Fantasy Football Week 13 Stats: Where Can We Expect Big Performances This Week?

Week twelve of the 2011 NFL season has come to a close, which means fantasy football playoffs are just around the corner. For many leagues, Week 13 represents the last week of the regular season. Other leagues either already started or will start in Week 15, but for the average fantasy football league, this is it.

Accordingly, folks will be looking for big performances from their fantasy stars in a week filled with intriguing matchups. One matchup many might ignore, but which has an intriguing fantasy matchup is the 49ers-Rams game on Sunday. Rams running back Steven Jackson is a fantasy stalwart who has had a solid season but has struggled a bit recently. He faces one of the top rushing defenses in the league on Sunday. He is generally a must-start, but if you have an alternative at the position, do you consider benching Jackson? I generally say stick with the must-starts like S-Jax, but some folks will choose otherwise.

The Philadelphia Eagles travel to Seattle to face the Seahawks with both teams stumbling through the season. It looks like we will see another week without Michael Vick, which means more Vince Young. Jeremy Maclin likely will also sit out another week, so folks who jumped on the Riley Cooper bandwagon could get one more big week from him.

The Houston Texans host the Atlanta Falcons in their second consecutive game with a new starting quarterback. They lost Matt Schaub before the bye week, then lost backup Matt Leinart last week. Now they've got T.J. Yates, Kellen Clemens and newly-signed Jake Delhomme. It sounds like Yates gets first crack at running the offense. They are a run-first offense behind Arian Foster and Ben Tate, so it will be interesting to see how that is impacted with opposing defenses more likely to stack the box against the running backs.

It all makes for what could be a wild week of football. Over the next week we'll break down some possible sleepers for the week ahead, as well as other generally big performances. Friday, Sunday and Monday we'll follow that up with a breakdown of all the pertinent fantasy performers.