What We Saw: Week 6 2018

Bills vs. Texans

Bills

The Buffalo Bills came into week 6 with a surprising 2-3 record and firmly in the early playoff race. A few big blows to their playoff chances occurred during this week 6 clash against the Houston Texans including an injury to rookie starting QB Josh Allen, and a 20-13 loss that was pretty close score wise but really didn’t feel like a very winnable game. The offensive struggles that the team has faced to start the year continued against a talented Texans squad, and there really isn’t a whole lot to get excited about fantasy football wise. Let’s take a more in-depth look below at the fantasy-relevant information you need to know about the Bills performance from week 6:

QB Josh Allen left with an elbow injury in the 3rd quarter leaving 2nd year QB Nathan Peterman to take over starting duties.

Bills rookie QB Josh Allen is out indefinitely after hurting his right throwing elbow in the 3rd quarter of the game against the Houston Texans. Without providing many details, Head Coach Sean McDermott would only list Allen as being “week to week” on Monday. The injury to Allen leaves McDermott having to decide between having turnover-prone backup QB Nathan Peterman or newly signed 12-year veteran QB Derek Anderson start in Buffalo’s game at Indianapolis on Sunday. Neither is particularly interesting for fantasy purposes, both individually and for supporting the skill position players in the offense.

Peterman came into the game in relief of Allen and completed 6 of 12 pass attempts, throwing 1 TD to WR Zay Jones, but also throwing 2 INTs with the first one being returned for the deciding touchdown with 1:23 left against the Texans. If Allen is out for a significant amount of time, the already low upside of this Bills offense takes another step back.

RB LeSean McCoy is looking healthier and back to his explosive again!

The 10 year NFL veteran is coming off of a rib injury that he suffered in week 2 while also continuing to deal with off-field allegations. It didn’t stop RB LeSean McCoy from putting together perhaps his best game of the season against a talented Texans front 7 that ranked 2nd best in the NFL in Rush Defense according to Football Outsiders entering the week.

McCoy finished with 73 yards on 16 carries (4.6 YPC) while also picking up 3 receptions for 21 yards including this wacky play early in the first quarter:

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What makes his success even more impressive is that he does so while consistently seeing stacked boxes in front of him as his 25% mark in terms of seeing 8+ defenders in the box was 8th highest in the NFL this week. His role should continue to expand as he moves further away from his rib injury and he may be even more involved in the short passing game with a less mobile QB potentially starting over Allen due to injury.

The wealth continues to be shared in the receiving group which has lead to fantasy irrelevance.

8 different receivers caught passes this week for the Bills, with TE Charles Clay being the team leader with 4 receptions on 5 targets for a measly 20 yards. Presumed #1 WR Kelvin Benjamin continued to show inefficiency with just 2 receptions on 6 targets, and much of that is a result of putting himself in contested catch situations due to a lack of ability to create separation (5th worst in the NFL with just a 1.8 avg yards of separation at target). WR Zay Jones caught his 1st TD pass of the year, but showed atypical inefficiency with just 3 receptions on 8 targets. The 8 targets is interesting as it suggests that he may be the new #1 WR in Buffalo. I’ve been pumping his tires seemingly all year as he has consistently shown strong efforts both in route running and run blocking while also showing off valuable receiving skills including separation skills (2.4 avg yards of separation at target which ranks ahead of names like Colts WR T.Y. Hilton, Texans WR DeAndre Hopkins, and Bengals WR A.J. Green) and catch efficiency (61.9% catch rate entering the week that has fallen to 55.17% after this week’s performance). If you’re desperate for potential WR help in a deeper league, Jones could have some sleeper appeal.

Bills defense continues to perform well!

Very quietly, the Bills have been a starting caliber D/ST unit post week 2 which is the point that Head Coach Sean McDermott took over play calling duties from Defensive Coordinator Leslie Frazier. They put up 16 points in standard ESPN scoring with 2 INTs and a funble recovery plus 6 total sacks. PFF gave 5 of the Bills front 7 players high grades for their performance this week including LB Lorenzo Alexander and DE Jerry Hughes both receiving 90+ grades. The defense should have an interesting matchup against the Andrew Luck led Indianapolis Colts next week!

-Adam Garland

Texans

If not for QB Josh Allen getting injured and a horrible decision by QB Nathan Peterman, the Texans might be on the other side of a tight 20-13 ball game. Alas, the unlucky plight of the Buffalo Bills reigns supreme, leaving Houston feeling decent about themselves.

Quarterback

Every game Houston has played is always one of the worst of the week to watch. There’s no way they have good practices from the offensive side of things. QB Deshaun Watson is either getting chased as soon as he gets the football or he has too much time and somehow can’t get through his progressions. That combination coupled with the seemingly awful play design continues to be incredibly obvious to viewers like myself. You don’t have to be in the film room to know that two-man routes have a lower success rate than the ones where you have all your playmakers available. Yet, Houston seems to want mediocre results and extremely luck-filled games.

Wide receivers

The receivers did their best to help the team, despite a horrible day from the offensive line and Watson. WR DeAndre Hopkins had his weekly highlight catch, this time running a fade from the slot. This play, in contrast to the normally trash-filled red zone plays, was perfect – isolating Hopkins with plenty of room for error for Watson. WRs Keke Coutee and Will Fuller were not up to snuff by fantasy standards and were only somewhat useful in reality. I still love what Coutee can and has brought to the table. Fuller is still clearly battling the hamstring issue, so hopefully they take it easy on him during the week – he’s a big difference-maker at full speed.

Running backs

RBs Lamar Miller and Alfred Blue totalled 72 yards on the ground in what is now a backfield that can be completely neglected. There’s simply nothing else to say, unless the offensive line suddenly transforms into a serviceable bunch, which seems very unlikely.

Defense

The defense continued its hot streak with a couple of sacks, a fumble recovery and the game winning score off an interception of QB Nathan Peterman.  I’d be surprised if they don’t repeat their good performance next week against what seems to be a broken QB Blake Bortles.

-Joe Hanretty