What We Saw: Week 1 2018

Bills vs. Ravens

Bills

In a game where very little went right for the Buffalo Bills in a 47-3 loss, let’s take a look at the fantasy relevance:

How did QB Nathan Peterman perform in his second career NFL start?

Many people will remember Nathan Peterman’s first NFL start in which he infamously threw 5 INTs in the first half. Well his performance this week wasn’t a whole lot better he finished just 5 for 18 with 24 yards and led his team to 0 first downs in the first half of the game. Oh and he also had 2 INTs along the way. Now it’s not all on him, the offensive line genuinely struggled to contain the Ravens front 7 and gave up 6 sacks on the day, while Peterman’s go-to options in the passing game struggled to secure targets including WR Kelvin Benjamin who caught just 1 of 7. QB Josh Allen came in for mop-up duty and wasn’t much much better going 6 for 14 for 74 yards with notably no INTs. Allen also showed some value with his legs with a couple scrambles and I would expect that sort of value to help his fantasy prospects if/when given the starters role. The Buffalo Bills were non-committal on the QB of the team going forward after the game, but this lowly performance from Peterman may be the last time we see him as a starter for the team.

If the quarterbacks weren’t successful, could LeSean McCoy and the RBs muster any offense?

RB LeSean McCoy was coming off a bad and brief pre-season while dealing with some off-the-field issues, and I thought that he came into this game looking somewhat rusty. He was unable to get much going, and a lot of that is due to the offensive line in front of him but he also didn’t help himself with a bit of indecisiveness in the backfield. He did have a nice 12 yard run at the beginning of the 2nd half that earned the Bills their first, first down of the game. In total, McCoy finished with 22 yards on 7 carries and was a non-factor in the passing game with 1 catch for -1 yards.

Behind McCoy, it appears RB Marcus Murphy is getting a bigger look as the No. 2 back, taking six carries for 31 yards and a 5.2 yard per carry average (both led the team) compared to RB Chris Ivory’s three carries for three yards and 1 yard per carry average. Murphy also showed off his explosiveness in the kick return game with numerous quality returns including 5 of 25+ yards and one 49 yard return. His explosiveness could make him the #2 RB in Buffalo now and would make him a worthwhile handcuff in the event of a LeSean McCoy injury.

Without QB success, the receiver group really were invisible for much of the game

I mentioned above that the top playmaker of the receiver group Kelvin Benjamin secured just 1 of his 7 targets in the game. He notably struggled to create seperation throughout the game (2nd worst in the league with a 1.4 yards of separation at target in week 1) and was consistently in contented catch situations that he was unable to win. He didn’t help his QBs out but he was hardly alone. The leading receiver for the Bills in this game was 2nd year WR Zay Jones who caught 3 of 6 targets for 26 yards. I thought he looked best in terms of effort among the receiver group and it wouldn’t surprise me if he emerged as one of the biggest offensive weapons in this offense as a possession receiver.TE Charles Clay was non-existent and I’m not even sure if I recall hearing his name on the day? On two targets, he had zero catches. Across the board, Buffalo’s receivers let down Peterman and Allen just as much as the offensive line and the Bills need from them going forward.

The Ravens scored 47 points, did the Buffalo Bills defense do anything right?

Against the run, Buffalo appears, so far through one game, to have fixed a problem that’s existed for a while. The Ravens were held to 3.4 yards-per-carry on the ground and only had a long rush of 16 yards on the day. 1st-round Rookie LB Tremaine Edmunds became the youngest starting linebacker in the Super Bowl era at 20 this week. He had a heck of a day, too by securing his first-career sack, first-career forced fumble and two passes defended along with 7 tackles. The rest of the defense wasn’t as effective though as the combination of Jerry Hughes and Shaq Lawson struggled to create pressure on QB Joe Flacco which allowed time for the Ravens receivers to create separation and get open. The secondary was Buffalo’s strength a year ago and I expect it will be again going forward with more time to gel and a better push from the defensive line to support them.

-Adam Garland

Ravens

The Ravens absolutely dominated the Buffalo Bills yesterday, winning the game 47-3 and man was it an interesting one to watch from a fantasy perspective.

Let’s start with the passing game—Joe Flacco looked fine, my opinion on him hasn’t really changed, I think he’s going to be a boom or bust type fantasy quarterback as he has been most of his career. That being said, I think Flacco really enjoyed playing with the new toys he got in the offseason in the form of Michael Crabtree, John Brown, and Willie Snead.

Flacco spread the ball around quite a bit, with seven receivers (including running back Javorius Allen) getting at least three catches. Now, a lot of that was thanks to the fact that garbage time ensued pretty quickly, so the Ravens weren’t throwing the ball a whole ton, but the Ravens’ new receivers looked good, especially Crabtree, whose first touchdown from Flacco showed just how deadly of a red zone threat he is with some amazing body control:

[gfycat data_id=”BruisedBriefJerboa”]

But the receiver who led the team was Willie Snead, who had four catches for 49 yards and a touchdown, with Brown close behind with three catches for 44 yards and a touchdown. All three of Crabtree, Brown, and Snead have had significant fantasy relevance in the past, and if the Ravens are throwing, any one of these three could have a big game. I think Crabtree is the only one you can consistently rely on, but Brown and Snead will certainly require long looks, especially in deeper leagues.

And of course, we have to mention Lamar Jackson briefly, who came in in the second half during garbage time, and he started doing Lamar Jackson things:

[gfycat data_id=”SlimWaterloggedIcelandichorse”]

There’s really not a ton of fantasy-relevance here—on any given day, he or Robert Griffin III (who was inactive yesterday) will be Flacco’s backup, but that’s it. Jackson will probably get some packages here and there that let him run the ball (he did yesterday), but his second half yesterday was more of just a flash of how dynamic and exciting of a player he has the potential to be in the future.

A quick look at the box score might scare you when you see Alex Collins got just seven carries compared to Kenneth Dixon’s 13, but that’s another product of garbage time. Collins looked good when he was muscling in to get a touchdown:

[gfycat data_id=”HarmfulClearcutElk”]

But he also showed his fumbling problems might not be entirely behind him, as he did cough up the ball. Now, I think that was more a credit to the defender’s tackle than Collins’ fault, but still, that’s a problem he’s had in the past. Hopefully it doesn’t crop back up. For now, I’m not worried.

Also, shoutout to the Ravens’ defense. While it doesn’t take an elite squad to make Nathan Peterman or that Bills offensive line look like a dumpster fire, the Ravens defense looked excellent, not allowing a single first down in the entire first half. Losing Jimmy Smith is certainly painful for their secondary while he’s suspended, but it might not be as bad as we previously thought, as Brandon Carr and Marlon Humphrey filled in admirably.

-Ben Palmer