Week Ten brings us another terrible assignment of choosing a lineup with six teams on a bye. The selection of defenses limited to you because of byes is not nearly as bad as the limited bad offenses to play defenses against. With the postseason looming you simply cannot afford to miss points anywhere. These defenses should fill in this week until the options expand, with less teams on bye every week from here on out.
The defensive position can be so hard to predict. I told a friend he should not play the Ravens a few minutes before Sunday night’s game last week. I said he should get the Steelers and play them because Ben Roethlisberger might go nuts again. He didn’t listen. Sure enough, Ben went nuts. Yet since the Ravens had so many sacks and returns (from kicks and turnovers, keep in mind our scoring for defenses is far from standard) they actually outscored the Steelers defense in our scoring style, despite Ben Roethlisberger throwing 6 touchdowns! Pretty amazing. He should have had negative points from that spot, but that is the ever-crazy DST position.
This Week’s Fantasy Football Defense Plays
That carries me perfectly to the start of my waiver target defenses for the week. Once again these are in order of how I would play them this week if they were all available to me. We will start with the…
1. Pittsburgh Steelers– This team has always been known, in my mind, for great defenses every single year. This year hasn’t been the same for the most part, yet it seems like the younger guys are starting to come into their own with the veterans pushing them in that direction. Let’s get serious though, you want to play these guys because they are going against the Jets. You should be a lot of opportunities for turnovers.
2. Tampa Bay Buccaneers– These guys as an entire team can’t seem to get winning. Lovie Smith is under fire and the coaches are ready to make some changes. That being said, there are some ballers on the defensive side for this team. The Atlanta Falcons and Matt Ryan are TERRIBLE on the road. This could be a great one.
3. Baltimore Ravens– These guys showed up and got pressure, made plays and returned a kick. It was all in a horrible losing effort in which they got pounded. I know this seems like an anomaly, but that is the winding path of the defensive fantasy spot. This week they have the Titans at home. There will not be 6 touchdowns scored against them this week (I hope).
Honorable mentions go to the Cowboys and the Falcons. I didn’t run with Dallas because I’ve given them a highlight twice here already, and I am taking a break picking defenses against Jacksonville. The Falcons are a dicey play since Tampa Bay will bench Glennon. Determining the outcome of a returning starter that was benched is tough, but if you need upside, you could gamble.
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