Fantasy Football: How Thursday Night's Bears-Dolphins Game Impacts Your Team

Ryan LesterNov 19, 2010

Having players go in the Thursday night games gives you a little bit of advantage. If your players do good, you can perhaps be a little more cautious with your team. If your players did not put up good numbers, perhaps you will want to take a bigger risk, hoping for a bigger reward to make up for it. You also get a feel for your lineup, depending on how your opponents players did.

With the second Thursday night game in the books, let’s take a look at the fantasy ramifications.

Quarterbacks: Last week both Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco had great games. This week was not so much about quarterback play. Tyler Thigpen (187 passing yards, INT, 27 rushing yards) was one of our sleeper picks, but he just didn’t deliver. Losing Brandon Marshall for the second half didn’t help. Meanwhile, Jay Cutler (156 yards, INT, 28 rushing yards) was one of our sit suggestions. One out of two ain’t bad. If you did happen to start one of these two, you’ll have to make up the points somewhere.

Running Backs: If you started Matt Forte (104 total yards, TD), you probably had a hard time falling asleep because you were so giddy. If you rolled with Ronnie Brown (29 total yards), Ricky Williams (13 total yards) or Chester Taylor (10 yards), you may have woke up with nightmares.

If you started Forte, perhaps you don’t need to be as risky with your lineup (i.e. starting your backup tight end over Antonio Gates because you’re not sure what you’ll get from him on Monday). If you started someone from the terrible trio, you’ll have to make up those points.

Wide Receivers: There are only two WRs that were likely in fantasy lineups last night. Brandon Marshall (41 yards) let you down once again. He injured his hamstring to boot. It’s getting hard to rely on him. Johnny Knox (55 yards) got just enough to satisfy, but you certainly aren’t doing back flips over his performance. Kudos to you if you gambled on Brian Hartline (70 yards). Devin Hester (41 yards) didn’t quite deliver. My condolences if you started Davone Bess (9 yards) or Earl Bennett (13 yards). None of these performances should affect your roster decisions.

Tight Ends: Greg Olsen (40 yards) wasn’t a great play, and his score was not quite adequate. I hope for at least five points from my tight ends. Anthony Fasano (16 yards) shouldn’t have been in your lineups. Neither of these performances should affect your roster decisions.

Kickers: Dan Carpenter got skunked. Talk about a kick in the pants. He’s been one of the best fantasy kickers this year, and I got the goose egg from him in a couple of leagues. Fortunately, I was also riding the Bears defense in those leagues so I don’t have to do anything drastic. If you did start Carpenter, you may need to take some risks with your lineup.

On the flip side, Robbie Gould kicked three field goals (46, 24, 50) and a PAT. Talk about getting off on the right foot (pun intended). It’s a great start, no doubt, but not necessarily one that should impact your roster decisions.

Defenses: The Bears, led by Julius Peppers, got after the Dolphins. Not only did they record a shutout, but they racked up six sacks and a pick. It was an impressive start, and one that could allow you to be more cautious with your lineup.

The Dolphins were OK. They only allowed 16 points, which should have awarded you some points. Plus, they had three sacks and a pick. Not a great game, but a decent one. Certainly not a performance that will change any roster decisions.