Both teams faced off earlier this season in Week 10 when MD Nuts won convincingly. However if last week’s wildcard matchup proved anything, this Bruce Almightys team does not care about the past matchups or point differentials of the regular season. This is a new motivated solid team that will try to pull off the upset (despite being favored by ESPN with a 55% win probability) of the defending champion and back to back #1 seed in MD Nuts. Let’s take a look at the matchup by position.
Quarterbacks: When you have named your fantasy team after a player, you are pretty convinced that player is incredible. And Patrick Mahomes is exactly that. Despite missing two games this season, Mahomes enters the game as QB6 on the year and will face a stingy Denver defense that is ranked 10th against quarterbacks this season. On the other side of the ball you have an interesting choice between Gardner Minshew and Ryan Fitzpatrick but for now let’s focus on who is in the starting lineup: Minshew. Minshew has had an interesting season up to this point starting from when he was the talk of the town after Foles’ injury which then led him to being benched upon Foles return and then reinserted as the starter recently. Despite the easy matchup against a 30th ranked Oakland defense against fantasy QBs, I can’t in good conscious favor many quarterbacks against Mahomes in a head to head matchup and I won’t do that this week either.
Running Backs: I like this matchup for Bruce who can utilize a strong backfield of Chubb and Hyde to counter the single running set that MD Nuts has been employing most of the season. Chubb. Despite the horrible utilization by the Browns, the fact remains that Chubb is one of the best running backs in the field with some of the greatest yard per carry averages in the league. Look at this, in games with 20+ carries his YPC average for the season have been 4.2, 8.3, 6.1, 6.6, 3.3, 5.8, 3.4, 5.0 and last week he posted a 7.1 yard per carry average on only 15 carries. The touchdown dry spell (one touchdown in the last seven weeks) is a concern but if there was an opportunity score a couple of times, it would be this week against the 21st ranked Arizona defense. Lesean McCoy has been a little bit disappointing and inconsistent this season but is the starter in one of the greatest offenses in modern history. His tough matchup against Denver doesn’t look inspiring on paper but this team is all in on the Chiefs having a big week. I give the big edge to Bruce here with the much stronger run game.
Wide Receivers: This matchup is where the bread is buttered for both teams. Both receiver cores have been difficult to gauge, inconsistent at times but has some opportunities for big points. This matchup will feature Emmanuel Sanders, Jarvis Landry, Tyrell Williams and Golden Tate versus Stefon Diggs, Michael Gallup and Darren Waller. It will be an allstar game and where the matchup is decided in my opinion. The matchups heavily favor MD Nuts who will see Landry facing a 27th ranked ARI defense, Sanders facing a 22nd ranked ATL defense and Tate facing a 31st ranked MIA defense. Bruce will face tougher matchups with Digg facing the 3rd ranked LAC defense and Gallup facing a 10th ranked LAR defense, but I love the talent in all three spots from Bruce (I am not crazy about Tyrell Williams or Golden Tate). I’m going heart over head and picking Bruce by a razor thin margin.
Bali’s Prediction: I’m going with the upset: Bruce wins this one 82-80.
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