The halfway point of the fantasy season is here folks. Bye weeks are ramping up and trade deadlines are approaching. We have officially entered the dog days of the season.

It wouldn’t be another week of fantasy if there wasn’t another group of injuries to track as the week progresses. First up is the big news of the day, a second opinion on CJ Anderson’s injured knee revealed a bone bruise. This could keep him sidelined through the Broncos’ bye week in Week 11 given the “several weeks” timetable reported by NFL Network. He isn’t officially out yet but this will be a situation to keep a close eye on this week. It may be a week too late to get him on the cheap, but Devontae Booker is a must-add for all CJ Anderson owners, or if you are in need of running back help this week.

In other injury news, Tevin Coleman will likely miss Sunday’s game against the Packers. Devonta Freeman owners rejoice! One of last season’s best fantasy players will be getting his heavy workload back, for a short time at least. Now the Falcons held Freeman out of contact drills today, but it looks like this is more of a precaution to save him for a huge amount of touches this week. Terron Ward was promoted from the practice squad and must be on your radar if you own either Freeman or Coleman. An interesting note for Coleman’s injury is that if he isn’t ready for Sunday then he might miss the Thursday game Week 9 as well.

Last week I touched on the Lesean McCoy injury situation, and just when it looked like he may miss last week’s game, he amazingly was able to play. The Bills may be regretting that decision not to hold him out, because he only made his injury worse. Backup Mike Gillislie is also dealing with an injury. Keep a close eye on this running back situation this week. A clever move might be to snag Reggie Bush and monitor the news coming out of Bills’ practices.

An interesting development out of Green Bay came in the form of wide receiver Ty Montgomery. With Eddie Lacy and James Starks out for the foreseeable future, Montgomery played over 80% of his snaps lined up at running back. He played extremely well in the Thursday night game against Chicago and should see more work out of the backfield moving forward. If you are in an ESPN league, you got a very nice gift in the form of dual-eligibility for Montgomery at RB and WR. He is a must-add in free agency if available and is a guy to target in a trade if you can afford him. The dual eligibility is rare in fantasy football and will make him a one-man flex play as we head into the biggest bye weeks of the season.

Speaking of bye weeks, this is the first of the big ones. Week 8 sees Baltimore, Los Angeles, NY Giants, Miami, Pittsburgh, and San Francisco all taking a bye.

Hopefully you have all planned accordingly for these byes. Stream where you can but just looking at the teams, there are plenty of replacement options that you should have already rostered. Le’Veon Bell owners should just go back to the suspension plan they enacted at the beginning of the year. There are plenty of receivers to fill the void of Antonio Brown, Odell Beckham, and Jarvis Landry. Big Ben was already injured so just continue that back up plan.

If you are desperate at quarterback this week, go get Jameis Winston as he draws the Raiders defense this week. Oakland should have no way of stopping Mike Evans, which will make for a potentially great day for Winston.

This brings me to the matchup portion of my Week 8 primer. So lets just get right into the best and worst matchups of the week.

Best Matchup: Oakland vs. Tampa Bay (Both teams)

I already touched briefly on the Tampa Bay portion of this game. Oakland is one of the worst passing defenses in the league and will turn this game into one hell of a shootout. The Raiders also draw a weak Tampa Bay secondary as well. The Raiders play better on the road and Derek Carr is looking like a MVP candidate. This game is worth loading up on, this has the makings of a 42-35 ballgame.

Worst Matchup: Chicago (vs. Minnesota)

New week, same answer. Just avoid Minnesota at this point you will only regret it. This defense is an automatic bye week for your players. Jay Cutler coming back doesn’t mean a thing, other than more turnovers for the Vikings to force. Alshon Jeffrey, Cameron Meredith, Zach Miller, and any Bears RB shouldn’t be in the lineup.

Good Matchup: Seattle (vs. New Orleans)

This has to be the week where Seattle turns it around right? They will be in the dome facing one of the worst defenses in the NFL. Jimmy Graham faces his former team so I would expect big numbers out of him. If New Orleans sells out on him, that could mean Doug Baldwin gets a chance to break out of his early season slump.

Tough Matchup: Indianapolis (vs. Kansas City)

T.Y. Hilton has been fantasy gold this season, along with Andrew Luck. That won’t be the case on Sunday as the Chiefs can play some serious defense. This Kansas City defense absolutely shut down Oakland a few weeks ago on the road and I expect a similar performance on Sunday. Temper expectations for your Colts this week.

Other Good Matchups: Green Bay (vs. Atlanta), Atlanta (vs. Green Bay), Cincinnati (vs. Washington), Houston (vs. Detroit), Minnesota (vs. Chicago)

Other Tough Matchups: Carolina (vs. Arizona), San Diego (vs. Denver), Buffalo (vs. New England), Detroit (vs. Houston), Cleveland (vs. NY Jets)

 That’s it for me today. I’ll be back tomorrow with a “No Huddle” breaking down the best games heading into Week 8. I may even slip a little NBA predictions post in there as well with the season tipping off yesterday. Follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.

Week 7 got a little interesting didn’t it? A pair of upsets shocked the NFL over the weekend and began a big question across the league. Is there a truly dominant or elite team in the NFL this season, aside from New England? As we approach the midway point of the season there are a bunch of teams in contention but many of them have a fatal flaw that can be exploited.

We found out for certain that despite the dominant play of the Minnesota defense, the offense is capable of letting down the whole team. Atlanta may have a terrific offense, but a familiar problem is starting to rear its ugly head. They have a lot of trouble against a good passing game. Pittsburgh will only go as far as its health on offense will allow it. Denver is still bringing Trevor Siemian along, so if the running game falters, or sustains another injury (CJ Anderson may be out a few weeks with a bone bruise) they could be in some trouble.

I could go on and on picking apart the weak links of the upper echelon teams in the NFL. Trust me, there are plenty of problems to keep these coaches busy throughout the coming weeks. Many teams will be heading into bye weeks over the next three weeks so we’ll see what adjustments they’ll make as we move forward.

It certainly makes for a very interesting time for analysts and prognosticators as they pick the top teams in the league. As you could probably imagine, I have a few changes to make in my own power rankings this week. Plus, I’ll touch on a team that may be bringing itself back from the dead.

So let’s jump right into the mix and go over my top five teams and the watch list heading into Week 8.

(1) New England Patriots (6-1) – Last Week: 2

Well that didn’t take long for Minnesota to cede the top spot. I wasn’t lying when I said the first Minnesota loss would vault the Patriots back to the top of this list. This is clearly the best team in the NFL right now. The offense is humming with Tom Brady back at the helm and a healthy Rob Gronkowski in the fold. Defensively this team will allow some yards but scoring points is a tough task. This week New England gets a chance to avenge its only loss of the season as they travel to Buffalo to face Bills team that will likely be without Lesean McCoy, among others. If there is one thing the Pats don’t do, it’s lose twice to the same team in a season. Big revenge game on Sunday.

(2) Dallas Cowboys (5-1) – Last Week: 3

Okay hear me out on this one. Dallas is one of the most complete teams in the NFL right now. The weakness is on defense but they are able to mask it by controlling the tempo of the game with its offense. The Cowboys do this better than just about every team in the league. I brought up last week that the Cowboys are converting third downs at a ridiculous rate, and that’s normally a third and short situation. They also convert first downs on two plays more than any other team in the league. Smartly, Jerry Jones and Jason Garrett decided to keep Tony Romo on the bench and let Dak Prescott continue this amazing run he is on to start the year. I believe there is a passing of the torch in Dallas. This week will not be an easy task in a divisional game against Philadelphia. A classic matchup of the unstoppable force meeting the immovable object is forming between the Dallas offense and the Philadelphia defense. The return of Dez Bryant only adds to the intrigue of this matchup. I’ll be talking about this game more in-depth tomorrow.

(3) Minnesota Vikings (5-1) – Last Week: 1

I touched on my big takeaway for the Vikings in Week 7. Teams were bound to feast on that injured offensive line, which already had struggled prior to those injuries. This is a team built to play with a lead right now until they can get right in terms of health. Special teams miscues doomed the Vikings against the Eagles on Sunday, and those are rare to see from this team. I still think this is one of the best teams in the NFL because of this defense. They will win Minnesota a lot of games considering it only gave up 21 points in a loss (the most they have given up all season). Minnesota will have a great opportunity to get back on the winning side of things on Monday Night Football against the Bears.

(4) Seattle Seahawks (4-1-1) – Last Week: 4

Thank goodness Seattle “forced” a tie against Arizona on Sunday night. If Seattle didn’t have the Legion of Boom, that game could have gotten very ugly. Luckily, this defense showed once again why it is one of the best units in the league. The issue for me with Seattle is the inconsistent play of this offense, due in large part to the poor play of this offensive line. They couldn’t hold a block for more than two seconds against the great Arizona pass rush, which limited all aspects of this offense. The lack of improvement game-to-game on the offensive side of the ball is frightening, but this defense will continue to keep them in ball games. Seattle may have just the right remedy on the schedule this week, the New Orleans defense. This could be a huge confidence builder for a unit that desperately needs to improve. The game is in the Superdome, which will make for a tough assignment for the Legion of Boom though. Interesting matchup there.

(5) Denver Broncos (5-2) – Last Week: Watch List

Man, I really wanted to put Oakland here. I just can’t bring myself to do it. The Denver defense is just that great. As long as the Broncos have this, they will be in every game they play this season. Now, CJ Anderson may be out as a noted earlier, but Denver has the backup plan already in motion with Devontae Booker. He actually out-touched Anderson on Monday night and looked great toting the rock. The Broncos will have the opportunity to get a bit of revenge this week against the Chargers. Philip Rivers is one of the few quarterbacks to have success against this defense, but its tough to beat a good team twice in this league.

Watch List: Oakland (5-2), Kansas City (4-2), Green Bay (4-2), Pittsburgh (4-3), Philadelphia (4-2)

Okay so this is where you would usually see the Eliminator or teams that are drawing close to the ban saw. Well there is going to be a little bit of a wait and see mentality here as we go along. I already eliminated about a quarter of the league, and I think that is enough for now.

That being said I may have jumped the gun a little too fast on one team, the San Diego Chargers. This is a team that is a few bizarre bounces away from having one of the best records in the league. A disastrous start has led to a truly remarkable few weeks from the Bolts.

Philip Rivers is keeping this team in every game despite the early losses of Keenan Allen and Danny Woodhead. This receiving core, including the tight ends, still has plenty of talent for Rivers to work with. Not to mention, Melvin Gordon has clearly put his rookie struggles behind him as he leads the NFL in touchdowns (10).

Now the Chargers will most likely lose to the Broncos this week, but keep an eye on this team because they are the epitome of a “tough out” and could be playing spoiler for the remainder of the season. The AFC West is going to be a tough division to win, but San Diego could sneak into the Wild Card if things finally start going its way. The comeback upset against Atlanta was a good step in the right direction. There are loads of winnable games in the second half of the season for the Chargers, including a rematchs against Kansas City and Oakland at home. This team may be coming back from the dead before all is said and done.

Stay tuned to Shooting the Moon for “Reality of Fantasy” a little later today. Follow me on Twitter @thereal_jmooney and go like the Shooting the Moon page on Facebook.