What We Saw: Week 2 (Monday Night Edition)

Photo by David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire

Each week throughout the NFL season, our staff at QB List will be watching and reviewing all the games from every week and offering up our takes on the fantasy-relevant things that happened. Here’s what we saw in Week 2’s Monday night game. Be sure to check out our thoughts on the rest of Week 2’s games.

Seahawks vs. Bears

Seahawks

An offense with no identity

The Seattle Seahawks look completely lost on offense right now. After preaching about a return to the running game, Seattle went nearly two full quarters without a single run play. Chris Carson got carries on the first three plays of the game, rushing for 13 yards. He only ran three times after that, finishing with six rushes for 24 yards and no catches. Rashaad Penny ran ten times for 30 yards, but did not haul in any catches either. It’s time to seriously reevaluate if you own either of Seattle’s running backs at this point, as it doesn’t look like they will be a focal point much, if at all, this season.

What’s up with Russell Wilson?

Wilson’s final line was 22 completions for 226 yards and two touchdowns, which isn’t horrible. However, it’s far less than what you’d expect from him, and most of his production came in the final few minutes of the game. Wilson is not getting any protection, getting sacked five times in the first half. Going up against Von Miller in Week 1 and Khalil Mack in Week 2 is pretty rough, but Wilson is staying in the pocket for far too long. It almost looks like he doesn’t trust his receivers. He also made an uncharacteristically horrible pass to Penny late in the fourth that was an easy pick-six, and fumbled on the ensuing drive. Wilson will ultimately be a QB1 by season’s end, but it might be on the lower end if he doesn’t start to get comfortable with his receivers.

Will Dissly is a sneaky TE play

Rookie tight end Will Dissly has now scored a touchdown in his first two NFL games. The only other tight end who can say that is Eric Ebron. Dissly was a blocking tight end coming out of the University of Washington. He was expected to fill that role in Seattle, with Nick Vannett expected to be the primary pass-catcher. However, Dissly looks like the real deal, and has established himself as a big playmaker for Russell Wilson. With tight end being a barren wasteland of talent, I think Dissly will be a very popular pickup this week – and for good reason.

-Andy Patton

Bears

So, Trubisky made some progress

Last week, we watched the Bears get off to a fast start. However, once we hit halftime, the Bears offense basically shut down for the night. This can largely be attributed to Mitch Trubisky and his growing pains. He missed some throws, including a wide-open Trey Burton in the end zone on what has become an NFL meme. This week, Trubisky showed some definite progress. He still missed a few throws he needs to be hitting, but he played hard and the Bears offense scored their first non-opening drive touchdown of this season. It came in the fourth quarter shortly before a Seahawks touchdown, and it proved to be the difference on the night. I still want more, but I was glad to see the Bears offense do enough tonight to support that monstrous defense (more on them later).

But the running game was stifled

If you started Jordan Howard or Tarik Cohen, you may have had a rough week. Howard saw 14 carries for 35 yards and 3 catches for 33 yards. That still nets us 9 points in PPR, so not the end of the world. In real life terms, Howard looked great catching passes again, and I am ready to say his troubles are behind him. I fully trust him as a receiving weapon out of the backfield, and this is great news for the offense. For Cohen, this was much like last week. He didn’t get a lot of touches, and his biggest offensive play was a 17-yard reception. He did look great on punt return duty, but this will hardly move the needle for fantasy purposes. I will continue to start Howard and I will continue to bench Cohen until something major changes.

And who were the standout receivers?

As Mitch Trubisky found a rhythm, it looked clear that he was hitting his first and second looks on most plays. I credit Matt Nagy with his play calling–finding something that would work for his young QB. This led to a handful of targets for Allen Robinson. He was targeted 14 times and caught 10 of them for 83 yards. Taylor Gabriel saw 7 targets for 4 catches and 30 yards and Trey Burton caught all 4 of his targets for 20 yards and a touchdown. I am still fully comfortable starting Allen Robinson each week, though the rest of the pass-catchers give me hesitation right now. I think Taylor Gabriel’s work is dependent on the opponent, though I was glad to see him used in creative ways (jet sweeps). I think Trey Burton should be getting more work, but there just isn’t enough to go around yet. And Anthony Miller? My opinion is that he is safely droppable in redraft leagues right now, though I still think he will eventually blow up. I just feel like he is too low on the pecking order at the moment and there isn’t enough passing game volume.

And let’s finish on a high note…the defense

If you picked up the Bears defense after week 1, good for you. They were monstrous again with 6 sacks, 3 forced fumbles, and another interception returned for a touchdown. I am getting a good feeling for how the Bears defense plays, and it is something like this: mercilessly attack early to disrupt anything your opponent tries. Make the opposing quarterback feel as uncomfortable as possible (basically remind him that Khalil Mack is coming for him). Use this early pressure to build a lead…hopefully more than 14 points. Then, as the pass-rush starts to tire out later in the game, play opportunistic and hope for a mistake. This script should have won against Green Bay (I’m looking at you Kyle Fuller) and it did win against Seattle (thank you Prince Amukamara). I would be thrilled to roll the Bears defense out each week, and huge games against Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson prove the Bears defense is nearly matchup-proof.

-Mike Miklius