What We Saw: Week 1 2018

Jaguars vs. Giants

Jaguars

Heading into this game, I thought the Jaguars would be able to keep the Giants below 20 points. I thought Blake Bortles would throw for under 300 yards. I also thought Leonard Fournette would run the ball around 20 times. Two out of three is pretty good.

What was not as good was how inefficient the Jaguars offense was. Sure, the Giants’ defense is no group of slouches either, but I think the Jacksonville offensive line could have done much better to help spring both Fournette, when he was in the game, and TJ Yeldon. As a fellow Fournette owner in fantasy, I was certainly anxious, awaiting news on his hamstring injury he suffered in the second quarter. However, there should be a collective sigh of relief as it is being described to be very minor by head coach Doug Marrone.TJ Yeldon filled in fairly well, finishing with 14 carries for 51 yards on the day. He added 18 yards receiving on three receptions, one which went for six. If Yeldon is available on your league’s waiver wire, be sure to consider adding him; hamstring injuries can be very fickle, especially in this sport.

The leading receiver was Keelan Cole (3 catches for 54 yards), followed by Dede Westbrook (5 catches for 51 yards). The Giants’ did a good job of bottling up Donte Moncrief who only had one catch all day. Cole and Westbrook had nice days, although I did think one of them, at least, would get a touchdown. Bortles seemed to find these two fairly often, later in the 2017 season. The Jaguar’s receiving corp is something to simply monitor, at this point. It’s one week in and seeing as there was little reason to reach for anyone in this group during fantasy drafts, I’d look elsewhere for receiving help, first.

The main reason this is the case: the guy throwing the ball to those receivers. I predicted Blake Bortles would reach the 25o yard threshold, at least, in this game. He failed to even cross the 200 yard mark and I failed to predict a turnover. People will say he does enough to win. I somewhat agree, but yesterday he could have helped out his defense by executing better on third down – they were just as bad as New York, going 4-13 on possible conversions. Having a great defense is helpful, but the quarterback has to be helpful back, keep the offense on the field longer and have sustained drives. Blake will forced to be more assertive and effectively accurate – his 67% rating on 18/33, but a 40 QBR. Again, this information might be trivial, considering he is only owned in 11% of ESPN fantasy leagues, and I’d bet those are larger or deeper leagues.

While Bortles’ ownership is bottom of the barrel, the Jaguars’ defense is a top three unit and proved it yesterday. Yes, Odell Beckham, Jr. and rookie running back Saquon Barkley reached the century mark in yardage, but that’s where the fun stopped for “Big Blue”. Barkley did score on a very impressive 68-yard scamper down the near sideline, but OBJ was held out of the end zone. No other receiver topped 50 yards. Because the Jags’ defense was simply unreal last year, they were heavily in drafts this year, they are 99.7% owned in ESPN leagues. The other 2.3% of leagues probably don’t play with a defense. Either way, while there are always things to improve on, a win is a win. In fantasy, these players probably did not help you win a matchup, but don’t totally write them off entirely – 16 weeks is a long time and injuries do occur, as we’re all aware.

-Joe Hanretty

Giants

Saquon Barkley

Barkley’s scouting report notes that he doesn’t always trust the gap provided by the line, so he’ll look to bounce out towards the sideline for more space. It also mentions he sometimes gets “too cute” with stutter steps and jukes. In Sunday’s game, we saw why this was a knock placed on him, as eight of his eighteen carries went for two yards or fewer. We also saw how beautiful it looks when he’s able to shed tackles heading towards the sideline for space before turning on the jets towards the endzone for a 68-yard touchdown. He’s a dynamic back for sure, but there are definitely parts to his game that could be improved.

[gfycat data_id=”UntidyAshamedJackal”]

Note: I really liked that when Jalen Ramsey got up in his face on the sideline after a collision, he went jawing right back at him. He doesn’t need to be a trash talker to have confidence, but he does need confidence to flourish.

Odell Beckham Jr.

Odell should have had a better game. No, I’m not talking about the potential touchdown pass he just couldn’t track down in the end zone. There were two plays where Beckham beat his man but was taken down on a pass interference because the Jags would have rather given up the penalty than a potential touchdown. Jacksonville played smart defense on him most of the game, opting to contain him rather than press and potentially get beat. He was targeted 15 times and finished with 11 catches, but his longest reception was only 24 yards.

The excess of weapons around him did not take away targets like people conjectured, so the future looks bright for OBJ.

Eli Manning

Not much to say about Eli. He’s not a great fantasy quarterback, and it would’ve been shocking if he put up stellar numbers against Jacksonville. His interception was not due to a mistake he made in reading the defense, and he was getting pressured a lot (cue Giants fan comments about Ereck Flowers being less useful than a traffic cone would be). Decent number of errant passes from Eli too though, so still not someone I’d stream at QB.

Evan Engram and Sterling Shepard

They were targeted five and seven times respectively, but fantasy owners didn’t come away with too much to be happy about in this game. Engram was particularly disappointing, but the Jags have a unique set of athletic linebackers and safeties that are more adept at covering him than most teams will be. I wouldn’t panic over either performance.

Giants D/ST

I don’t want to say the special teams cost the Giants the game, especially because there’s no way of knowing how the last drive would have panned out, but that muffed punt return was frustrating. The defense overall looked solid, but the Jags did play most of the game without Leonard Fournette. Bortles also wasn’t the Bortles of last December, so take the performance with a grain of salt. Their games against Houston and New Orleans will be more telling of how good this defense actually is, so I wouldn’t consider streaming them until after then.

-Alex Drennan