Fantasy football projections, Week 12: Rams-Bengals featuring Todd Gurley, Andy Dalton and Giovani Bernard

The Week 12 matchup between the St. Louis Rams and Cincinnati Bengals features its share of talent at the running back position in a game that is a huge mismatch on paper. We’ve got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.

Running back Todd Gurley finally had a game that made him look like a regular human being in Baltimore last week. He ran for just 66 yards despite carrying the ball 25 times. Still, Gurley managed to score a touchdown for the fifth week in a row, including a pair of scores back in Week 7. He’s the only fantasy player in St. Louis worth starting every single week, so although he has a tough matchup coming up against the Bengals, Gurley will likely find the end zone again. It’s going to happen because the Rams have to do everything they can to keep the game close, but even in garbage time Gurley will still get touches.

If you don’t own Gurley and for whatever reason you absolutely must have a Rams player in your lineup, the only one worth rostering right now is tight end Jared Cook. Quarterback Case Keenum found him four times last week for 31 yards. It wasn’t a good total but the team’s best wide receiver (Tavon Austin) caught just one pass for a 5-yard gain last week. So you should pretty much stay away from anybody on the Rams that isn’t a rookie running back.

Well, well, well, look who has cooled off all of a sudden. The Bengals have lost back-to-back games after starting the season undefeated. Fortunately, fantasy owners of quarterback Andy Dalton still got their money’s worth. He found himself in a shootout against the Arizona Cardinals last week and put together 315 passing yards and two touchdowns. Dalton should be all over the Rams. The only reason he won’t put up numbers is if teammates Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard have a field day on the ground, which could happen.

Speaking of Bernard, he has been out-snapping Hill recently and even though he usually doesn’t get as many carries as his teammate, Bernard is more gifted in the receiving game. His talents paid off big-time last week as the Bengals tried to come back against Arizona. While he only managed 18 yards on six carries, Gio posted 128 yards on eight catches. He likely won’t need to be that active against the Rams, but at least Bernard’s fantasy value is trending up as we approach the last drive to the postseason.