History Lessons: Jackson, Maroney should shine

Love 'em or hate 'em, the Cowboys are a big part of Fantasy Football.

Miles Austin has been a smash hit off of waivers, Roy E. Williams has rebounded after a miserable start and Jason Witten has shown flashes of brilliance in two of his last three games. What do these players have in common? They all catch passes from Tony Romo.

Romo is also a major Fantasy player; most of you might be planning to start him in your leagues this week. But at this critical juncture in the Fantasy season, information on every player must be taken into consideration before making a decision. Judging by Romo's matchup at New Orleans on Saturday night, he's not excluded from said research.

Let's start with what is essentially a giant billboard that reads "Sit Romo!" With thanks to CBSSports.com colleague Jamey Eisenberg for suggesting this research, we took a look at how opposing quarterbacks have done against the Saints this season in the Superdome. The results? Scary.

Granted, aside from Brady all of these quarterbacks have proven to be shaky Fantasy options in the first place. It doesn't mean that the Saints' secondary hasn't been tested. The likes of the Eagles (Kevin Kolb), Redskins (Jason Campbell) and Falcons (Chris Redman just last week) have hung over 300 passing yards on the Saints secondary. They've just done it away from the Superdome.

But is there reason to ignore the aforementioned billboard? We think so. For starters, Romo is typically good for big stats in, ahem, controlled-weather environments. This includes domes, and frankly it includes Cowboys Stadium, which technically is not a dome because of the opening at the top but really it plays like one. When's the last time you saw wind there?

Here's a wrinkle that suggests good things for Romo: Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams has seen Romo and the Cowboys offense before as the defensive coordinator of the Redskins. In two meaningful games where Romo was active for the full contest against Williams' defense, he's totaled 577 yards and six touchdowns with one interception. Granted, this was against a totally different group of players -- but the exact same play caller.

But here's one more that could tell the tale: Romo has been sacked two times or fewer in each of his last four games, and the Saints' defense hasn't sacked opposing quarterbacks more than twice in each of their last three. As such, Romo's last four outings have been great (1,108 passing yards, eight touchdowns, one interception) and the Saints' pass defense has cracked a bit in their previous three (926 passing yards, four touchdowns, four interceptions). Like most quarterbacks, Romo has been great when given time to throw and awful when he's under pressure. Furthermore, the only quarterbacks to play the Saints in New Orleans and take more than two sacks are Sanchez (four) and Ryan (three). There's no distinct advantage for the Saints pass rush at the Superdome.

Judging by how Williams' blitz packages have fared against Romo historically and against quarterbacks recently, the Cowboys should be able to throw the ball with success. Romo, Austin, Williams and Witten all stand to be good Fantasy options.

Jackson a pain for the Patriots

It's been no secret that Fred Jackson has taken over the primary rushing workload for the Bills. Marshawn Lynch gets touches too, but Jackson has seen as few as 13 carries and as many as 20 carries with at least three catches over the Bills' last three games. Do not expect a reversal of that workload this week when the Patriots come to Buffalo.

Jackson's history against New England is limited but explosive. In his last two games against the Patriots he's totaled 193 rush yards on 42 carries and 83 receiving yards and a touchdown on six catches. That's pretty good, and he's facing the Patriots with their defense on the skids.

The only catch is that Jackson was the every-down back for the Bills in both of those games; Lynch was either hurt or suspended. Still, expect Jackson and the Bills (including Lynch) to run their fair share against the Patriots, if only to keep the New England offense off the field. Jackson is a nice Fantasy option this week.

Maroney should be a monster

You are probably keen enough to know that Laurence Maroney is a safe start running the ball against the Bills this week. After all, Buffalo is last in the league against the run. He's even our Start of the Week.

But what you might find surprising (or maybe not if you're a Bills fan) is that the run game has been a very consistent part of how the Patriots take on the Bills. New England has scored at least one rushing touchdown in each of their last six against Buffalo. You'd have to go back to Week 1 of 2006 to find the last time New England didn't score a rushing touchdown on the Bills. And if you think that streak is nifty, then hold on to your socks: The last time the Patriots didn't score a rushing touchdown at Buffalo was in 2003, which coincidentally was the last time the Bills beat the Patriots. That's right -- New England is going for its 13th straight win in the series.

Now that's some sick history. Maroney is as safe as they come this week assuming he doesn't fumble and get pulled in the game.

How do you think history will treat you? E-mail your Fantasy Football questions to DMFantasyFootball@cbs.com. Be sure to put Attn: History Lessons in the subject field. Please include your full name, hometown and state and we'll get to as many as we can.