Last week was a horrible week. I went 5-19 in my leagues and only scored over 100 points in one league, though I did win that game in a shootout. But that’s what I get when guys like Brees, Rivers, Rodgers, Forte, Grant, Thomas, Colston, Gates and Shockey are on a bye and then for no apparent reason guys like DeSean Jackson vanish into thin air. But c’est la vie.

Start ‘Em!
Tennessee has the worst pass defense in the league and they’re on the road at Foxboro. Randy Moss been playing the role of The Invisible Man in the fantasy leagues lately but he should pop up now. The Jags are almost as bad at defending the pass as the Titans which means that the newly celebration-prone WR Donnie Avery and the under-the-radar TE Daniel Fells become attractive sleeper plays. Chris Cooley didn’t catch a pass last week but I doubt the trend continues this week at home against the porous Chiefs pass defense. Arizona is playing the Seahawks and given how Seattle tore up Jacksonville and the division rivalry here, You have to go hot and heavy with the newly healthy Matt Hasselbeck, and his pass-catching crew of Nate Burleson, T.J. Houshmandzadeh and John Carlson. And with Detroit on the bill, I say start TE Jermichael Finley coming off the bye after his breakout game in week four. The Packers have re-signed old vet Mark Tauscher to stabilize the o-line and that should pay dividends in keeping Aaron Rodgers up and throwing. Rashard Mendenhall may be sharing time with Willie Parker, depending on how Parker holds up, but they’re playing the Browns who have the worst, so even if they both play, Mendenhall should still put up decent numbers. And while Thomas Jones hasn’t been putting up big yardage numbers, he gets the call at the goal line and the Bills haven’t been good runstoppers. And the Chargers have the same difficulty in slowing down the run which means Knowshon Moreno is a good play whether or not Correll Buckhalter is back from his injury or not.
Sit ‘Em!
The Giants are a good team but I wouldn’t play Brandon Jacobs or Ahmad Bradshaw this week if you have any better options. The Saints defense is much improved over last year and with the Saints air attack, it just may turn into a shoot-out between Eli and Drew and that alone would take G-men out of their running game. Willis McGahee is prime sit-down material. The Vikings haven’t allowed a rushing TD yet and McGahee’s role so far has been the goal-line back. And if you thought that because Washington faces KC, that you should start Clinton Portis, don’t! He’s faced some poor rush defenses like the Rams, Lions, Bucs and Panthers and he’s yet to go over 100 yards this season and only has one rushing TD and to top it off he was limited in practice Wednesday and his o-line is a little banged up, too. On the passing side of the equation, I would sit Kyle Orton. San Diego may not be devastating on D, but they haven’t been giving up that many yards passing. Derrick Mason may be Flacco’s go-to guy, but I don’t see many big plays out of him against the Vikes secondary, but he will get his catches if you’re in a PPR league. Now, after seeing how Chad Henne succeeded against the Jets secondary, I wouldn’t get my hopes up for Trent Edwards and Terrell Owens finally hooking up big this week. Rex Ryan looked pretty motivated to ramp up his defense’s performance. Nate Washington has been the Titans big deep threat, and they’ll likely be behind and throwing against the Patriots, but I doubt Belichick will let anybody get deep on his team this week, come hell or high water.
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More on these topics:
Ahmad Bradshaw, Brandon Jacobs, Chris Cooley, Clinton Portis, Daniel Fells, Derrick Mason, Donnie Avery, Jermichael Finley, John Carlson, Knowshon Moreno, Kyle Orton, Matt Hasselbeck, Nate Burleson, Nate Washington, Randy Moss, Rashard Mendenhall, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Terrell Owens, Thomas Jones, Trent Edwards, Willis McGahee























Alex says:
Hey Dr Juan,
I've got a couple of questions of who to start this week and want to know your opinion. Its a PPR league
Big Ben or Matt Ryan
Pierre Thomas or Tim Hightower
Packers or Jets Defense
Dr. Juan says:
I'd go with Big Ben this week. It sounds weird to me to say that, but this year the Steelers have been throwing the ball more though they have been trying to get the running game going with some success the last couple of games. But their opponent, Detroit, has been hemorrhaging yards (1223) and TDs (15) via the air.
As for RB, I'd go with Hightower. I read today where Thomas was limited in practice today with a tight hamstring so he might be sharing running carries a bit with Mike Bell who's coming back from his MCL sprain. Plus since it's a PPR league, the Giants pass defense is the best in the league. Hightower is going up against Seattle with a middling defense, pass and run. Beanie Wells hasn't set the world on fire yet and can't pick up the blitz at this point, so with a old QB like Warner he's not around on passing downs, which accounts for him having zero receptions so far this year. So, Hightower is the more appealing play at RB.
Defensively, both teams have good matchups, against divisional foes, Detroit and Buffalo, though the Packers have been giving up a few more points/game (23 vs 17), but the Packers have been generating a few more turnovers. It's close, but I'd give the edge to the Packers though, because of more INTs and the extra rest coming off a bye vs. the Jets having a bit of a short week after the Monday night game and the close loss. Sometimes the close ones are tougher to get over than a blowout, more of a tendency to linger on the "coulda, shoulda, woulda"s than moving on to the next game. At least the Packers have had two weeks to get over their tough loss to Favre and the Vikes.