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Fantasy Football Week 8: Defense rankings

The Denver Broncos turned to the unproven Brett Rypien at quarterback in Week 7 to make up for the absence of Russell Wilson. Things started off OK: Rypien led the Broncos offense nearly to midfield on his two drives, then led them to a touchdown on his third. And if you've watched any Broncos football over the past few weeks, you'll know that their offense scoring a touchdown in the first quarter is a big deal.

Of course, that would end up being the only touchdown they would score all game. The Jets defense smothered Denver for the rest of the day. The Broncos would end up scoring just 9 points. Rypien threw an interception and fumbled.

Now, the Broncos and either Rypien or a physically compromised Wilson will take on the Jacksonville Jaguars defense in Week 8. While the Jags D/ST has faltered the last two weeks, they've had some solid performances this season, highlighted by a 21-point fantasy outing in Week 2 against the Colts.

Any defense that takes on the Broncos lately is set up for success. There's just been no consistency or potency whatsoever to the offense — even in that one game against the Chargers in Week 6 where Russ and the offense looked like they were finally clicking in the first half amounted to nothing but more mediocrity in the end. And until they figure things out on offense (if they do), the Broncos will continue to be a matchup to target in fantasy.

So it's no surprise to see the Jaguars D/ST — even after two pretty rough outings in Weeks 6 and 7 — ranked in the top 10 of our fantasy football analysts' Week 8 positional rankings.

Here's the defense position — check out where ... and the rest of the D/STs landed in our analysts' rankings for Week 8:

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