Patriots vs. Colts Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 13

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 13 matchup between the Patriots and Colts.

Find a breakdown of every Week 13 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.

Trust = spike production for that player

Quarterback

Anthony Richardson: If you look at Richardson’s box score from Sunday, it will look like many early-season games. 

He completed 11-of-28 passes (39.3%) for 172 yards (6.1 Y/A) without a touchdown.

The Colts did have a dropped touchdown by Kylen Granson, while penalties negated three other completions of 20 or more yards.

There were missed plays, but I will not fully jump on the train of “look what Richardson did while completing 40% of his passes” because 21.4% of his passes were still inaccurate, the highest rate for a passer last week.

We knew Richardson was hyper-volatile against the Detroit pass defense, and the results bore that out.

Richardson is still a boom-or-bust QB2, but there were added signs for those still chasing a positive outcome paired with a favorable matchup.

He was pressured 43.3% of his dropbacks (4th highest in Week 12) and was not sacked.

From a clean pocket on Sunday, Richardson was 10-of-16 (62.5%) for 163 yards (10.2 Y/A).

The offensive line is down to a skeleton crew.

So far, the Colts have played 9 different starting offensive line combinations, and Shane Steichen announced that center Tanor Bortolini was placed in the concussion protocol. We are looking at the 10th different combination this weekend.

Bortolini was filling in for Ryan Kelley, who is on injured reserve.

The hope is that this makeshift line can hold up against the lackluster pass rush for New England.

New England is 28th in pressure rate (29.5%).

We saw him get another 10 rushes (61 yards), the second time he has hit double-digit attempts in as many weeks.

The Patriots have been a defense we have targeted recently for streaming.

They have allowed back-to-back top-6 scoring weeks to Matthew Stafford (27.8 points) and Tua Tagovailoa (28.5 points) while allowing over 17 fantasy points to Aaron Rodgers and Mason Rudolph over their past five games.

The Patriots are 27th in passing points allowed per attempt (0.499).

The natural added matchup appeal for Richardson is the use of play-action.

Richardson is 2nd in the NFL in rate of play action (34%).

The Patriots have allowed the league’s highest rating on play-action passes (132.3), a 74.7% completion rate (30th) for 9.3 Y/A (25th), and an 8.8% touchdown rate (31st).

Drake Maye: After opening his career with a pair of QB1 scoring weeks for fantasy, Maye has not gotten back to QB1 output in any of his past five starts. 

The positive news is that he has not bottomed out and has provided usable 2QB games. 

However, this offense still lacks the necessary components for a consistent runout of relying on Maye as a streamer in 1QB formats unless the matchup is ripe.

He is coming off a run of facing the Titans, Bears, and Dolphins in three of his past four games, all teams in the top 10 in passing points allowed per attempt.

His best fantasy week over that stretch was against the Rams (18 points), who were 28th entering the matchup.

The Colts are middle of the pack, sitting 17th (0.425).

We always highlight a player's performance against Cover 3 against the Colts since they use that coverage on a league-high 45.4% of passing plays.

Maye has faced more formidable opponents than the Colts, who deploy Cover 3, but his 63.2 rating is ahead of only Deshaun Watson (62.4) and Bryce Young (62.0). 

Against Cover 3, he has completed 64.6% of his passes (31st) for 5.6 Y/A ,(32nd) with 1 touchdown and 4 interceptions.

Maye can still create fantasy points through rushing. However, those coverage notes and his attachment to a 20-point team total keep him in the floor-based QB2 pocket of probability.

Running Back

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