Rent-A-Defense: Week 12

Week 11 Results

Detroit (vs Jacksonville) - 1 sack, 1 INT, 6 pts allowed

This was a lot more lopsided than the D/ST stats indicate. The Lions offense is staking the defense to big leads, don’t get discouraged by this result.

A Look Ahead: @IND CHI GB - Lions D/ST or bust

Houston (at Dallas) - 5 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 1 INT, 1 DEF TD

This was the best D/ST play of the week. Cooper Rush giveth, and giveth, and giveth.

A Look Ahead: TEN @JAX BYE - No reason to go away from the Texans until their bye.

Miami (vs Las Vegas) -  3 sacks, 1 INT

Not a bad result by Week 11 standards, but Gardner Minshew II was actually safe with the ball in his comeback attempt, and he didn’t get benched!

A Look Ahead: NE @GB NYJ - The Patriots offense was good for multiple sacks and takeaways allowed last week, so the Dolphins remain a good play.

LA Rams (at New England) - 3 sacks, 1 fumble recovery, 1 INT

The Patriots hung around in this one, but there was still a decent amount of D/ST points for the Rams to harvest from Drake Maye and company.

A Look Ahead: PHI @NO BUF - The Rams could get back on our target list in Week 16 against the Jets.

NY Jets (vs Indianapolis) - 2 sacks, 1 fumble recovery

It ends up Anthony Richardson learned something during his benching. He’s not nearly as fun to target with a D/ST play as Joe Flacco.

A Look Ahead: BYE SEA @MIA - The Jets D/ST flies off into the sunset.

New Orleans (vs Cleveland) - 3 sacks

Jameis Winston played from behind and didn’t throw a pick or fumble!

A Look Ahead: BYE LAR @NYG - We’ll come back to the Saints in Week 14 and Week 17 (Las Vegas).

Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda

Week 11 was one of the quietest D/ST slates in recent memory. Other than the Texans, only the Broncos, Steelers, and Vikings, who are all likely rostered, had D/ST performances that even moved the needle. None of them were above the 10-point standard scoring threshold used to identify D/ST plays for this weekly section.