Doing some work on the Week 4 edition of Fantasy Index Weekly, I'm impressed by how well the Bears have played against Calvin Johnson. Charles Tillman is really good. He's helped keep Megatron under control.
Most notably, last year Johnson was trying to become the first-ever receiver to reach 2,000 yards in a season. He entered the Week 17 game (at home) needing 108. The Lions had nothing to play for, and Johnson had reached at least 118 yards eight games in a row.
But Tillman helped hold him to 5 catches for 72 yards. Very impressive.
| Johnson against Chicago | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Location | No | Yds | TD |
| 2010 | at Chi. (14-19) | 4 | 45 | 0 |
| 2010 | at Det. (20-24) | 3 | 66 | 1 |
| 2011 | at Det. (24-13) | 5 | 130 | 1 |
| 2011 | at Chi. (13-37) | 7 | 81 | 0 |
| 2012 | at Chi. (7-13) | 3 | 34 | 0 |
| 2012 | at Det. (24-26) | 5 | 72 | 0 |
All of this is nice, of course, but ultimate we're still talking about Calvin Johnson.
And as good as Tillman is, it's tough shutting down wide receivers. A.J. Green caught 9 passes for 162 yards at Chicago on opening day, and Antonio Brown went for 9 catches, 196 yards and 2 TDs on Sunday.
If you have Johnson, you start him.
-- Ian Allan