Stealing Points, Week 17: Sacks in San Diego

Because some of you are still fighting that good fantasy fight, here's another batch of Stealing Points, the placekicker and defense ranks. If you feel good about your methodology at these positions, terrific. Keep doing what you're doing. If you need someone to break a tie for you, here's why you might want me to be that guy. It's your team. It's up to you.

Generally speaking, I'd like my kickers and defenses to be from teams expected to win - the bigger the favorite, the better. Let's get game flow in our corner. Additionally, I'm not sure the Falcons or Bengals will take Week 17 seriously (they have nothing to play for), so they're slotted lower than you might expect.

Good luck in the last dance, gamers. Make us proud.

Defense/ST Ranks, Week 17
1. San Francisco 49ers (SF vs ARI)
2. Denver Broncos (DEN vs KC)
3. Seattle Seahawks (SEA vs STL)
4. San Diego Chargers (SD vs OAK)
5. Chicago Bears (CHI at DET)
6. New England Patriots (NE vs MIA)
7. Houston Texans (HOU at IND)
8. Buffalo Bills (BUF vs NYJ)
9. Cincinnati Bengals (CIN vs BAL)
10. Atlanta Falcons (ATL vs TB)
11. New York Jets (NYJ at BUF)
12. New York Giants (NYG vs PHI)
13. Green Bay Packers (GB at MIN)
14. Pittsburgh Steelers (PIT vs CLE)
15. New Orleans Saints (NO vs CAR)

The Big Three are fairly simple, name-brand defenses at home and in games they need. The Niners and Broncos also get to face weak opponents. The Chargers get a big boost after the 11-sack show in New York last week. I love the Bengals defense and wanted to go a lot higher with it, but how seriously will the Bengals take this game? When in doubt, I want to ride with a club that clearly has incentive.

Placekicker Ranks, Week 17
1. Shayne Graham (HOU at IND)
2. Stephen Gostkowski (NE vs MIA)
3. Matt Prater (DEN vs KC)
4. Kai Forbath (WAS vs DAL)
5. Blair Walsh (MIN vs GB)
6. Dan Bailey (DAL at WAS)
7. David Akers (SF vs ARI)
8. Steven Hauschka (SEA vs STL)
9. Matt Bryant (ATL vs TB)
10. Josh Brown (CIN vs BAL)
11. Nick Novak (SD vs OAK)
12. Lawrence Tynes (NYG vs PHI)
13. Justin Tucker (BAL at CIN)
14. Jason Hanson (DET vs CHI)
15. Garrett Hartney (NO vs CAR)

Graham gets everything we want, a solid offense, a strong defense, a dome game. Forbath has yet to miss all year, while the remarkable Walsh is 9-for-9 from 50-and-up. I really don't trust Akers in 2012, but he's ranked higher than usual because I expect San Francisco to throttle the Cardinals.