All About the Solo: Week 15

One of the most frustrating things in IDP leagues is seeing your stud linebacker fly all over the field on game days only to see the home score keeper dilute his performance by divvying up his tackles as assists. On the flip side, if your league doesn’t score solos and assists too differently, you’ll have a better idea of which teams hand out assists like candy.

Not everyone knows this, but the NFL does not recognize a tackle as an official statistic. Tackles are scored by the home team’s official score keeper and those are the stats you see on the news and websites. The league made an effort to standardize what is and isn’t a solo tackle back in 2007 when they sent a video to all NFL teams, but it is still the discretion of the home score keeper. Even after this effort there is a still a large discrepancy from team to team and week-to-week. I will be tracking this throughout the season to give you a better idea of what to expect when choosing your IDPs each week.

As I look ahead to championship week of the 2017 fantasy season, I see a couple of games jumping out at me for IDP breakouts. The first I’m looking at is the Seahawks at the Cowboys. The Seahawks should get a much healthier Bobby Wagner for this must-win showdown with the Cowboys who are getting Ezekiel Elliott back from suspension. Week 14 saw the Seahawks get straight up punched in the mouth by Todd Gurley and the Los Angeles Rams. For the first time in a very long time, this Seahawks defense looked helpless. Gone are the “Legion of Boom”, gone was K.J. Wright and they were forced to trot out Bobby Wagner at far less than 100%. After the Cowboys failed to register a single sack against the Raiders, I expect to see them bounce back this week. Look for DeMarcus Lawrence and Maliek Collins to get after Russell Wilson in a big way.

The other game I think could be interesting is the Giants at the Cardinals. With Eli Manning and Blaine Gabbert quarterbacking two less-than-stellar offenses against attacking defenses, I expect the turnover total and number of sacks to be very high. The main guy I expect to wreak havoc is a man who has been doing it all year; Chandler Jones of the Cardinals. He has already set a career high with 15 sacks this year and has a realistic shot of reaching 20 with the Giants and Seahawks’ pathetic offensive lines ahead of him. The bottom line is Jones is locked into my lineups this week as a potential game-changer. On the other side of the field, Olivier Vernon recorded his first sack since week 12 and looked good. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him bring Gabbert down more than once this weekend.

Predicting interceptions is one of the hardest things to do in fantasy leagues, but my top play at cornerback this week is Prince Amukamara of the Bears. They are taking on the turnover-prone DeShone Kizer and the Cleveland Browns. Amukamara is already one of the safest plays at corner due to his tackling ability but he was playing aggressively last week against the Lions and I believe he’ll get a pick this week.

Follow me on Twitter @OlingerIDP.