Monday Morning Takeaways – Week 14 Dec 10, 2012 | More
More articles from Eric Hartvigson

Denver 26, Oakland 13

Broncos

Owners of Demaryius Thomas got a scare as the WR1 was taken to the locker room in the first quarter of Thursday night’s matchup after injuring his shoulder. Scare averted as Thomas was able to return in the second half. Given 10 days to heal up, Thomas should be good-to-go facing a leaky Baltimore secondary.

Raiders

Rod Streater has jumped onto the scene of late picking up 196 yards and a touchdown over the past two weeks. In this game Streater’s highlight was a 58-yard strike off the arm of Carson Palmer. A Preseason deeeeep sleeper, if you are absolutely desperate at the wide receiver position, Streater could be a worth a look as an upper WR4.

St. Louis 15, Buffalo 12

Rams

On paper it would appear newcomer Chris Givens had a down game, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying as Givens was targeted a team high 10 times, but was only able to pull down three passes for 25 yards. Much blame could be placed on the inaccuracy of Sam Bradford, while Givens had a handful of drops. His day could have been respectable after nearly scoring a touchdown, but pushed out of bounds at the one yard line. Steven Jackson would eventually get the goal line plunge. With Minnesota next on the schedule, Givens remains a lower WR3 with upside.

Bills

Every week the postgame comments are the same from head coach Chan Gailey, “We need to get Spiller more involved.” And every week its Fred Jackson taking a majority of the Bills' snaps despite a decrease in yards per carry. However, next week I will assure you Spiller will lead the team in touches as F-Jax has suffered a “serious knee injury” after taking a helmet to the knee. Owners beware as the Bills face the stiff Seattle rush defense as Spiller is a mid-RB2.

Dallas 20, Cincinnati 19

Cowboys

Coming off back-to-back weeks of two targets, Miles Austin actually paced the Boys receivers with 10 targets. However, Austin was only able to pull down four receptions for 46 yards while being held out of the end zone. Austin has proven to a very risky start made even less attractive with the aforementioned Steelers next on the schedule.

Bengals

With the burnable Eagles secondary next on the schedule, Dalton should produce mid QB1 numbers. Furthermore, owners should be made aware of a Week 16 matchup with Pittsburgh forthcoming as Dalton would fall to a high end QB2.

BenJarvus Green-Ellis continues to produce at a high level tearing through the banged and battered Dallas defensive line averaging 7.4 yards per carry. Underutilized, the Law Firm only received 12 carries pulling down 89 rushing yards. Green-Ellis will be a mid/lower RB2 facing the 11^th ranked Philly rush defense next week.

Kansas City 7, Cleveland 30

Chiefs

The Chiefs started this game in high speed as Jamaal Charles took the opening handoff for an 80 yard touchdown. Dwayne Bowe then showed up adding 70 quick yards on the team’s next possessions. Just when things were looking up it all came crumbling down like a house of cards as Bowe would be forced out of the game with two broken ribs. The Chiefs offense sputtered for the remainder of the game, only crossing the 50-yard line once more.

Browns

Josh Gordon has one more plus matchup next week facing the 30^th ranked Skins pass defense. Get him in your lineup as a high end WR3. After that it’s back to the bench.

Veteran tight end Benjamin Watson has made his presence felt of late becoming a player of intrigue. Although the box score shows three receptions for 43 yards, what we don’t see are three red zone targets, one of which Watson hauled in for a touchdown negated by an illegal shift. Oddly enough Trent Richardson then caught the touchdown only to be called for offensive pass interference. Owners struggling at the tight end position could do worse than Watson who offers very low end TE1 appeal.

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