What We Saw: Week 6 2018

Steelers vs. Bengals

Steelers

Antonio Brown Scores Game-Winning TD

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In a back and forth game between division rivals, Antonio Brown dealt the final blow with a 31-yard touchdown with ten seconds left to give the Steelers the 28-21 win in Cincinnati. Brown was mostly quiet until the second half, where he came up with multiple big plays against a depleted Bengals secondary. Despite finishing 5th on the team in targets, Brown finished with a solid 5 catches on 6 targets for 105 yards and a touchdown.

Smith-Schuster Leads Team in Targets, Catches, Receiving Yards

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After taking a back seat to Brown last week, JuJu Smith-Schuster regained his role at the top of the Steelers passing attack in week 6. His catch above was ruled down at the 1, preventing him from posting a bigger fantasy day. Smith-Schuster’s 7 catches on 10 targets for 111 yards was still a solid day, and fantasy owners should continue to play him with confidence as he is a consistent big-play threat with frequent red zone usage.

Tight Ends Combine for Big Day

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Steelers tight ends combined for 14 catches on 17 targets for 129 yards in week 6, an impressive showing from the group as a whole. Vance McDonald bounced back from a disappointing week 5 by catching 7 of 8 targets for 68 yards. Most of his usage came in the first half, however, as fantasy owners watched Jesse James receive most of the second half work, posting an inefficient 5 catches and 26 yards on 7 targets. Even Xavier Grimble chipped in 2 catches for 35 yards. McDonald remains the only startable tight end option on the Steelers, with the sharing of snaps ultimately keeping McDonald out of the upper tier of tight end options.

Conner Bullies Bengals

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For the second straight week, James Conner ripped off big gains on the ground and looks like an RB1 in the Steelers explosive offense. Conner rushed for 111 yards and 2 goalline touchdowns on 19 carries and added 4 catches for 18 yards on 7 targets. He broke tackles on multiple occasions and looks like a physical component to the Steelers offense that they can ride all year. As of Monday night, Le’Veon Bell had not reported to the Steelers for the start of their bye week. Even if Bell does return, the coaches and players have hinted that Conner deserves to keep his job. As long as Conner is getting usage, he will remain an elite fantasy running back option.

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Roethlisberger Excels Again Away From Home

Ben Roethlisberger finished week 6 with 369 yards and 1 touchdown on 32 of 46 passing. He easily could have had more than one touchdown with Smith-Schuster getting called down at the one. Pittsburgh’s offensive line kept Roethlisberger upright all day, as he was not sacked and did not turn the ball over. In his 3 road games this year, Roethlisberger has thrown for at least 335 yards in each game with 5 total touchdowns overall. He is an every week fantasy starter after his week 7 bye, although he does have some potentially tough matchups ahead.

Boswell, Defense, Etc.

Chris Boswell has righted the ship a bit after some missed extra points and field goals, converting two of two short field goals and both extra points in week 6.

The Steelers D continues to get pressure, but with no turnovers and 3 sacks did not help fantasy owners. They should be treated as a solid streaming option in the right matchups.

Wide receivers James Washington and Ryan Switzer are fading away from what little fantasy relevance they had, combining for 1 catch on 2 targets for 7 yards.

-Erik Smith

Bengals

Andy Dalton was serviceable

Andy Dalton has been looking a lot more Andy Dalton-like lately. After a couple impressive games, Dalton once again put up serviceable but unspectacular numbers this week, with 229 yards and two touchdowns. Fortunately, he didn’t turn the ball over, and considering how much pressure he was under, that’s pretty impressive. While the Steelers secondary didn’t play great, their pass rush was playing well. Going forward, I think it’s going to be hard to trust Dalton as anything other than a bye week fill-in.

A nice day for A.J. Green and a great day for Tyler Boyd

While it would’ve been nice to see a touchdown for A.J. Green, it’s hard to complain too much about his 15.5 fantasy points in PPR (even though it was his second-lowest scoring game of the year) on seven catches for 85 yards. However it was a great week for Tyler Boyd, who put up his second-best fantasy performance of the year with 25.2 PPR points on seven catches for 62 yards and two touchdowns. I liked Boyd coming into this game because I felt his matchup against Mike Hilton would work to his advantage and it turned out pretty nicely. As for John Ross, he ended up sitting this game out with a groin injury. No word on what his status will be next week, but even if he’s playing, I’m not interested.

Joe Mixon played well against a tough run defense

Coming into the game, the Steelers had not given up more than 20 fantasy points or over 100 rushing yards to a single running back yet. Joe Mixon didn’t top either of those, but he still played well against a really tough Steelers run game, putting up 18.4 fantasy points with 64 yards and a touchdown on 11 attempts, plus 20 receiving yards on four catches. No doubt, as long as he’s healthy, he’s a low-end RB1 week-in and week-out.

If you need a Bengals tight end, it’s C.J. Uzomah

C.J. Uzomah has proven himself as the Bengals tight end to own, ending this game with six catches on seven targets for 54 yards. But if you’ve lost your tight end to a bye week, he might be worth a look if there’s nothing else out there.

-Ben Palmer