Yahoo Sports fantasy analysts Matt Harmon and Andy Behrens recap Baltimore’s 41-38 overtime win in Cincinnati. Hear the full conversation on the “Yahoo Fantasy Forecast” podcast – and subscribe on , , or
We do care about Ravens 41 Bengals 38.
What a wild joyous, uh, game, lots of passing production in this one.
Andy, where do you want to start?
That is, um, it’s amazing that you characterize it that way because that’s, that’s the first thing I wrote in, uh, in my, my scant notes on this game, an absolutely joyous game.
Um, this is like, this is why we enjoy the sport.
This is why we play fantasy.
Uh, this is why we’re, we’re, uh, we’re tied to the league.
Um, it was great.
Uh, first of all on, on the Cincinnati side, I guess Jamar Chase and T Higgins both phenomenal.
Each of them, multiple scores, chase gave us 10 for 193 and a couple of touchdowns.
Just, uh, an absolutely phenomenal game.
Burrough and Lamar combined for, what, nine passing touchdowns?
Crazy.
Uh, just really, really good.
Uh, La Lamar Jackson threw three touchdowns to tight ends, none of whom were Mark Andrews.
That’s a, that’s a tough one.
Andrews was involved but I mean, what does that mean in a game in which everyone was involved?
It just really, really fun.
Uh, Derek Henry having a somewhat quiet day until he made the play that decided the game, the 50 plus yard run in ot just, um, twists and turns really fun.
Um, and Cincinnati right now while being a fantasy party because they have to try to stay ahead of their own defenses, you know, struggles.
Um, just to, you know, there, there is a really rough road for them now.
Yeah, Cincinnati’s definitely in trouble from a team perspective.
It was great to see their offense get rolling here.
You’ve mentioned this a lot on the pod that the, um Ravens secondary is not really the unit that we are used to seeing there are mistakes back there.
Uh There are new players, they’re breaking and things like that, which by the way, when we talk about the Bills passing game later on, we’re gonna, let’s remember that this, this secondary clamped down the Bills passing game in week four.
and, and here Jamar Chase and T Higgins who are certainly better than I think all of the receivers on Buffalo like combined, the one player still wouldn’t be as good as Jamar Chase or something like that.
So, um, obviously the difference in talent levels here, but those guys went wild which Andy to me, I thought, you know, coming into this game, the Ravens were dead last in neutral pass rate in weeks three and week four.
They were very content to just, hey, we’re gonna saddle up the big dog, Derek Henry for a bunch of carries and we’re just gonna pound teams into oblivion.
I really thought that was how this game was gonna go because we all knew that the Bengals run defense is nothing to write home about.
I thought it was super encouraging to see that when Cincinnati gave fight through the air that Baltimore could give it back and especially it was in the way that they did it too.
Uh This is from next gen stats.
Lamar Jackson completed 10 of 15 passes in the intermediate area uh of the field and he was eight of 11 on passes against man coverage for 97 yards and three touchdowns.
That was the most ever in a game in his career, which I thought was interesting.
Um That’s a pretty stark contrast to some of the passing performances we got from Baltimore, especially to start the year when his very screen heavy gadget, you know, um targets to running backs, stuff like that.
We have like Z Flowers getting real downfield targets.
We had Rashad Bateman making plays along the sideline, as you mentioned, all three of the tight ends getting involved here to some degree.
So, uh you know, again, the Bengals defense is not good, that’s a caveat that needs to be applied to this particular result, but still encouraging to see that when Baltimore is challenged, uh they can actually get out there and throw the ball a little bit as well.
Yeah, it’s actually a huge development.
I’m glad you called that out because, uh, entering this one, the previous two games Lamar had only attempted 33 passes.
Right.
And it was a, it was a winning formula clearly.
Um, so really, really good to see them in a, in a shootout and succeed in a shootout again with the caveat that it was Cincinnati’s defense.
Um, I, I do think that like the idea that a passing game can pick on Baltimore and, you know, they, like, they just couldn’t get stops.
Um, and it is not last year’s version of the Ravens defense and that has to do with personnel and that has to do with the fact that all the coaches are gone and it’s just, it’s just a defense that’s in a little bit of a transitional place right now, like Baltimore’s defense is actually showing up on some waiver wires in a handful of my leagues and I get it.
Um, they, they haven’t been great, um, and they were facing a, an offense that was gonna put up some numbers against them.
Now.
I like, I don’t know.
And sometimes Joe Brow is not a very sympathetic figure, but I, I find him a little bit sympathetic right now.
I mean, like he, he played so well and he’s been playing so well all year and that offense is so fun and I would love to see, um, this version of the Bengals make a, make a deep postseason run, but it’s just unimaginable with this defense.
Yeah, I mean, Burrough said after the game, like we are not a championship level, um, team and it is very frustrating.
I agree.
Uh, some, I think, I don’t think burrows completely innocent and all that.
There was at least a couple of throws where I thought he, he maybe passed up some downfield stuff.
You can nit pick things like that with him all day long.
Obviously, he is not the biggest problem with this team, but they’re certainly gonna be, you know, as Scott calls it like the carnival team of the season where they’re just gonna give up points on the other side and Burrow’s gonna have to throw them back in the game.
I don’t know, not too many other major developments in this one.
The only other thing I would note is that Zach Moss, uh, left the game late with an ankle injury.
Obviously, Chase Brown caught a touchdown in this game.
He’d led the team with 12 carriers for 46 yards.
So, uh, this was obviously not the matchup to really start Chase Brown if you did have to play him great, you escaped at the touchdown.
But this is why even when people are dropping Chase Brown early on in the year, like, oh, he’s not the starter.
Zack Moss is the starter.
It’s why you want to hang on to both of these guys because hey, now if Zach Moss, you know, knock on wood has to miss any time with this ankle injury, you know, he gets a game, we get a game against the Giants next week where Chase Brown would probably be ranked.
Um, certainly within the top 15 backs.
Yeah, that, that’s a really good thing to call out to.
It was mostly Zach Moss’s backfield.
I wanna say just, uh, you know, based on my casual check ins on this game, um, it seemed like it was mostly Zach Moss’s backfield before the injury.
Um, but that is, that is a very good call out because the matchup ahead seems pretty friendly.
