It's gut check time. These are your fantasy football
semifinals. You need every ounce of
information you can find at this time.
And that's why you're tuned into today's Thursday night preview
between the Rams and the Seahawks.
And what a game it is. A battle for the NFC West.
Maybe home field advantage in the playoffs.
Glad you're here with me today on fantasy football almost
daily. Then on Friday, it's Fantasy
Friday on the show. We'll preview all 15 of the
remaining games this weekend, including the Saturday ones, the
Sunday ones, the Monday nighter will give you a few tough nuts
to crack and see about 9 guys you can roll the dice on.
It'll be me, it'll be Trevor Jones, it'll be Kent Wyrock.
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Let's get to that Thursday night matchup.
But first hit me with some tunes Tate from the sports hub games
network. This is fantasy football almost
dated with your host Matt Harrison.
It's a me a Matt Harrison back again.
You can find me on Twitter or blue sky at explosive output to.
And today we're keeping it short and sweet.
We're going to preview that Thursday night game with
beautiful metallic grades of gold, silver or bronze.
Before we get to that, wherever you're listening or watching
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Let's get this thing kicked off as these two teams are both 11
and 3. The stakes are incredibly high
for both reality and fantasy football.
So this one's super important and we're going to start on the
Rams side and we're going to talk about the wide receiver
position 1st and we're going to start with Devante Adams, who's
in a tough spot as I record this on Wednesday afternoon.
I'd say his chances to play are slim.
He's dealing with two injuries, one to his knee and one to his
hamstring. He hasn't practiced yet this
week. I think the hamstring is the one
that knocked him out of the game last week and has the potential
to keep him out again this week. And you got to think about it.
The Rams have designs to make it to the Super Bowl and the NFC is
wide open. While home field is great for
them, I think they could exercise caution with Devante
Adams, who's been a huge part of their offense this year, and
keep him and his hamstring on the bench in a short week.
But let's just say for the sake of argument, he plays.
He was knocked out of the game with the injury last week.
Recurrence is a very real possibility here.
I'd have to give him a bronze grade and that's about the best
I could do. In the meeting a month ago,
Adams only caught one ball for one yard and one touchdown.
That was good. He caught it against Tariq
Woollen, who tends to stick to the perimeter wide receivers.
And that's where Adams is. If he doesn't play, I expect a
match up of Pukanakua, the number one ranked wide receiver
by Pro Football Focus, against Devin Witherspoon, the number
one ranked cornerback by Pro Football Focus.
Now, Witherspoon does shadow a little bit, but the Rams were
able to scheme Puka away from Witherspoon in the first match
up, mainly because I think they had Adams too.
Puka had seven for 75 in that game.
It's definitely a strength versus strength.
I'll extend the silver grade to Puka, which is about the worst
he can be rated in any game ever.
It's a higher grade of silver if Adams can go because then I
think that they have to flex Witherspoon off of Puka a little
bit. No one is afraid of 22 Atwell or
Kanata Mumpfield. I did not make that name up.
He's the other wide receiver who would be starting in place of
Devante Adams. Colby Parkinson scored in the
prior meeting with the Seahawks and it's a revenge game for him.
Parkinson has come on recently with six touchdowns in his last
six games, including two last week.
He also had five catches for 75 yards against the Lions over the
last five weeks. He's tight end #3 in fantasy
football with only Trey McBride and Kyle Pitts having more
fantasy points. So we all knew it was going to
be Kyle Pitts and Cody Parkinson at the end of Colby Parkinson.
At the end of the year, Seattle has allowed the third most
receptions and the fourth most yards to opposing tight ends.
So I'm giving Colby Parkinson a solid silver grade here.
Matthew Stafford faces a tough test in his prior match up with
the seat or with the Seahawks. He did complete 2 touchdown
passes, but that was really about it.
Only 28 passing attempts in that game.
That was his second lowest mark of the season.
Only 15 completions in that game.
That was his lowest of the season.
Only 130 passing yards. That was by far his lowest mark
of the season. And only one quarterback in the
last five games has completed just 20 passes against Seattle.
Only two of the last 7 quarterbacks they've faced have
hit the 200 yard mark. Still, Stafford has thrown for
multiple touchdown passes in eight straight games.
I've got silvers on Puka and Parkinson.
I think Stafford gets a silver here too, but it's a shaky
silver. Then there's Kyron and Korum,
who've formed a 1-2 punch in the last few weeks.
Both of them have scored a touchdown in three straight
weeks. Both have hit at least 70
rushing yards in three straight weeks.
They've not been using their backs in the passing game hardly
at all, though, and this has been for a long time.
Week 5 was the last time any Rams back had more than two
catches, 2 in a game. Seattle is number one in yards
per carry allowed at only 3.5. They're number 2IN rushing
touchdowns allowed, only four on the year.
Chiron got one of them and they're #3 in rush yards allowed
per game, but they're bottom five in receptions and receiving
yards allowed to opposing backs. They've actually given up the
most receptions to running backs this year.
So the passing path is the way to go for the runners.
How'd they do in that Week 11 match up?
Kyron had one catch for five yards.
Korum had one catch for -5 yards.
So 2 catches for 0 yards combined.
I'll threw a Shibuichi which is between a bronze and a silver on
Kyron. He has been the past catcher in
the past. He's got an 8 reception game way
back in week 5. He still gets more touches too,
so Kyron gets the better grade and a commercial bronze grade on
Korum. I'm afraid he just can't get
enough done with the 11 to 12 touches he's getting per game
right now. He's been pretty efficient with
them so far, but I think that this is a different matchup.
Over to the Seahawks side. It's the one and only gold grade
in this game and it goes the Jackson Smith and Jigba from the
slot. Last week, the Lions torched
this Rams defense and it was Amon Ross St.
Brown going for 13 catches, 164 yards and two scores on 18
targets. That stat line is certainly in
play for the league leader and receiving yards.
By the way, he JSN is only 6 receptions behind Puka for the
league lead in that category and five touchdowns behind Devante
Adams for the league lead in that category.
So if JSN just has an ultra day, maybe gets 6 touchdowns in that
game, he's got he's back to the league, league lead in
everything and he had 9 catches for 1:05 in the first meeting.
I think he's solid gold in this one.
Here, I'll give you one of these.
I love gold. There you go Rashid Shaheed gets
a bronze grade and I'll leave Cooper Cup on the bench.
Both of these players got 7 targets last week.
Both of them got 5 catches last week.
But Shaheed had 74 yards and cup only 46.
Cup has only topped 50 yards three times this season and he's
only scored twice. And it's a big revenge game
angle for him too. I just don't know if he still
has it. I think Sean McVeigh might have
been right. He just doesn't have it anymore.
Shaheed matches up with Emmanuel Forbes most often.
Forbes has allowed A-Team high 6 touchdowns in his coverage this
year and has allowed 14 catches on 18 targets in just the last
three weeks. So like Shaheed a little bit
more here. Sam Darnold gets a silver grade.
The Seahawks will have to pass to keep pace in this game.
I think Darnold can do it. In the first meeting, he had 279
yards. The Rams have allowed multiple
touchdown passes in three straight games, and that was to
Bryce Young, Jacoby Brissett and then last week to Jared Goff.
Four of the last five quarterbacks who started and
finished a game against the Rams have hit 270 yards.
So. And it's also worth noting a
little on the downside for Darnold, that his left tackle,
Charles Cross, might not be able to go on this one.
They're trying to get him ready, but he hasn't practiced yet this
week. He's got a hamstring injury.
I don't know if a hamstring injury is as important to a left
tackle as it is to maybe a wide receiver who's running full
speed down the field. Maybe they can get him up and
get him going, but that's iffy at best for Charles Cross.
Finally, the running game for the Seahawks.
That's on the bench. Charbonnet and Walker basically
split only 18 touches last week and only 20 touches the week
before. That's just not enough volume to
get it done for two backs who are basically just splitting the
work. And the Rams are an incredibly
tough matchup. They're allowing only 3.75 yards
per carry. That's third best, only 78
rushing yards per game, that's 7th best and most importantly,
only three rushing scores all year, which is the best in the
league. But notably, Kenneth Walker is
one of those touchdowns. I still wouldn't buy him as
repeating that though this week. That's it for the match up.
A reminder on Game Blazers. Get in on the action over at
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Learn more at gameblazers.com. We'll be back tomorrow with
Trevor Jones to preview this week's favorite DFS plays.
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