Ray Rice @ Patriots - Playing against one of the better defenses in football Ray Rice failed to put up start worthy numbers in his first playoff game of the year. Heading to New England, Rice will play against the team he had his best playoff performance against a few years ago when he broke off an 80-yard touchdown run on the first play of the game. The Ravens have come close to finding the Super Bowl in r ...

Hakeem Nicks @ 49ers - In case you fell into the trap that the media seemed to set about Victor Cruz being the only big-play threat in New York, true No.1 Hakeem Nicks has stepped up and put together back to back monster games in the playoffs. This week should be a greater challenge for Nicks as the 49ers tend to do a better job wrapping up (with an exception to the Jimmy Graham touchdown in the fourth quar ...

Alex Smith vs. Giants - If you happened to have Alex Smith in your lineup last week, you were pleasantly surprised to see him not only throw for 299 yards and three touchdown passes, but run for a 28-yard score as well. As a 49er fan, it refreshing to see what can happen for a team and a quarterback when quality coaches come on board and actually put their players in situations to win. For all the hell Smit ...

Rob Gronkowski vs. Ravens - The Broncos must have ticked Rob Gronkowski off after their regular-season meeting when they held him in check for only four receptions for 53 yards, as they forced Tom Brady to throw the football to fellow tight end Aaron Hernandez. Well, in the rematch Gronkowski went off for arguably his best game as a pro with ten receptions for 145 yards and three touchdowns. I'm not sure wh ...

What a wild week of games in the NFC, and while many figured we would be talking about the Saints and Packers playing this Sunday, instead we have a very interesting game between the 49ers and Giants. Both teams are red hot, and both teams won last week with opportunistic defenses that creating turnovers throughout the game. All that said, it's going to be a hard challenge going forward for any team defense ...

Ahmad Bradshaw, Brandon Jacobs @ Packers - Hopefully, you watched the Giants play against the Falcons on Sunday, because Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs put together one of the better games, I've seen from them in years. When this duo is at its best, you can see them feeding off the others play, running tough and fighting for every last yard. This was the type of effort that has NFL experts talking about ...

Demaryius Thomas @ Patriots - After being the top receiver taken at the 2010 draft, injuries have plagued Demaryius Thomas and limited his ability to flash the skills that had many hyped about his NFL prospects coming out of Georgia Tech. While Thomas took over fellow receiver Eric Decker's role as Tim Tebow's number one receiver a month ago, it was his dominant performance against Ike Taylor on Sunday that ...

Drew Brees @ 49ers - In what could be the hardest matchup Drew Brees will face all year, fantasy owners should still expect him to throw for over 300 yards and a couple of scores in San Francisco. Where Brees may have some problems is if the 49ers can stuff the run, and push the pocket back in his face like the Lions front line did in the first half of last weeks' game. Even if San Francisco has trouble sac ...

Aaron Hernandez vs. Broncos -  The last time New England faced the Broncos (less than a month ago); they did a good job of taking away Wes Welker and Rob Gronkowski as they dared Tom Brady to beat them with other weapons. Aaron Hernandez made them pay with nine receptions for 129 yards and a score, proving he more than capable of hurting opposing defenses. Other the final three weeks, Hernandez had two game ...

Last week the Steelers were a trendy top defense to draft in playoff fantasy leagues for the wild-card round, as it appeared teams had caught up to Tim Tebow's tendency's and surely Pittsburgh would capitalize with a solid performance. Well, Tebow Time struck again with another surprising victory, as the Steelers did a poor job of setting the edge on the left side of the field, which allowed Tebow to make k ...