FANTASY FOOTBALL WEEKLY FEATURES

WAS (1-2) vs CLE (1-2)

Game Prediction: WAS 20, CLE 13

The Skins come off a short week and a disappointing close loss to the Cowboys that pretty much came down to the want of a single timeout on the final play. The Browns enter this week looking a little worse than the week before, which was worse than the week before that and the trend appears likely to continue.

Pre-Game Notes - WAS

There's no joy in the nation's capital when the Skins drop another game to Dallas but reason enough to expect the team will continue to improve.

Running Backs: Clinton Portis had 94 rushing yards on 23 carries with a few good runs but nothing to match his season opener. In fact, he's been only around three yards per carry this season once the big week one run is taken out. Portis will undoubtedly love the injury-decimated Browns defense.

Wide Receivers: After falling behind on Monday, the Redskins finally stopped trying to make Lavernues Coles be the main target ( 5 catches, 42 yards ) and concentrated on giving Rod Gardner his career best game by throwing to him 15 times for 10 receptions, 167 yards and two scores. That's not going to be the norm by any means and was thanks to the loss of CB Pete Hunter being replaced by a rookie.

Tight Ends: Chris Cooley continues to be good for around three catches a game and about 20 yards. He's also been a target in the endzone a couple of times already this season.

Match Against the Defense: This should be a great game for Portis thanks to the Browns losing even more personnel on defense, including LB Ben Taylor. Last week, Tiki Barber had 106 yards and one score and the previous was Eddie George with 62 yards and a score. Portis should likely double those numbers, particularly given the game situation should see the Browns struggle on offense and give Portis plenty of time to run in the game.

Look for Gardner to again have a good matchup that gave Toomer 126 yards last week. The passing game won't be nearly so big this week and the resulting numbers should be held lower from a game that is handled by the WAS defense and Portis running. The Skins need to win a game that they control and that means running. In CLE, this is a definite probability.

Pre-Game Notes - CLE

After beating the Ravens in week one, the Browns have gotten progressively worse and more injured. A homestand would be nice here but historically the Browns have not fared well even in front of their own fans.

Running Backs: Lee Suggs is slated to play this weekend and is back practicing full speed again. The Browns could use the spark. William Green had a good effort last week with 91 yards rushing but he doesn't get the extra yards or bounce that Suggs has shown during his limited playing time. What is interesting to see if the Browns follow their gameplan and mix and match both Suggs and Green in the rushing game but rest assured that if Suggs can show some early good runs, he will get the lion's share of the carries. Against a fairly tough and aggressive WAS defense, that's not likely to yield big numbers this week unless the Skins are still tired from Monday.

Update: Suggs has practiced but has not looked much better than he did the past two weeks. He is still a likely game time decision and even if he does play, he'll be wearing a neck brace and watching William Green get most the carries. I am still including Suggs for some token yardage but the most likely scenario is that Green takes most if not all the carries against the Redskins. It's a fairly tough defense, so neither are likely to do much in any case.

Wide Receivers: While Dennis Northcutt has been getting the most attention lately (in throws, not necessarily catches), it remains Quincy Morgan as the only wideout with a touchdown this season. The poor passing game has been a hard hit for this squad that is long on potential and short on 2004 stats. Neither Andre Davis or Morgan has more than three catches in a game this year. Northcutt as the #3 appears to have become the de facto "Winslow" now.

Tight Ends: They don't even block very well, let alone catch anything significant.

Update: Steve Heiden has returned to practice and is expected to start this week.

Match Against the Defense: The Browns would love to see the rushing game take life but it is not likely to happen this week. The Skins have not allowed more than 42 rushing yards to any runner this year and the CLE offense is still stumbling.

That would lead Garcia to needing to throw more and he will but that does not mean he will throw well. The aggressive scheme by the Skins pass defense should result in some turnovers and yet another game that Garcia struggles. The score will be low in this game and other than an optimistic-based use of Suggs for the first time this year, the rest of the offense doesn't look appealing for fantasy numbers this week once again.