2012 Fantasy Football Week 7: Team Defense Rankings / Projections

Coming off a big win against the Patriots, you know the Seahawks smell blood in the water down in the Bay Area after the 49ers pathetic performance against the Giants. Stop the run and force San Francisco to put the football in Alex Smith’s hands, something Jim Harbaugh clearly doesn’t want to do, based off of the coaching staff's continued use of Colin Kaepernick—even when the team is down by 20 points.

As a 49ers fan, I can promise you this will be a hard-hitting game as both contests between these two teams were close and physical a year ago. While you won’t get a word out of Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh about a rivalry between the two coaches, you know it’s there.

Trouble is for San Francisco, they were beat down on Sunday by the New York Giants on both sides of the football. The Giants offense pounded on the defense, and because this is a Thursday night game, I have some reservations about the 49ers front seven holding up against Marshawn Lynch for four quarters.

You know the Seahawks players want to win this one for Carroll and I expect them to do so. They will shut the 49ers run game, they will force the game into Smith’s hands.

If San Francisco’s run defense wears down in this game like they did on Sunday, it will be another embarrassing loss for the favored team to win the NFC West.

What Did We Learn From Week Six?

- The Ravens defense is worth cutting from your team. With Lardarius Webb and Ray Lewis out for the rest of the season this defense will be abused at times. They are a prideful bunch and hopefully corners Jimmy Smith and Cary Williams can pick their games up, but Baltimore is going to have problems on defense.

- While the Bills are horrible at times, they’ve proven to be an accountable fantasy defense against teams they can size up on paper. The exception being the Jets this year, but as I’ve pointed out through the season, they’ve struggled against the Jets over the years anyway.

When this group plays well against the run, they play the type of defense we expected them to play before the season began.

Sean’s Week Seven Watch List

- The Giants were terrific in San Francisco but this week they face a Redskins team they lost to twice last season. While the front line got things going last week, expect Griffin to have another solid performance, making the Giants defense an average play.

- Chicago has been ridiculously good for fantasy football of late. Not really sure what to make of this weeks game as the Lions are fresh off an overtime victory against the Eagles. Can’t blame you if you stick with a hot defense, but I have to feel like Detroit will be up for a good game on Monday night.

- The Raiders had a spirited game against the Falcons last week and have a good matchup at home against the Jaguars this week. Let’s see if they continue to force turnovers for the second week in a row.

1	Seahawks	@ 49ers
2	Vikings	Cardinals
3	Patriots	Jets
4	Raiders	Jaguars
5	49ers	Seahawks
6	Bills	Titans
7	Packers	@ Rams
8	Cardinals	@ Vikings
9	Cowboys	@ Panthers
10	Bears	Lions
11	Texans	Ravens
12	Giants	Redskins
13	Redskins	@ Giants
14	Saints	@ Bucs

Week 7 Standard Rankings – QB | RB | WR | TE | Flex |