FanDuel lineup advice: The best plays of Week 13

Welcome to Week 13. Welcome to December. Now that we are beyond Thanksgiving, the season is officially rolling downhill. We will soon be dealing with short playoff slates and snow shoveling — which is downright depressing. It can also cause us to become undisciplined. It happened to me last week.

Coming off of a rough Week 11, I played too much in a landmine-rich Week 12. A natural two-week lull in the season essentially became a three-week rut. It wasn’t because of the holiday or consciously trying to make up for the prior week. I wanted to play more because time is running out on the season.

I had a feeling something like what we’d experience back in school, when everyone already turned in their tests and we’re not close to finishing. Maybe you were a fast test-taker, but if you weren’t you remember the anxious, sickening sensation. It’s also a ridiculous reason to deviate from a carefully considered bankroll strategy, and it cost me.

If you don’t have a weekly budget and play for fun, disregard these words of warning and keep having a blast. However, if you have a regimented bankroll plan you’ve been using all season, resist deviating from it simply because we’re in the home stretch. DFS isn’t going anywhere when this season ends, but going off the bankroll management rails can cause hard-fought gains to quickly disappear.

Good luck in Week 13, everyone… and please DFS responsibly.

Quarterbacks

Andrew Luck, Indianapolis Colts, $8,100

Luck is not on the main slate, and there are plenty of viable quarterbacks to choose from — with Drew Brees chief among them. Yet there is fantasy gold hidden on Monday night. The Colts and Jets project to score the second-most points of the week, and Luck should be lightly owned for his first game after suffering a concussion. Considering New York has the 10th-highest-graded run-stopping and allow the fourth-fewest rushing yards per game, we have a decent idea of how the Colts will meet their 25.3-point implied total. The Jets’ fifth-worst-graded pass coverage is another strong hint.