Need your expert advice for tonight's game.

Hi Guru-

Need your expert advice.  Heading into tonight's game, I am currently down by 5.74 points.  My opponent have one player left on his roster... Hakeem Nicks.  Whereas, I have two players left on my roster... Miles Austin and Osi Umenyiora.  I'm confident that Miles Austin will have a great game tonight, especially w/Dallas being desperate for a win.  However, you never know what you may get from Eli Manning... so I am very cautious of H. Nicks production tonight.  He may or may not put up huge numbers.  Therefore, I think that if I'm going to win... I will need good production from Osi to make up my deficit and then some.  However, I do have a wild card.  I decided to leave one of my DB spots vacant since Bernard Pollard was on bye and did not want to send him to waivers.  Do you think I should risk dropping B. Pollard for Terrell Thomas which should guarantee enough production to get a victory? Or, should I stick with my two guys (M. Austin and Osi Umenyiora) and hope for the best?  I really do not want to drop Pollard, especially since DeMeco Ryans is out for the season.  Your thoughts...

Scoring system:

Tackle solo - 1pt
Tackle assist - 0.5pt
Sack - 2pt
Int. - 2pt
Forced fumbles & recoveries - 2pts
Def Td - 6pt

T. Watts

If you didn't have to sacrifice Pollard, I would bench Umenyiora and pickup Thomas especially since this scoring system is quite tackle heavy. The Cowboys have only given up 7 sacks all year and 6 of those sacks came in one game. So the likelihood of Umenyiora getting a sack this week is lower than usual. Plus, Umenyiora is not a solid tackle producer.

Pollard is obviously a DB1 and you would more than likely lose him if you cut him lose. You know your waiver wire and owners better than I do and what position you currently are in. If your desperate for a win, I think Thomas gives you the better chance, but corners can be a bit iffy sometimes in their own right. But he has a good matchup as the Cowboys through a lot and his production has been solid every week. I would expect at least 5-7 points out of him. Not sure that you get that with Umenyiora.

Tough decision.

Guru-

Thanks for the advice!  I never thought about dropping Osi and picking up T. Thomas.  Great idea!  Likewise, I definitely do not want to drop Pollard.  He would be good as gone if I did.  Thus, I am in 1st place in the league with only one loss... so although the risk is high my return will be much greater by not dropping Pollard and rolling the dice for tonight's game.  So, I'll take my chances w/T. Thomas and Miles Austin to provide the production I need to get a victory this week.  And.... if I'm lucky, Hakeem Nicks will have a poor game!  :-)

Thanks much!

T. Watts