What We Saw: Week 6 2018

Chargers vs. Browns

Chargers

Admittedly, I had fully bought into the Browns hype. I was convinced that this would be a tough game for the Chargers against an emerging AFC contender. I was wrong. The Chargers moved the ball with ease, dominating the Browns this past Sunday. Below I will recap the fantasy relevant Charger performances from.

The Outside Run

There Chargers clearly saw something in the film room. They ran jet sweeps and pitches that gashed the Browns defense. I predicted an inefficient ground attack against a normally stout Browns defense but this outside run scheme worked incredibly well. The team ended with a whopping 248 yards on 34 attempts (7.3 YPC). Melvin Gordon, the star of the show, finished with 132 yards and 3 touchdowns. At this point, Gordon owners are expecting this kind of dominance. Gordon is making a strong case for fantasy football’s best running back as he continues to post monster totals. Very similar to Todd Gurley, he is used in every aspect of the game on a very good offense. The offense creates enough goal line opportunities for Gordon that he has a chance at multiple touchdowns every single week. Austin Ekeler continues to play well but will never get enough usage to be fantasy relevant this year with Gordon ahead of him.

Hello Tyrell

This was a strange game. Tyrell Williams led the team in routes run (over Keenan Allen) and managed 3 catches for 118 yards and two touchdowns. This was unexpected! I called for Keenan Allen to have a great game from the slot but Tyrell managed to get open deep a few times and make some incredible plays. In fact, Tyrell wins the play of the week from the Chargers game for his 3 on 1 jump ball touchdown. Check this out:

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Tyrell’s reemergence is something I did not expect. It seemed that Mike Williams was starting to become the second option on this offense but Tyrell has managed to hang around and played very well. Mike did have 4 targets, despite only one catch on the day. On these missed passes Rivers was under pressure and if the balls had been closer to Mike he might have had a better week. In any event, he did run less routes than Keenan Allen and with Melvin Gordon being such a monster near the end zone caps that touchdown upside that it seemed Mike had.

Did Philip Rivers Struggle?

This was definitely Philip Rivers’ worst game. With only 207 yards and two touchdowns, his fantasy performance was lackluster. His one interception came on a pass to Melvin Gordon where Gordon smacked the ball in the air creating an easy interception. Not to mention that picked occurred at the goal line, which means Rivers might have had another touchdown. This game can be chalked up to game flow as the Chargers did not need to pass for most of this game. Also, as I mentioned, the run game was so productive it actually ate into Rivers totals. In general, Rivers still played well and remains a very strong fantasy quarterback. Again the skill players surrounding him will continue to elevate his fantasy point totals.

The Chargers Defense returns

Finally, the Chargers defense is starting to live up to the pre-season expectations. Maybe they have finally adjusted to life without Joey Bosa, or maybe the team has just started to play better. Desmond King caught two interceptions and has continued his strong season. He also looks promising as a punt returner as well. Derwin James, the safety, notched his fourth sack! In general, the coverage looked very strong and they put enough pressure on Baker Mayfield to stifle this entire offense. Keep rolling with this defense.

-Stephen Dudas

Browns

Whoo, boy. What a sad day for Cleveland, as they lost to the Chargers 38-14. So what happened? Well, this is the first game where I think the Browns were actually outplayed as opposed to Hue coaching them into a loss. The Chargers did what they needed to do and had their way with the Browns on pretty much every front. Let’s take a closer look.

QB Baker Mayfield finally looked average. It didn’t help that the Chargers played incredibly tight defense and the O-line did not block well for much of the game, but Mayfield’s two INTs on the day were completely on him for throwing into coverage. His first was a throw across his body that was well short of where it should be. The second was simply a bad throw into triple coverage. Both went straight into the loving arms of Chargers CB Desmond King II. Mostly, this was a game where a superior defense smothered a weak offense. It’s hard to say if Rashard Higgins or even Derrick Willies would have helped the Browns move the ball, but the Chargers simply took out all the receiving options Mayfield could have had for most of the game. Several of Mayfield’s sack taken were after a goodly amount of time in the pocket with no one to throw to and toward the end of the game, many of Mayfield’s passes began to look off target which is not what I’ve come to expect from him. It was a clear sign of the frustration wearing on him.

A preview of things to come:

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WR Jarvis Landry, for example, was double covered the entire game, and it showed in his box score. If you are a frustrated Landry owner the future looks bright but this performance was extremely disappointing without really being Landry’s fault. Without WR Rashard Higgins to help move the chains and with WR Antonio Callaway dropping some more passes, the Browns didn’t have much of a chance. Callaway really needs to step it up. On 10 targets, Callaway caught only 2 balls, losing a long touchdown in the sun and straight up dropping another long pass in the second half when the Chargers were starting to pull away.

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Come on, Callaway, get it together!

RB Carlos Hyde had a pretty down day, as well. I was a little surprised at how few rushing attempts there were altogether, but Hyde’s 34 yards on 14 attempts is simply a microcosm of the Browns’ offense altogether. The line did not block particularly well for Hyde, though RB Nick Chubb had 3 rushes for 25 yards and RB Duke Johnson had 2 for 36 yards as well as a couple big catches. Duke was a standout in the backfield today, gaining over 100 yards from scrimmage. He was one of the few bright spots and I hope that Hue and Co. can see he deserves a bigger role in the offense. Hell, even Chubb deserves more play time given how very efficient he is. With a slate of weak defenses coming, I imagine Hyde will have better performances over the next several weeks, but I am now among those openly wondering if the Browns’ would not be altogether better if Chubb had a bigger role.

How do you see this and not let this guy get the ball more?

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TE David Njoku was the other bright spot in the offense. He saw a whopping 12 targets which led the team. It turned into 7 catches for 55 yards, and he scored the lone TD for the Browns. It was a beautiful catch over the defender in the corner of the end zone- a great play by both Mayfield and Njoku. Hopefully, we will see more of that because Njoku absolutely deserves more red zone opportunities.

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Defensively, the Chargers outplayed the Browns once again. Melvin Gordon III’s 3 touchdowns were due to a combination of great play-making by Gordon, great blocking from the Chargers’ line, and some great play design by the Chargers’ coaching staff. Tyrell Williams’ two touchdowns were likely great plays by Rivers and Williams, as Williams caught a long TD at the same time as two Browns defenders, but ties go to the offense so it was his. I certainly did not expect long plays to be the flavor of the day for the Chargers, as Keenan Allen once again had a quiet week when I expected him to explode for a ton of yards and a touchdown. Given the high powered offenses that are coming, my recommendation is to drop the Browns’ D/ST and stream better options on a weekly basis. It’s a sad call as I had fully believed they would be a season-long play.

-Sam Turrubiartes