a Titans team that surrendered a commanding lead against the Indianapolis Colts. Oakland will attack the Titans the same way they did the Texans and that is to utilize Jennings heavily. I could see Jennings getting over 150 yards this time around.

Tavon Austin
Could the Rams play spoiler to the Bears recent climb back in contention of the NFC North? It would not surprise me. Chicago has struggled all season long at covering guys with speed at receiver. Austin is coming off his best rookie performance before the bye week with two long touchdown passes and a punt return. Expect the Rams to take a couple of shots with him against the Bears choppy secondary.

Vincent Jackson
Payroll doled out on the defensive side is being harped as a mistake in Dallas. Another team that deserves the hammer is the Detroit Lions. Detroit arguably boasts potentially the best front four in football. Yet they have not been consistent at stopping the run or sacking the quarterback. They allowed the Steelers to march down the field repeatedly, including after a fake field goal inside the ten yard line. After another failed offensive series the Steelers yet again scored a game sealing touchdown. Tampa Bay has newfound confidence and will aim to attack the Lions through the air.

Others: Pittsburgh’s Defense, Saints Defense, Ravens Defense, Marques Colston, Greg Olsen, and Jordy Nelson

Best Catches to Targets from Week Eleven

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Coby Fleener
Fantasy owners are saying it’s about time one of the Colts tight ends had an impact from a fantasy football perspective. Fleener has to stay consistent to alleviate some of the pressure on the Colts receivers and Andrew Luck overall. He finished with eight catches on ten targets.

Marquise Goodwin
Credit has to go to the Buffalo Bills front office. They have gotten the biggest bang for the buck in many positions on the field, but especially at wide receiver. Time and time again they’ve relied on low round draft picks or undrafted free agent wide receivers to step into a premier role. Goodwin did so with the top of the Bills depth chart sidelined. He had six catches on eight targets against an alleged improved Jets defense.

Alshon Jeffrey
All the talk is on the Bears quarterback situation currently. It should be on how the offense keeps ticking without missing a bit. A big reason to why they’re so successful has to do with their tall and physical receivers in Jeffrey’s and Marshall. It’s a tandem that has torched defenses week after week. In poor weather conditions as playoff fields will pose a team needs big target wide receivers to get the ball to. Jeffrey’s finished with seven catches on eleven targets.

Vinny Jackson
When you get the majority of your quarterback’s yards you know you’re having a good day. Jackson caught ten balls on twelve targets for over 160 yards receiving. Glennon on the day only threw for around 230 yards.

Garret Graham
Graham had a significant day for a tight end that could have been picked up on waivers. More than likely people scooped up John Carlson instead. I wouldn’t rush to sub out a tight end for Graham just yet. Houston has issues galore at quarterback and now commotion has started with Andre Johnson. This will likely be Graham’s top game of the season.

Jordy Nelson
A poor decision by the Packers to do a fake punt instead of pinning the Giants turned out to cause an avalanche of issues. For the most part Scott Tolzien performed solid besides for a poor fourth quarter. Nelson hauled in eight catches on nine targets.

Others: DeLanie Walker 10 catches/10 targets, Kendall Wright 9 catches/12 targets, DeSean Jackson 4 catches/4 targets, Pierre Garcon 6 catches/10 targets, Tony Gonzalez 7 catches/9 targets, Michael Floyd 6 catches/11 targets, Ace Sanders 8 catches/10 targets, Andre Johnson 10 catches/17 targets, Charles Clay 6 catches/7 targets, LaDarius Green 4 catches/5 targets, Marques Colston 5 catches/8 targets, Victor Cruz 8 catches/11 targets, John Carlson 5 catches/7 targets, Wes Welker 8 catches/10 targets, Brandon LaFell 7 catches/8 targets

Week Eleven Automatics/Don’t Do Its

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Automatics

Andrew Luck
Luck had the worst football performance of his career last week. Most quarterbacks would spiral in a downward direction statistically, but that won’t happen with Luck. Coach Pagano did the right thing in pulling Luck with under six minutes to go against the Rams. The performance by Luck hindered more on the Colts as a whole than just Luck. Look for the whole team to respond.

Terrelle Pryor
The Raiders are a touchdown underdog against the Texans but I believe they’ll play a better game than the spread sits at. Both teams really don’t have much to play for at this point of the season, that gives the edge to the Raiders as expectations were never heightened for them. Pryor has been a hot and cold fantasy player this year, and does most of his damage with his legs. Look for him to do damage with both his legs and arm this week.

Jacquizz Rodgers
Miami did not run the ball one iota against the Buccaneers. It isn’t that the Bucs can’t be ran on, but for whatever reason they felt there was no reason to run the football. Rodgers had a solid game all around against the Bucs earlier this season and probably has slipped off fantasy owners radars a bit over the last few weeks. Put him back in your lineups for success this week.

Ryan Matthews
Back to the poor performing Dolphins as San Diego heads to South Beach Sunday—Matthews should be lined up for an impactful game. Before Tampa Bay’s Mike James exited with an injury he was on his way to a career game. If he didn’t go down Miami more than likely would have lost in double digit fashion. San Diego has been one of the better teams in football with game plans, and they’ll look to establish the run early and often for Philip Rivers.

Larry Fitzgerald
Fitz has regressed since starting the season strong. Still he is right on track to get 1,000 yards receiving. With a couple of strong games he can have one of his best seasons in several seasons. This is a big opportunity game for Fitzgerald to separate himself from the mid-tier fantasy receivers against a Jaguars defense that is prone to the big play

Don’t Do Its
Colin Kaepernick, Knowshown Moreno, CJ Spiller, Big Ben, Le’Veon Bell, MJD, Eli Manning, and AP

Week Ten Potential Fourth Quarter Killers

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RG3
RG3 and the Redskins just don’t want to make things easy on themselves. While that has been the case, there has been a fantasy points spree from RG3 late in games as a result. Thursday games this season have not necessarily been fantasy friendly but RG3 will break that mold.

Carson Palmer
Houston is in a dire situation that does not look good. Case Keenum shined against the Colts but will be facing a higher grade defense in the Arizona Cardinals. They’ll shadow Andre Johnson much better than the Colts did. Arizona has also been stout on defense at stopping the run. This is a perfect setup game for Palmer to have a coming out party with his arm. Look for Arizona to beat a poor Houston secondary time after time.

Matt Forte
Forte has had two great games, one against Washington before the bye week and last week against the Packers. New head coach Marc Trestman is putting on a show with his play calling. Everyone wants to talk about the Eagles being the most potent offense, but the Bears have been scoring at a higher rate this season. Watch Forte have another strong performance that leads into the fourth quarter.

Rashad Jennings
With Darren McFadden out Jennings gets a chance to fill the role he embraced as MJD’s backup in Jacksonville. Oakland needs their running game to be successful to have any shot at aiding Terrelle Pryor. It may not happen immediately this weekend, but Jennings should continue the trend of Oakland being a consistent threat for an RB2 in fantasy football.

DeMaryius Thomas
When Denver has big leads they don’t let off the gas. Peyton will still call audibles at the line of scrimmage to get the most out of a play. Against the Washington Redskins it resulted in a few miscues with interceptions. Other times it led to big plays. DeMaryius Thomas is a big receiver that no one wants to take down in the fourth quarter.

Keenan Allen
San Diego is going to need to throw a ton to try and compete with the Broncos. Over the last six weeks, Keenan Allen has been an ignition in the Chargers offense. Philip Rivers will continue to lean on his rookie and the Chargers will draw up favorable play calls for both. This game may be closer than people think but San Diego will certainly be in passing situations.

Others: Marshawn Lynch, Le’Veon Bell, Anquan Boldin, Jason Witten, Mike James, Frank Gore, and Zac Stacy.

Week Nine Automatics/Don’t Do Its

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Who are fantasy football automatics and don’t do its for week nine. Zack has players under the radar to start and ones to also sit out.

Josh McCown
With the Bears coming off a bye week some may have forgot how McCown performed filling in for Jay Cutler against the Redskins. Green Bay has improved defensively but has not faced a stellar offense in quite awhile. Trestman is an offensive guru and will assuredly have some play calls up his sleeve from the extra preparation coming off a bye week.

Thad Lewis
Call it how you want to but Lewis has been a difference maker in all three starts that he has played in. Pulling off a near upset against the Bengals and doing so against Miami. He has a solid accurate arm and the Bills do a good job of calling correct play calls for him. Kansas City’s defense has been a bit vulnerable against the pass lately. Lewis should be able to make the same amount of factor plays that he has been doing the last three games.

Marshawn Lynch
I touched on Lynch in my fourth quarter killers. This is the perfect setup for Lynch to finally get rolling. Tampa Bay has been torched every week. At first it was just poor results from their offense as the defense held ground. But over the last three to four games it has been on both sides of the football. Look for Lynch to get going early and for the Seahawks to have a high tally of rushing yards.

Danny Woodhead
The favorable matchups for the Chargers as a top fantasy football team just don’t stop. Philip Rivers has been great to the first half of the season, and will look to continue to keep the offense motivated against a Redskins defense that gives up a lot of yardage. An unsung fantasy football performer has been Danny Woodhead. He isn’t going to rush for 100 yards, but he will outproduce plenty of fantasy football running backs that do.

Marques Colston
New York’s defense is going to get all it can handle and then some Sunday. Andy Dalton has never been a fantasy football stalwart yet he still torched them. Imagine what Drew Brees and Sean Payton will have in store Sunday? Colston has been the forgotten Saint. His stats haven’t been there and he seems to be dropping by the second in fantasy enthusiasts minds. Wait just a few more weeks on him. He should show some positive signs with this matchup against the Jets.

Others: Joe Flacco, Terrelle Pryor, Le’Veon Bell, Kyle Rudolph and Darren McFadden

Don’t Do Its

Tom Brady
Brady’s poor performance against a Dolphins defense that has been struggling should be a high indicator that the Patriots have issues. He was able to lead the Patriots back to a win, but also got away with a late fumble that was recovered by New England. If that had been scooped up and returned for a touchdown things could have been completely different. Statistically Tom Brady has never fared well against defenses that attack. Pittsburgh gave up some big plays early to Oakland and then settled down. They’ll be ready for Brady.

Nick Foles
Mike Vick tried to return from a hamstring and now Nick Foles tries to return from a concussion. The ebb and flow of the Eagles offense that is vital to Chip Kelly’s success is gone. I don’t see it suddenly surging with Nick Foles return. Foles last time out was a woeful outing against the Cowboys. Teams now know how to prepare for Foles and he has yet to adjust.

DeMarco Murray
Murray has been the hot potato fantasy football player that drives owners nuts. Coming off of an injury I would not trust Murray one bit. Minnesota’s defense showed strong pride last week in their loss to Green Bay. Down and out they held the Packers to a field goal from inside their own five yard line. Look for the Vikings to get after a Cowboys team still probing and searching to what happened last week.

Jason Witten
Dez Bryant was on the sideline being held back by Jason Witten at the end of their devastating loss to the Detroit Lions. Maybe Bryant should have been yelling at Witten. Before he was an automatic top five tight end week in and week out. The offense has not changed from a high volume pass offense, yet Witten’s fantasy production has dropped immensely. I believe the Cowboys as a whole will struggle offensively except for Dez.

Others: Chris Johnson, Alex Smith, Ryan Tannehill, Matt Ryan, Jacquizz Rodgers, and Texans Rb’s

Week Eight Automatics/Don’t Do Its Follow@cimini It’s Thursday which means if you plan on having a Panther or Buccaneer in your week eight lineups you must have it submitted before kickoff. With several teams on byes this week it is imperative to dig deep on your rosters for points. Here are some automatic starters and others to sit for this week.

Automatics

Tony Romo Romo gets all the negative publicity for the way the Cowboys falter in big games and rightfully so. As a fantasy football week to week performer Romo has been stellar. Dallas has had an unbalanced offensive ratio of run to pass plays most of the season. Thus far it hasn’t caused Romo any extra unnecessary hits or injuries like years past. Keep Romo in your fantasy football lineups this week against the Detroit Lions. Victor Cruz For facing a Vikings secondary that has been ripped apart all season there it was an undeniable Monday night poor performance from Cruz. Fantasy owners should have been able to expect ten to sixteen fantasy points from Cruz to catapult them to a come from behind fantasy performance. I do not expect Cruz to have back to back poor performances against a struggling defense. RG3 RG3 finally displayed what fans have been waiting for---to utilize his legs a bit more. Washington’s offense was able to outscore the Bears because of RG3’s offsetting abilities. When RG3 can be a threat with his legs it allowed the Redskins running game to finally flourish. Numbers likely won’t be sky high like they were against the Bears, but RG3 should end up being a top eight to ten fantasy performer. Kendall Hunter Jacksonville’s defense has been thrashed every week against the run. Meanwhile San Francisco has picked up a lot of steam since their blowout road win over the St. Louis Rams. They’ve done it by shifting the focus from Colin Kapernick and utilizing the run game. With how poor Jacksonville has been against the run you can expect the 49ers to exploit it early with Frank Gore. When San Francisco has a comfortable lead they continue to pound the football. Expect Hunter to get double digit carries and hit pay dirt at least once. Jarrett Boykin Aaron Rodgers is a prime time glutton. He loves to devour opponents on the big stage. It’s not a secret that Minnesota is a very vulnerable team at this stage. Look for Aaron Rodgers to come out early to put a team dispirited in a hole quickly. Boykin should have a second consecutive solid fantasy week. Marques Colston A lot of fantasy owners are likely extremely upset with how Colston has underperformed to start the season. Returning off a bye week the Saints should find a way to get Colston re-emerged in the offense. You never want to phase out a guy like Colston who has proven his longevity in the NFL for years, especially with a quarterback like Drew Brees on the field. Others: Michael Floyd, Vincent Jackson, Khiry Robinson, and Stevan Ridley

Don’t Do Its

Terrelle Pryor I’m very concerned for how Pryor is going to finish out the second half of the NFL season. He had a poor second half against San Diego and an even worse performance in the second half against Kansas City. Teams have tracked down the Raiders game plan with Pryor. It’s now putting Pryor in situations that he has to think more instead of create. Pittsburgh should only challenge Pryor more this week. Cam Newton The Panthers have won consecutive games but fantasy owners still can’t figure out what to do with Newton’s see-saw stats. The offense still doesn’t have a strong ebb and flow to it. They’re getting performance from the run game but having a mediocre impact with the pass game. Carolina has even turned to Mike Tolbert for the short yardage touchdowns that Cam Newton use to get. Jacquizz Rodgers With Steven Jackson expected to return Rodgers value automatically drops. Some will likely still insert Rodgers in their fantasy lineups thinking that Jackson won’t be a big factor off his return. It’s likely Jackson won’t garner a high load upon his return. But I think defenses will start impacting the Falcons offense more without their big weapons on the field. Last year Matt Ryan had an awful first half with several interceptions at home against the Arizona Cardinals. Julius Thomas After his monster start to the season it’s hard to decide to sit a player such as Thomas. Getting exposed on prime time repeatedly for poor blocking is something that all the NFL saw and will attack. Denver’s coaching staff is going to have to limit his plays on the field to prevent Peyton Manning from an unwarranted pass rush. Remember this is Thomas’s first success as a football player. Springing back and regaining his confidence is going to be something he has to do for the first time mentally as a pro football player. Jerome Simpson Christian Ponder has been hearing from the media and Vikings fans for quite awhile that he needs to be replaced as a starter. It happened and now the Vikings are going right back to him. With his confidence shaken I do not expect Ponder to life up the Vikings offensively against the Packers, though Ponder did play well in two games against Green Bay a year ago. Trust the stats that show Ponder has not shown a strong ability to get the ball down the field. That negates the impact Simpson, Rudolph, and Greg Jennings can have. Others: Percy Harvin, Zac Stacy, CJ Spiller, and Ryan Tannehill