Fantasy Football Week 8 Start or Sit: QB Andy Dalton

By Chris Lehman @chrisbreezy91 on October 25, 2014

One year removed from being a top-five fantasy quarterback, Andy Dalton has struggled to live up to his preseason statistical expectations. While the Cincinnati Bengals are playing well, The Red Rifle is not a great play this week in fantasy football with a matchup against the Baltimore Ravens.

Dalton is in the bottom half of fantasy quarterbacks this year, coming in at 23rd through the Bengals’ first six games. The Ravens have allowed the eighth-fewest points to opposing arms at 14.4 per game. When the two teams met in Week 1, Dalton had a nice day, throwing for 301 yards and a touchdown. A.J. Green, however, had 131 of those yards as well as the touchdown, and with the superstar receiver listed as “doubtful,” the Bengals gunslinger won’t have the same success he did seven weeks ago.

With Giovani Bernard a little banged up and the Ravens facing an average of 39 pass attempts a game, there is a chance Dalton will surprise and put up big numbers. But as stated before, without Green dominating the outside, where are those 39 attempts going to go? Mohamed Sanu, Bernard and Jermaine Gresham? With a shortage of viable receivers, chances are Marvin Lewis will turn to his duo in the backfield of Bernard and rookie Jeremy Hill and resorts to a more conservative approach.

Unfortunately for the Bengals, the Ravens also boast the top-ranked fantasy run defense. Either way, it’s a lose-lose situation for Dalton. If the ground game is working, he won’t throw too much. If they can’t run the ball, they’ll become one-dimensional, which is exactly what you can’t do when you don’t have a legitimate No. 1 receiver.

For Week 8, sit Dalton.