Week 13 Booms & Busts: Looking for Fantasy Football Points? Bengals and Commander can help

The Cincinnati Bengals are not making the playoffs and I will be sad to see their season end. They have become the perfect fantasy carnival for 2024, a loaded offense that nothing can stop on defense.

Pittsburgh marched into Cincinnati and beat the Bengals 44-38 on Sunday. For Cincinnati fans, the game felt like a repeat. The Bengals racked up 375 yards of offense and 25 first downs, but that wasn’t enough – as Pittsburgh’s offense included 28 first downs and 520 yards of offense. For one day, Arthur Smith had Bill Walsh’s mojo with the Pittsburgh game sheet.

Joe Burrow threw for 309 yards and three touchdowns (23.16 fantasy points) in the loss, and most of Cincinnati’s production went to the skills fantasy managers need in players. Ja’Marr Chase (6-86-1 for 17.6 points), Tee Higgins (5-69-1 for 15.4 points) and Chase Brown (100 total yards and 17.5 points)) all had touchdowns. Half of Burrow’s goals went to Chase or Higgins. Brown had 12 carries on the day, while Khalil Herbert had just one. We love this kind of tight distribution of the ball.

I wasn’t sure the Steelers would aggressively target Cincinnati’s lousy secondary, but they did. Russell Wilson posted 414 passing yards and three touchdowns (27.86 fantasy points) while devouring 10.9 yards per attempt. His 38 pass attempts were a season high. The target tree in Pittsburgh was wider than we would have liked, but George Pickens (3-74-1 for 14.9 points) still made it, and Pat Freiermuth (6-68-1 for 15.8 points) came in handy when he was needed. And tailback Najee Harris continued his underrated season, managing 22 touches for a total of 129 yards and a score.

It’s a downer that the return match between these teams won’t take place until Week 18 – a week after most fantasy leagues end. But let’s bookmark the rest of the Cincinnati schedule for fantasy purposes. The Bengals travel to Dallas and Tennessee and close out the fantasy playoffs with home games against Cleveland and Denver. The over has been reached in nine of Cincinnati’s 12 games, although numbers are routinely in the high 40s or even 50s. I see no reason why this trend will slow down.

Commanders continue to provide fantasy fireworks

The NFC’s best version of a carnival might be in Washington, where the Commanders ranked fifth in offensive DVOA this week but just 28th in defensive DVOA. Jayden Daniels was back to form as he beat Tennessee 42-19, throwing three touchdowns and running for a fourth. That put Daniels at the top of the overall standings with SNF and MNF still in play, scoring 28.64 points in the Yahoo standard standings.

Washington’s two main pass-catchers came home – Terry McLaurin continued his career season (8-73-2 for 23.3 fantasy points) and Zach Ertz (3-35-1 for 11 points) is in his age-34 season still well positioned. The backfield was more of a platoon approach, but Brian Robinson (16-103-1 for 17.4 points) and Chris Rodriguez Jr. (13-94-1) both scored, the Rodriguez tip was a garbage time Special. Running backs love those fourth quarter carries where they run through and around tired, unmotivated defenders.

Washington sits through Week 14 and then finishes the season with three potentially entertaining games: at New Orleans, then at home against Philadelphia and Atlanta. Mark your calendars.

With the exception of touchdown hero Nick Westbrook-Ikhine (3-61-2 for 19.6 points), who has now scored eight goals in eight games, most of Tennessee’s corner kicks were misses. His season stats read like a delightful misprint – 20 catches, 365 yards, eight touchdowns. Since NWI has seen rapid stock gains of more than 90% since the DeAndre Hopkins trade, we were able to squeeze it into a number of sleeper columns. Perhaps Westbrook-Ikhine will graduate next week as managers face the final bye-week challenge (six teams not playing) of the season.

The sad endgame for Kirk Cousins

The Falcons worked out a strange offseason plan at quarterback, giving Kirk Cousins ​​a bloated contract during free agency and then drafting Michael Penix Jr. in the first round a month later. Nowadays they probably wish they had left out “cousins” altogether.

It was another dud for Cousins ​​in the 17-13 loss to the Chargers – no touchdowns, four picks, a paltry 6.3 YPA, a lousy 40.0 rating. His arm strength is compromised and too many of his decisions come too slowly. Check out the touchdown he gave the Chargers that gave them the lead in the fourth quarter.

Cousins ​​had two glorious days against Tampa Bay this year, filling in as QB1 and QB3. But for the rest of the season, his average finishing rank is an abysmal 21.6. This is a player who looks good and shuts down several talented pass catchers.

I thought the Chargers might make a few receiver pivots after Monday night’s game – Ladd McConkey caught everything, Quentin Johnston couldn’t catch anything – and we saw that against the Falcons. McConkey smashed his ball in the first half, posting a record of 9-117-0 with 12 goals. Johnston was targeted only four times and posted a paltry record of 2-12-0. I will proactively sign McConkey next year even if the Chargers bring in an impact receiver. Johnston is expected to be out of most standard Yahoo leagues by the end of 2024.

note: I’ll continue to add Week 13 analysis after Sunday Night Football.