Mulligan’s Fantasy Football Forecast, Week 12
Sometimes it’s the games that you least expect which wind up being the most entertaining. Last week’s Lions-Browns match up was a game that, on paper, wouldn’t have ruined your day had you not seen one snap. But if you ended up not seeing one snap, you may have missed the game of the year.
Unlikely heroes Matthew Stafford and Brady Quinn combined to throw for 726 yards and nine touchdowns, rewarding the few risk-taking fantasy owners who had the guts to use them, as the Lions pulled out a one point win over Cleveland. It just goes to show you that fantasy points, and pure entertainment, can come when you least expect it.
Good Matchups
Ricky Williams vs. Bills defense: Ricky tore up the Panthers last week with 119 yards rushing and two touchdowns on the ground, adding another score on a touchdown catch. This week Ricky gets the most favorable match up for a running back in the NFL, the Buffalo Bills and their league worst run defense. Once again, he is a must-start this week.
Philip Rivers vs. Chiefs defense: The Chargers went with a run-heavy attack last week against the Broncos, running the ball 43 times while throwing just 22 times. That game plan probably had something to do with Denver being one of the best pass defenses in the league. Look for San Diego to flip the script and air it out against one of the worst pass defenses this week against Kansas City.
Not so good matchups
Ray Rice vs. Steelers defense: The Pittsburgh Steelers have the best run defense in the NFL and it’s really not even debatable at the moment. They allow just 3.4 yards per carry and 69 yards per game to opponents, both rank first in the league. Not good new for Ray Rice owners.
Donovan McNabb vs. Redskins defense: It would be easy to over look the defense with the season that the Redskins are having but their pass defense is the best in the NFL, allowing just 161 yards per game through the air. Would you like to guess McNabb’s worst game of his 2009 season? The answer is his Week 7 performance against, you guessed it, the Redskins.
Waiver wire pickups
Rock Cartwright, RB, Redskins: Clinton Portis has already been ruled out for the second straight week with a concussion. His backup, Ladell Betts, suffered a torn ACL and MCL in the first quarter of the Redskins-Cowboys game last week. In their absence, third string running back Rock Cartwright rushed for 67 yards on 13 carries and caught seven passes for 73 yards. Cartwright will see almost all of the carries this week against the Eagles and it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect a similar performance to last week’s from Cartwright.
Kyle Mulligan is a contributing sports writer for the Observer. He welcomes your feedback and can be reached at kjmulli@gmail.com.