Week 14 Booms and Busts: Ravens, Rams show why they'll have major say in fantasy football titles
The Baltimore weather called for wind, and the Baltimore weather called for rain.
The Ravens and Rams said the heck with it, let's have a track meet anyway.
Anything you needed from the Baltimore and Los Angeles passing games came through Sunday, as the teams combined for a delightful 68 points and 859 yards of offense. By way of record, note that Baltimore escaped with the 37-31 overtime win, as unknown backup Tylan Wallace raced 76 yards with a punt return touchdown. But the fantasy managers who spit into the Baltimore wind and started their guys anyway, wow, did you get rewarded.
Let's start with the Rams, since they have the more narrow usage tree. Matthew Stafford (294 yards, three touchdowns) only targeted six players, and the majority of his looks went to the primary guys. I wasn't sure how to handle Cooper Kupp before this game, but that feels horribly dated now — he had a monster 8-115-1 afternoon, on 10 targets (narrowly missing a second score). Puka Nacua posted a playable 5-84-0 on eight looks, and fill-in tight end Davis Allen (4-50-1) was also useful. Demarcus Robinson caught Stafford's other touchdown pass.
The bell-cow back is supposed to be a dying breed, but Kyren Williams does not read such memos. Williams didn't find the end zone, but he handled a whopping 28 touches for 113 total yards. This almost qualifies as a bad game for him, and still, look at that usage! Royce Freeman had just three carries, and a random rush went to Nacua.
The Rams' three-game winning streak was broken, but these guys have piled up 104 points over three games, and Washington's spotty defense comes to town for Week 15. The Saints and Giants are gettable after that. Williams, Nacua, Kupp, maybe even Stafford, they'll be invited to a lot of fantasy parades come mid-January. Stafford is back in fine form, the same goes for Kupp and Sean McVay is dialing up big plays from the play sheet.
Baltimore's fantasy solve, however, is always going to be a little trickier, because the Ravens have a mobile quarterback and two other backs who are worthy of work. Things are more splintered. You might have needed Keaton Mitchell (62 total yards) or Gus Edwards (15 total yards) and came away disappointed; neither scored a touchdown, and they combined for just 16 touches.
But at least Jackson steered the passing touchdowns where we wanted: the three most credible downfield options, Odell Beckham Jr. (4-97-1), Isaiah Likely (5-83-1) and Zay Flowers (6-60-1) caught the scores from Jackson. Flowers also had a two-point conversion catch. Jackson sailed to the top of the fantasy leaderboard by the end of the game, totaling 32.64 points in default Yahoo scoring. Jackson threw for 316 yards and ran for 70 more.
Fantasy managers probably aren't thrilled to see the 49ers on the Ravens' Week 16 calendar. But that's a problem for Christmas Day. Baltimore should score liberally at Jacksonville next week, and a potential pinball match with the Dolphins is slotted for New Year's Eve. Jackson and Co. are going to have their say in the fantasy playoffs.
Speed Round
• There was nothing fluky about the Dallas win over Philadelphia — the better team won, and won convincingly. Even the body language was different. Mike McCarthy so often looks like a college student surprised by a pop quiz he didn't study for. Sunday night, McCarthy had the look of a poker player who already made a pat hand on the flop, while his opponent was drawing dead. The Eagles, of course, aren't drawing dead, but they never had metrics that matched up to their fortuitous 10-1 start.
• I also thought it was fascinating Eagles coach Nick Sirianni didn't try to extend the game at the end of Sunday's loss. I found it smart, sure; why put your star players back in harm's way? But it also made me wonder if Jalen Hurts or perhaps others are playing more hurt than is commonly known. Hurts currently sits as the QB20 for the week, his worst charting of the season.
• I feel like we have the same Kansas City talk every week. Patrick Mahomes often is Superman, but you can only produce so many miracles with the supporting cast he has. Travis Kelce walks into the Hall of Fame, but he's not just a back-nine player these days, he might be teeing off on No. 16 or 17. Rashee Rice finally forced his way into the circle of trust, but he's a support guy, not someone who takes the top off a defense. All of the hopeful deep threats have failed for one reason or another. It's hard to feel sorry for the Chiefs given that they had Mahomes/Kelce/Tyreek Hill for so long, helmed by Andy Reid, but it's not enjoyable watching Mahomes held back by this.
Alas, sometimes the repair shop isn't open when you need it. There's no way to fix all this now.
• So often the Falcons find a way to win the game, but lose the stats. Sunday against Tampa Bay, it was the exact opposite — Atlanta had a major edge in yards and efficiency over the Buccaneers, but the visitors somehow stole the victory. Fantasy managers will shrug off the actual result, reveling in the rare afternoon where Drake London, Bijan Robinson and Kyle Pitts all met or exceeded expectations. Maybe there's hope for the Falcons yet.
• The Browns playbook becomes about twice as deep with Joe Flacco replacing the other backups. He at least has the arm and patience to threaten the deeper areas of the field, and he also is happy to prioritize his signature targets. Maybe David Njoku goes down as a December to Remember player. Amari Cooper and Elijah Moore were drawing dead with the other backups, but have a chance with Flacco.
• Not much to take away from the Houston offense. A week ago, the Texans had exciting triplets — C.J. Stroud, Tank Dell and Nico Collins. Then Dell got hurt in Week 13, and Stroud and Collins got hurt in New York. And the Jets defense gets paid, too; it's always been a monster unit, just overwhelmed by the burden of its offense.
• I was hopeful that Zach Wilson would force the ball to Garrett Wilson, and that's the day we saw. And Nathaniel Hackett was also proactive with Breece Hall in the passing game. Nobody is bullish on Zach Wilson's future, but Garrett Wilson and Hall managers have hope going forward. The Jets have a particularly juicy Washington draw in Week 16.
• Michael Pittman Jr. and Amon-Ra St. Brown were stars and teammates at USC. These days, I wonder if Pittman is St. Brown without the hype. Pittman is remarkably consistent, his production hasn't fallen off even with a backup quarterback playing, and the Colts usually get him 10-plus targets immediately off the bus. Buoyed by the creative scheming of Shane Steichen, Pittman is capable of being a WR1 next year.
• The drama of Detroit-Chicago was over in 10 minutes, even if the Lions did briefly grab the lead. The Bears defense is a problem, a matchup we need to re-evaluate forward. The Lions at least get climate control for the fantasy playoffs, but Jared Goff needs to be protected more than most quarterbacks. He's not going to bail out broken plays with his legs and athleticism. The Goff concert sounds exactly like the Goff studio recording. There is no improvisation, ever.
Goff is the ultimate Stillwater quarterback. "A mid-level QB struggling with his own limitations in the harsh face of stardom."
Hoffman is in *four* scenes of Almost Famous, under 10 minutes, and freaking amazing. The fact that he was not Academy-nominated for this is a crime. https://t.co/D0miYYuQtI— scott pianowski (@scott_pianowski) December 11, 2023
• Jonathan Mingo earned nine targets and could have had a long touchdown if not for the inaccurate Bryce Young. But you have to play the cards you're dealt. It's not like Young is going to get taller in the offseason. I do have a quirky admiration for Chuba Hubbard, who has sort of turned into the poor man's Rachaad White. The volume is always there, and the efficiency is OK, it's playable.
• Maybe Zac Taylor is a better coach than everyone realized. The world reasonably expected the Bengals to be shipwrecked after the Joe Burrow injury, but Jake Browning was great against Jacksonville and effective against Indianapolis. In a year that's largely been defined by injured quarterbacks and mostly spotty replacement play, this qualifies as a miracle. And Browning is winning from the pocket, not with gimmicky stuff.
