Week 14 Flash In The Pan Alert: Quinton Ganther

Jermichael Finley...you glorious son of a gun! You made it happen for me last week. Now I hope you are anything BUT a flash in the pan. My whole playoffs might depend on you.

How do I follow that one up? I think my strategy should not be to find the next guy who is going to have a great rest of the season. Instead, I want to try and find a guy who is going to have a great week THIS week and probably not many or ANY other weeks. In other words, a true flash in the pan.

Enter Quinton Ganther, the 4th starting running back for the Washington Redskins. This week he replaces Rock Cartwright in the starting lineup. This week the Skins travel to Oakland to take on the 29th overall defense in the league. Against the run, the Raiders rank 30th. They give up 4.6 yards per carry and over 158 yards per game.

The problem for Ganther will be that the Redskins are ridiculously pass-happy. They threw it 42 times last week against the Saints, against 25 rushes. Add to that the Skins have a patchwork offensive line and you might be wondering why I would gamble on Ganther.

The Raiders are much better against the pass, currently ranked right in the middle of the league. They will be daring the Skins to run all day long and if Washington can have any early success at all moving the ball on the ground, they will surely keep it as part of their offense all day.

Finally, Ganther is fresh. Most running backs have been pounded for three months by now. He has not. I seriously doubt Ganther is unavailable in many leagues. After checking out a few national fantasy sites, it actually looks like he is available in over 75% of leagues. And he is made with bits of real Ganther...so you know he’s good. (name the movie reference)

If you can make a late substitution this week, consider Quinton Ganther as a way to score a unique advantage in your playoffs.