Streaming Defenses: Week 8 Targets

Oct 26, 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 8 Streamers: 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 for 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 Kevin Zatloukal’s analytical model for streaming defenses. KZ’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 8.

Week 7 Review

Top Streamers

Las Vegas Raiders – 6 pts (t-DEF13)
New York Giants – 17 pts (t-DEF2)

Deep Plays

Atlanta Falcons – 6 pts (t-DEF13)
Seattle Seahawks – 8 pts (DEF9)

Bonus

New Orleans Saints – 9 pts (DEF8)

Our defensive streaming options this week averaged 15.2 points allowed to their opponents, adding 3.2 sacks and 1.2 turnovers. That’s a pretty solid performance, even without factoring in that one of our defenses forced a safety and another blocked a kick. Heck, we even reached the heights of streaming the DEF2 this week and no lower than the DEF13. In the bye weeks, that’s what we’re hoping for: you’ll have diminished offensive options, so a little higher of a floor from your defense helps you scoot through these sparer times.

If you were able to get my top streamer, the New Orleans Saints, you were rewarded with a five-sack outing on Monday night that led to the eighth-best performance on the week. If not, hopefully, the New York Giants – who almost blanked the falling-apart Carolina Panthers – were your unit of choice. The only game script that really broke badly for us was Atlanta, but they salvaged their day with that blocked kick.