San Diego Chargers @ Cincinnati Bengals
|
SD |
$$ |
CIN |
$$ |
|
Philip Rivers |
$8,100 |
Andy Dalton |
$8,700 |
|
Ryan Mathews |
$7,400 |
Gio Bernard |
$5,900 |
|
Danny Woodhead |
$5,500 |
B. Green-Ellis |
$5,100 |
|
Keenan Allen |
$6,500 |
AJ Green |
$8,800 |
|
Marvin Jones |
$5,300 |
Another AFC home and away rematch as these two teams met on December 1 and played a fantasy coma inducing 17-10 game. Luckily for us, the Bengals and Andy Dalton are a completely different team in Cincinnati and are on a nine game home winning streak. Over his past five home starts, Dalton has averaged 25.9 fantasy points. Even including road starts, Dalton has for thrown multiple scores in nine of his past 11 contests.
Not only does the favorable matchup and home start line up nicely for Dalton, but it’s even more appealing for being able to attach himself to AJ Green. Green has five for 83 and a score in the first game, and has 80 or more receiving yards in eight of his past 11 games to go with eight touchdowns.
Jones was pretty nonexistent in the first game (two catches for 12 yards) but has 12 or more points in the four games since. At his cost all you’re looking for is a touchdown, something he’s very good at doing. 10 of his 51 receptions this season reached the paint and four of those came from inside the opponents’ 10-yard line.
The Law Firm did have his highest rushing yardage total (92 yards) on the ground in the first game on 20 carries if you’re feeling really dependent on him scoring a touchdown or the Bengals controlling this game from beginning to end. 180 of his 220 (82 percent) of his carries came with the game tied or with Cincy leading.
Bernard will be used no matter what game flow dictates as he’s had 14 or more touches in seven consecutive weeks and reach double digit scoring in five of his past eight. His salary makes him a real attractive option.
There’s no way you’re going near Rivers in this game. The Bengals have allowed multiple passing touchdowns in just two of their past nine games and only two 300-yard passing games over the same stretch. The volume could exist to inflate his totals, but there’s little upside in rolling with Rivers while you’re depending on out of hand game script.
Woodhead is in a similar scenario. He hasn’t played in 50 percent of the Charger offensive plays since week nine and has just 27 receptions over the final eight games of the season after totaling 49 in his first eight. That’s because Mathews has been surging and Mike McCoy is using that run game and ball control to hide his subpar defense.
Mathews has played 52 percent of the snaps over the past seven games, leading the NFL in rushing with 716 yards over that run. He was the sixth highest scorer at running back during that time, averaging 16.7 points per game and scoring over 11.7 in every one of those games. He even had just five fewer receptions (18) than Woodhead during that time. He did only rush for 61 yards in the first meeting, but has carried the ball at least 14 times in eight consecutive weeks.
