What We Saw 2023: Week 7

Cleveland Browns @ Indianapolis Colts

Final Score: Browns 39, Colts 38

Writer: Drew DeLuca (@DrewDeLaware on X/Twitter)

After watching last week’s games, I couldn’t have been more wrong about how this particular matchup was going to unfold. Indianapolis Colts quarterback Gardner Minshew turned the ball over four times against the Jacksonville Jaguars last week, and the Cleveland Browns served the San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback Brock Purdy his first slice of humble pie as an NFL signal-caller. Deshaun Watson was starting under center, offering a presumed boost to the Browns’ offense. The game script seemed to favor a decisive, low-scoring Browns victory that seemed likely to be decided by halftime. Well, Watson ended up attempting all of five passes, rendering the game a showdown between Minshew vs. P. J. Walker. A battle of backups is destined to be a battle of punts and field goals, right?

Wrong.

The lead changed hands more often than a dollar bill at a mid-October Midwestern community yard sale. There were nine lead changes in total and four in the fourth quarter alone! After a questionable pass interference call against Darrell Baker, Jr., an exciting, back-and-forth shootout came to an end when Kareem Hunt crossed the stripe for the game-winning touchdown with 0:15 remaining. Hunt plowed through for a 1-yard score. It was quite the gamble by Head Coach Kevin Stefanski, who had spent all of Cleveland’s time outs, but “scared money don’t make money,” as the saying goes.

Three Up

• Gardner Minshew – He still battled turnovers, which was to be expected against a defense of this caliber, but rebounded well by tossing a pair of touchdown passes and racking up 305 yards through the air.
• Myles Garrett – He played like a man possessed, racking up seven tackles, two sacks, and two forced fumbles, one of which yielded a touchdown. He also turned in one of the best special teams plays I’ve ever seen on a blocked field goal by leaping clear over an offensive lineman, without making contact, before swatting away the kick.
• Jonathan Taylor – He reasserted himself as the lead back in the Colts backfield, clearly outperforming Zack Moss despite seeing a similar workload (Taylor received two more opportunities).
• Josh Downs – The presumed WR2 in the Colts’ offense put up a WR1 stat line in this one. Downs led the team in targets (6), receptions (5), and receiving yards (125) and hauled in one of Minshew’s two touchdown passes.

Three Down

• Zack Moss – After a couple of impressive performances, Moss was a bit of a disappointment this time around. He managed only 62 yards on 19 touches, about a third of which came on one run.
• Deshaun Watson – Watson, who’s nursing a shoulder injury, was given the starting nod in this one. However, he left early after taking a hit and did not return, despite clearing concussion protocol.
• Browns Defense – Now that we’ve given Myles Garrett his due, this unit allowed 38 points to a Colts team led by a backup quarterback, by far the most points scored by the Colts in any other game this season.  They were widely regarded as one of the better fantasy options going into Week 7, and they performed as such thanks to four sacks, four turnovers, and a defensive touchdown. However, the Browns’ defense was more or less bailed out by a fortuitous pass interference call that gifted their offense with a first-and-goal situation with one minute remaining.

Cleveland Browns

Quarterback

Deshaun Watson: 1/5, 5 yards, INT

Normally, I’d have a lot more to say about a team’s starting quarterback, especially one who’s owed as much money as Deshaun Watson over the next several years. However, Watson exited the game in order to be checked for a concussion. He was eventually cleared, but the Browns coaching staff elected to continue with P. J. Walker under center.

P. J. Walker: 15/32, 178 yards, INT | 3 carries, 3 yds

For the second week in a row, P. J. Walker took over for an injured (?) Deshaun Watson, and for the second straight week, willed his team to victory in spite of a stat line that’s as attractive as Quasimodo after a rough day in the bell tower. Walker is earning his stripes as a legitimate backup NFL quarterback.

Notes

• Beautiful 3rd-and-long downfield conversion to Elijah Moore with 2:19 left that gave the Browns new life and a fresh set of downs at midfield.
• He followed that up by surveying the field and delivering a perfect strike to a wide-open Donovan Peoples-Jones.

Missed Opportunities

• Ill-advised downfield throw on 3rd-and-16 from the Colts’ 47-yard line with 11:06 left while trailing by one. There were two receivers in the area and five defenders in close proximity. One of them, Rodney Thomas, came down with the interception. It would’ve made more sense for Walker and the Browns to check down and kick a field goal to take the lead.
• An illegal contact penalty on the Colts’ defense with under a minute remaining was a missed opportunity for them, as it nullified a strip sack and fumble that would’ve ended the game.

Running Back

Jerome Ford: 11 carries, 74 yards, TD | 2 carries, 20 yards

Jerome Ford set the tone for a high-scoring game early with a nice 69-yard touchdown run. He was continuing to emerge as the lead dog in this Browns backfield. Unfortunately, a great game-in-the-making was thwarted by an ankle injury that could potentially keep him sidelined for some time. Stay tuned for updates on his status.

Jerome Ford was all gas no brakes on this TD run 🔥 pic.twitter.com/2wr8KTYWTj

— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) October 22, 2023

Kareem Hunt: 10 carries, 31 yards, 2 TD | 1 target

Kareem Hunt had worked his way into a timeshare coming into this game, and he answered the bell after Ford bowed out due to injury. Hunt ran tough when called upon and scored the game-winning touchdown with 0:15 remaining.

KAREEM HUNT GIVES THE BROWNS THE LEAD WITH SECONDS LEFT IN THE GAME!pic.twitter.com/UqchVHInGI

— DraftKings (@DraftKings) October 22, 2023

Pierre Strong, Jr.: 8 carries, 25 yards | 1 target

Pierre Strong, Jr. saw some run after Jerome Ford left the game with an ankle injury. He received some key touches in the fourth down, showing the level of trust that the coaching staff has in him. Given the strength of the run-blocking unit in front of him, keep Strong in case Ford misses a few weeks.

Wide Receiver/Tight End

Amari Cooper: 8 targets, 2 receptions, 22 yards

One of Cooper’s two catches was a key first down grab with about 12 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Cooper is a great technician and one of the better route runners at the wide receiver position. However, as gutty as Walker is as a fill-in quarterback, no one is hurt more by his presence in the lineup than Cooper.

Elijah Moore: 7 targets, 4 receptions, 59 yards

Even though Cooper received more targets, it seemed as though Moore came up with more big plays throughout, especially with the game on the line. Moore, a FLEX option for many fantasy football managers this week, missed out on a double-digit PPR performance by one measly yard. Not an overly impressive performance until this realization hits: he gained more yards than all other Browns wide receivers combined.

David Njoku: 9 targets, 5 receptions, 54 yards

The Browns gave David Njoku every opportunity to shine on National Tight Ends Day via a team-leading nine targets, but he managed only a pedestrian performance. Njoku caught a pass on a flea-flicker near the line of scrimmage and rambled for a first down on one of his more impressive plays. He had the game-winning touchdown dislodged by a defender in the end zone with less than 30 seconds remaining, but was saved by Hunt’s 1 yard touchdown plunge moments later.

Donovan Peoples-Jones: 3 targets, 2 receptions, 22 yards

Marquise Goodwin: 2 targets, 1 reception, 6 yards | 1 carry, 17 yards

Harrison Bryant: 1 target

Indianapolis Colts

Quarterback

Gardner Minshew: 15/23, 305 yards, 2 TD, INT | 3 carries, 29 yds, 2 TD

The ‘mustached marauder’ was in much better command of the offense this week. The de facto starting quarterback for the Colts scored two first-half rushing touchdowns and seemed to move the ball at will against a top-shelf Browns defense.  However, Minshew committed multiple turnovers. His team still has an outside chance of making a run at a playoff berth given a favorable schedule from here on out, but Minshew needs to take better care of the football in order for that to happen.

Notes

• His shoulder shimmy after crossing the goal line was symbolic of the swagger he played with; it’s clear that the team responded.
• His long touchdown to Josh Downs came on a free play; Myles Garrett jumped offside, and Minshew read the defense perfectly and took advantage of a communication breakdown in the secondary.
• Minshew’s two rushing touchdowns were a career single-game high.
• He ran three times for 29 yards and two touchdowns in the first half.
• He ran zero times for zero yards and zero touchdowns in the second half.

Missed Opportunities

• It’s easy to point fingers at the referee for a questionable pass interference call in the last minute of the game, but Minshew’s four turnovers led to 17 points for the Browns, including a strip sack in the end zone for a touchdown.

Running Back

Jonathan Taylor: 18 carries, 75 yards, TD | 4 targets, 3 receptions, 45 yards

Jonathan Taylor got the start for the first time in 2023, and played like the RB1 that he is by racking up 120 total yards and a touchdown. His fantasy managers may be sweating the continued presence of Zack Moss, but they should be encouraged to see Taylor’s snap share rise once again. From a low-water mark of 16 percent in Week 5, he saw the field for 43 percent of the Colts’ offensive snaps in Week 6, and raised that total to 49 percent in Week 7. Taylor played one fewer snap than Moss this week, but the former’s opportunity total (targets + carries) has steadily climbed. Expect Taylor’s 22 opportunities in Week 7 to be part of a trend, not an outlier. He’s continuing to run hard to earn not only his new contract but an increasingly larger share of the backfield workload.

Jonathan Taylor for eight. Patient press and high knees thru crease #ColtsNation pic.twitter.com/BMHnaA4BwN

— Matt Waldman (@MattWaldman) October 23, 2023

Zack Moss: 18 carries, 57 yards | 2 targets, 1 reception, 5 yards

Moss ran fairly well at times, but compared to Taylor, he looked like the volume back we thought he was before steamrolling a tough Tennessee Titans run defense earlier this season. Moss played one more snap than Taylor, but ran five fewer routes and saw two fewer targets. Expect him to continue to fade as a fantasy factor going forward.

Wide Receiver/Tight End

Michael Pittman: 5 targets, 2 receptions, 83 yards, TD

Michael Pittman’s five targets were tied for his lowest total of the season; he saw only five passes against the Rams on October 1. He only caught one ball that day for five yards, and only two in this one. However, he made much more out of his opportunities against even stauncher competition this time around, thanks to one play: an impressive 75-yard touchdown. The Browns defense surrounded Pittman around midfield in the fourth quarter, but the strong, crafty receiver slipped out of a tackle and sprinted downfield for the go-ahead touchdown.

Michael Pittman 75 yard TD!#ForTheShoe

pic.twitter.com/ITShLwXNR9

— Yards Per Fantasy (@YardsPer) October 22, 2023

Josh Downs: 6 targets, 5 receptions, 125 yards, TD

Not to be outdone by Pittman’s efficiency on limited targets, rookie Josh Downs posted his best game of the season. After Anthony Richardson went down with a season-ending shoulder injury, Downs became a favorite target of Minshew. The two continue to establish a connection that’s perfectly illustrated by this spectacular throw-and-catch:

Colts rookie WR Josh Downs had a DAY 🥶

🔥5 catches
🔥125 receiving yards
🔥1 TD

📈THE fantasy WR1 this week (as of right now) pic.twitter.com/1q044sOoV6

— SleeperNFL (@SleeperNFL) October 22, 2023

Alec Pierce: 3 targets, 3 receptions, 53 yards

Fantasy managers looking for bye week options probably glossed right over Alec Pierce due to the matchup, and understandably so. He’s a big-play-dependent option who’s a desperation FLEX play at best; today’s performance did little to change that.

Isaiah McKenzie: 1 carry, 7 yards

Will Mallory: 1 target

Mo Alie-Cox: 1 target, 1 reception, -6 yards