Fathead Blog

I can’t believe it’s Week 13 in the NFL already. Feels like yesterday we were freaking out about potentially not having a football season. Now we’re watching quarterbacks drop like flies. The Bears, who I boldly predicted would win the Super Bowl many times over the past weeks, have lost Jay Cutler for the rest of the regular season and may miss the playoffs. The Texans lost Matt Schaub, then Matt Leinart, and are forced to start a rookie QB no one’s ever heard of. And Kyle Orton was dumped – and picked up by the Chiefs for some reason – instead of one of the two aforementioned teams that have strong playoff teams with a good quarterback. The NFL is in its midseason stride.

My predictions last week were terrible if you don’t include Beanie Wells. The Ohio State alum had a career day, recording 228 rushing yards and one touchdown in a game where I honestly did not know who won until I looked at it now.  Otherwise, the Green Bay-Detroit Thanksgiving Day game was not as high scoring as hoped (which I kind of predicted), Cam Newton led his team to a win despite only recording one touchdown, and the Texans defense did not destroy the Jaguars as I suspected, although limiting them to 13 points is pretty good as is forcing three turnovers. What’s Week 13 have in store for us?

Fantasy Football Predictions

Ray Rice

As I’ve said before, the Cleveland Browns have one of the worst run defenses in the league. They’ve gotten better over the last few weeks, but have also been facing lesser opponents. Look for the Ravens to feed the ball to Ray Rice this weekend, limit Flacco’s impact on the game, and run all over the Brownies.

Ray Rice should be a good start this week as the Ravens will be looking to run the ball against the Cleveland Browns.

Dez Bryant

He’s one of the most impressive young receivers in the league on an explosive Cowboys team. The surge of Laurent Robinson over the last week has left many fantasy football owners dismayed, including myself, at the lack of scores by Dez Bryant. But he’s still the number one receiver with Miles Austin out, and the best red zone target the team has hands down. The Cardinals don’t have a strong, physical corner that can man up with his physical nature, and have a bad pass defense in general, so look for him to find pay dirt this weekend.

Frank Gore / BenJarvus Green-Ellis

I’m going to pick on St. Louis and Indianapolis the rest of the season. Sure, their records are terrible, but that’s only the first half of it. Once the record gets bad, it’s legitimate to think the players will not try as hard. It’s not the right thing to do, but it’s a natural tendency.

I’ve seen this from the Colts over the past few weeks, so I’m convinced Green-Ellis will have a big game, despite New England’s inability (or choice) not to run the ball. St. Louis is giving more effort, but has similar results. The Niners actually run the ball, too, so Frank Gore should have a solid game.