Streaming Defenses: Week 12 Targets

Nov 23, 2021

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I’m old enough to remember a time in TV history when cable was a luxury and adjusting the “bunny-ears” antennae was a way of life. Whenever tuning the signal dial just wasn’t cutting it, you had to adjust the tin foil crunched around the end of the “ears”. Satellite TV back then sounded like a sci-fi fever dream. Even if you had the better services, there still weren’t that many channels to choose from.

Now, though, we are firmly in the era of streaming.

More Week 12 Streaming: QB | TE | K

So many options are just a click away these days, and all on-demand. You don’t have to get tied down to one provider. Sure, not every choice is available all the time, and you don’t always know where to look among what’s available. Still, that’s what this column is for: to guide you through the world of streaming… defenses.

I explained in my introductory article to the concept that streaming defenses is one of the most sound ways to approach the position in fantasy football, as well as how to do it, and what to look for from a statistical perspective in a defensive streamer.

This column will combine that approach with our own Sam Hoppen’s analytical model for streaming defenses. Sam’s model utilizes Vegas lines for predicting points scored by the opposing defense, opposing quarterback history for interception rates, and both the offense and defense’s history of allowing sacks – the most predictive parts of defensive scoring on a weekly basis.

With all that out of the way, let’s dim the lights and press play on the main feature. Here are four defenses to consider picking up ahead of Week 12.

Week 11 Review

Top Streamers

Carolina Panthers vs. WAS – 5 pts. (t-DEF16)
Los Angeles Chargers vs. PIT – -1 pts. (DEF29)

Deep Plays

Philadelphia Eagles vs. NO – 11 pts. (t-DEF5)
Las Vegas Raiders vs. CIN – 4 pts. (t-DEF18)

Boy, this was a rough one. We were able to identify the Philadelphia Eagles as a strong option last week in the slogfest that was their game against the New Orleans Saints, but even their day wouldn’t have been as good without the pick-six from cornerback Darius Slay. For the Los Angeles Chargers, they did rack up three sacks, but the woeful Pittsburgh Steelers offense picked things up and turned this game into a 78-point shootout. Hard to know that’s where things would end up, but still not a good feeling for one of our top streaming plays.

Let’s do better this week by looking at some bad defensive units with elite matchups against terrible offenses.