RADIO
No team will be playing with as much motivation this week as the Seattle Seahawks. In a NFC West battle with the Arizona Cardinals, Seattle trails by two games and will need a win at home to stay alive in the division race. Both teams had a bye last week and have been able to game plan for two weeks. This will likely become a defensive battle with more importance on the Seattle side. The Seahawks still have all the pieces to their elite defense and it should make a tough night for Arizona’s fantasy stars.
Carson Palmer, Larry Fitzgerald and Chris Johnson are the three stars most trustworthy this year on the Cardinals but the matchup should prevent them for reaching their usual value. The team will score a touchdown or two but it will be difficult to forecast which Arizona stars get to the end zone. Seattle will keep the yard totals down and that’s the bigger issue in banking on any of them this weekend. Even with a struggling start to the first half of the season, the Seahawks defense have given up the third least fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks and the least overall fantasy points to opposing running backs. The scary part about that stat is they’re only going to get better. Seattle has a record of 20-4 during the second half of the prior three seasons and that’s partly due to the defense improving in the stretch run of the year. The second half of the Seahawks season starts Sunday and you’re running away from the Cardinals offense in Week 10.
Another team that will likely bring a stifling defense to the field on Sunday will be the Denver Broncos. The Indianapolis Colts snapped the Broncos undefeated streak last week and made their usually dominant defense look mundane. Denver will be ready for a statement game against the lackluster Kansas City Chiefs offense. Without injured star running back Jamaal Charles, the Chiefs have no chance at putting up points on the Broncos tremendous defense. Denver will be looking to prove they are the team we saw for the first eight games of the season rather than last week and the best way to wash the taste of defeat out of their mouths is to shut down Kansas City. Jeremy Maclin is the only dynamic Chiefs offensive player and he’ll be contained by the Broncos. Cornerback Aqib Talib is suspended but Denver’s secondary is more than a one-man show. The Broncos give up the second least points to opposing wide receivers and Maclin is not going to change that stat.
