New Orleans Saints at Philadelphia Eagles
|
NO |
$$ |
PHI |
$$ |
|
Drew Brees |
$10,400 |
Nick Foles |
$9,600 |
|
Pierre Thomas |
$5,400 |
LeSean McCoy |
$9,800 |
|
Marques Colston |
$5,800 |
DeSean Jackson |
$7,800 |
|
Lance Moore |
$4,900 |
Riley Cooper |
$5,500 |
|
Jimmy Graham |
$7,600 |
Brent Celek |
$4,500 |
Now we can have some fun as Vegas projects this game to be the highest scoring tilt (53 points) of the four games. Early weather reports are projecting only severely cold weather, with the snow coming beforehand. The Saints road woes are well documented, but let’s move away from the usual focus on the splits of Drew Brees and focus on how the Saints defense fails to travel.
| NO Defense | ||
|
HOME |
CAT. |
AWAY |
|
15.6 |
PPG |
22.4 |
|
176.5 |
PASS YD |
211.6 |
|
5.1 |
Y/A |
7.4 |
|
93.8 |
RUSH YD. |
129.5 |
|
28 |
SACKS |
21 |
The Saints only allowed two top 12 quarterbacks on the season, but that yards per attempt jump on the road isn’t going to push you off of Foles if you desire to pony up. Foles was nearly every bit as strong as Peyton Manning from a fantasy consistency standpoint all season, posting seven top six weeks in ten starts. He hasn’t met this salary in his past two games however, and I’ll be looking to spend my big chips in this one on McCoy.
At a price a little cheaper than Charles and in a game that should have a higher snap count that the early affair, I’ll gladly take the leagues yards from scrimmage leader this weekend as my lead back. The Eagles run the football 31.2 times per game, good for fourth best in the league and the Saints run defense hasn’t traveled at all when they can’t fly off the ball. They allowed five backs to reach 90 yards rushing and three to reach 130 yards on the road to go along with seven of their 11 rushing touchdowns surrendered on the season.
Celek is the punt play at tight end this weekend. He’s scored in three of his past five and met value in four of his past seven. You can pair either Eagle receiver with Foles if you want, but the Saints have only allowed one 100-yard receiver this season (Alshon Jeffery). While I anticipate to Foles to be just fine, I believe it will be spread around rather than creating a massive stack play.
Brees is still going to throw for a ton of yardage in this one, so don’t completely run and hide. Even though his TD/INT ratio is lousy on the road (12/9 as opposed to 27/3 at home), he’s still throwing for 290 yards per game away from the Bayou. The Eagles are more than accommodating to big passing yardage, as Matt Cassell and Kyle Orton both have touched them up for over 350 yards in the past three weeks. I personally won’t be paying for him since he’s the most expensive quarterback, but I’m confident that Brees is still going to deliver.
Graham is a real attractive play and his price hasn’t moved from last week at all, so lock him in where you can. Philly just allowed a 12 catch, 135 yard game to Jason Witten and a five catch, 85 yard game to Martellus Bennett the previous week. He’ll be a constant nightmare for any defender that Philadelphia throws his way.
Colston is good to go as well, finishing the season with an unspectacular, yet solid second half. Over the final eight games, Colston averaged six receptions on 8.9 targets for 75 yards per game and scored four of his five touchdowns on the season. He topped 60 yards receiving in six of those games.
Lance Moore is a decent cost saving play this weekend at receiver that should meet his sticker price. After being invisible for the first 13 games, he topped 70 yards in two of the final three with 13 receptions. He’s also gotten his legs back, posting two 30-yard catches in those games to go with 15 targets (third on the team behind Colston and Graham). The Eagles have been roasted by secondary receiving options all season, making Moore a nice sleeper in a game sure to feature a lot of passing volume.
I want to trust Thomas or even Darren Sproles ($4,500) if Thomas can’t suit up, but I just can’t. Sproles has played over 20 snaps just once in the past five weeks and just isn’t being used in the passing game near the goal line like he was the past two seasons. Without the benefit of a full point per catch, I’ll leave him be.
