What We Saw: Week 6

Pittsburgh Steelers vs Los Angeles Chargers

 

Pittsburgh Steelers

 

Quarterback

 

• Devlin Hodges: 15/20, 132 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT | 3 carries, 8 yards

 

Devlin Hodges had a good game tonight. By that, I, of course, mean that he finished the game healthy and got a W. He was hardly asked to do anything, throwing almost half of his passes to the running backs. Hodges isn’t on any fantasy radar unless your league literally requires all 32 QBs to be in lineups. I’m nervous to start anything connected to this passing game until we see Mason Rudolph return. Man…never thought I’d say that sentence.

 

Running Backs

 

• James Conner: 16 carries, 41 yards, 1 TD | 7 targets, 7 receptions, 78 yards, 1 TD

• Bennie Snell: 17 carries, 75 yards | 1 target, 1 reception, 14 yards

 

The Chargers’ first three drives resulted in no points and two turnovers. By the end of the Steelers third drive, they had 21 points and a 21-0 lead. Guess what happens when you jump out to a monster lead? That’s right: the running backs eat. Given the game flow, I’m not thrilled with what James Conner did on the ground. He never found much room on the night with a long run of only 12 yards. Outside of that carry, he averaged less than 2.0 YPC on his remaining 15 carries. What he lacked on the ground, however, he easily made up for through the air. Conner was targeted early and often. His best play of the game came late in the second quarter. He caught a pass out of the backfield and took off down the sideline. Conner turned the catch into a 26-yard score. As long as Conner is involved in the passing game, I’m interested. Still, it’s troubling that he has yet to run for 56+ yards in a game this year.

Bennie Snell filled in for Jaylen Samuels, and he did well in his role. He looked strong on his carries, though most of them came in the second half with the game well out of reach. Snell has handcuff appeal right now as he is clearly behind Conner on the depth chart and will be eating scraps. Still, I like what I saw tonight. It’s also worth mentioning that Snell saw some of his workload while Conner was getting worked on the sideline. If Conner misses time, Snell would become interesting as an RB2/ flex option.

 

Wide Receivers/ Tight Ends

 

• Diontae Johnson: 2 targets, 2 receptions, 14 yards
• Donte Moncrief: 2 targets, 1 reception, 11 yards
• Juju Smith-Schuster: 4 targets, 1 reception, 7 yards
• Vance McDonald: 1 target, 1 reception, 5 yards

 

Move along…nothing to see here. I’ve seen some anemic passing stats this year, but this was pretty bad. Taking away the eight catches by running backs, we were left with seven catches and no one had more than two. If I combined every pass-catcher on the Steelers not names James Conner or Benny Snell, the result would have been this stat line: 7 receptions, 40 yards, 0 TD. Juju Smith-Schuster saw the most targets, though he struggled to get open against the Chargers’ secondary. He saw only one target in the first half, and this is not what I was hoping for this year. I think Juju’s struggles against man and press coverages are slowing him down, and he clearly benefited from having Antonio Brown around. I heard many predictions regarding him leading the league in receptions, but he is on pace for about 67 receptions, 900 yards, and 6 TDs. That’s hardly a bad season, but it’s not a WR1. I think of Juju as more of a WR2 right now and I would trade him if someone was offering WR1 value back. However, I’m not selling low–I’ll hold for now and hope Mason Rudolph comes back soon.

 

Los Angeles Chargers

 

Quarterback

 

• Philip Rivers: 26/44, 320 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT, 1 sack | 1 carry, 0 yards

 

Did you know that Philip Rivers has 218 starts, 383 TDs, 56,441 passing yards, and no Super Bowl starts? If you watched this game, that’s probably not surprising. Rivers was being harassed early, and he gave up two turnovers–a fumble and interception–in the first quarter. When Rivers gets rushed, it looks like he doesn’t change his decision-making process at all. He still does exactly what he was going to do. Rivers did calm down, leading two touchdown drives and saving his day stat-wise. He capped off the night with one more pick later while attempting a game-tying drive. Rivers is still startable, but the ceiling is getting lower. (He has 10 fumbles + interceptions in six games this year).

 

Running Backs

 

• Melvin Gordon: 8 carries, 18 yards | 4 targets, 3 receptions, 30 yards
• Austin Ekeler: 5 carries, 14 yards | 4 targets, 3 receptions, 14 yards

 

I mentioned the amazing game script for the Steelers running backs, right? Well for every heads there is a tails. The Chargers were buried so quickly that they had no choice but to pass. Even when they did run, the Steelers did a good job bottling it up. The result was only 14 carries and a team YPC under 3.0 tonight. Both Melvin Gordon and Austin Ekeler looked good as pass-catchers, on the other hand, and better team starts should mean better days ahead for the Chargers’ RBs. 

Here’s the good news: the next two opponents (the Titans and Bears) are unlikely to jump out to big leads. Here’s the bad news: the next two matchups are the Titans and the Bears–two formidable run defenses up to the challenge of stopping this two-headed monster. I will continue to think of Gordon as an RB2 and Ekeler as a strong flex option. I’m just not very confident predicting how the workload will be broken up week to week.

 

Wide Receivers/ Tight Ends

 

• Hunter Henry: 9 targets, 8 receptions, 100 yards, 2 TD
• Mike Williams: 9 targets, 5 receptions, 72 yards
• Jason Moore: 2 targets, 2 receptions, 43 yards
• Keenan Allen: 6 targets, 2 receptions, 33 yards
• Travis Benjamin: 4 targets, 1 reception, 0 yards

 

Welcome back, Hunter Henry! Henry had little trouble finding space in the secondary tonight, and he put up a monster night. He saw ten total targets (one called back for a penalty) with most of the work coming in the second half–when the entire Chargers’ offense woke up. Henry is a locked and loaded TE1 assuming he’s healthy. 

Mike Williams saw 10 targets as well (again, one called back for a penalty) and his production came in bunches. It seemed like Williams’ number was called when he found the right matchup. His four first-half targets came in a span of five plays while three second-half targets were on a single fourth-quarter drive late in the game. Williams now has now seen 10+ targets in two straight games. He has to be started, and we just pray the touchdowns will show up.

Keenan Allen had another quiet night, and I know what you’re thinking: time to bail, right? Wrong! Allen still saw six targets and is on pace for 157 on the year. With his current catch rate, that would give him 100+ receptions this season. It looked like the Steelers were doing a decent job slowing Allen down, but Rivers also helped. He missed Allen on one deep shot while pressure forced another miss later on. Just remember that the games where Allen is quiet are because he is the best weapon on the team…the defense tilts to him and someone else is left wide open. If things hadn’t started so terribly, I think we would have seen a much better night. Hunter Henry and Mike Williams showing out like tonight will simply make life easier for Allen moving forward.

 

-Mike Miklius