Streaming Defenses: Week 14 Targets

Dec 07, 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 14 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 14.

Week 13 Review

Top Streamers

Kansas City vs. DEN – 17 pts. (t-DEF3)
Minnesota Vikings at DET – 6 pts. (t-DEF14)

Deep Plays

Las Vegas Raiders vs. WAS – 4 pts. (t-DEF18)
New York Giants at MIA – 3 pts. (t-DEF20)

This was a fairly feast-or-famine week for the defensive streamer column. Thank goodness Kansas City and Minnesota were available in plenty of leagues; hopefully, KC carried you to an elite finish this week, or the Vikings bore you off to an almost-startable one. Kansas City held a team to single-digit points for the third time in four games and forced three turnovers for the second game in a row. The defensive touchdown put the cherry on top of a dominant performance. Minnesota also forced multiple turnovers and also racked up three sacks but couldn’t keep the opposition’s scoring in check enough.

Las Vegas didn’t actually have a bad outing, holding their opponents to 17 points, but just one sack and one turnover weren’t enough to make up for the mediocre profile elsewhere. The Giants similarly had a fairly empty two-sack performance. Some of the pieces were there for these two teams, they just didn’t end up fitting together properly.