What We Saw: Week 9 2018

Steelers vs. Ravens

Steelers

Conner Continues Fantasy Dominance

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RB James Conner delivered another RB1 caliber fantasy performance in week nine against a Baltimore defense that came into the game allowing the fewest fantasy points to opposing running backs. Conner rushed 24 times for 107 yards and contributed seven catches on nine targets for 56 yards and a touchdown, and was inches away from scoring a second receiving touchdown. This may have been Conner’s best all-around performance when you consider the strength of the opponent. Conner is matchup proof going forward in this role.

RB Le’Veon Bell needs to report by November 13 to be able to play this year, and with an upcoming Thursday night game for the Steelers, Bell will not play this week. There is plenty of speculation across fantasy football on what will happen with Bell, but most of it is just guesswork. But it is looking more and more likely that Bell will not have anywhere close to his old workload upon returning.

Brown Scores Touchdown in Sixth Straight Game

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While week nine against the Ravens will not go down as one of WR Antonio Brown‘s most efficient performances, he ultimately rewarded fantasy owners with his ninth touchdown on the year. Brown finished with five catches on 11 targets for only 42 yards, with CB Jimmy Smith often playing excellent defense to break up passes, including one in the red zone. Against most opponents, however, Brown will have better days and he remains the Steelers top passing game option going forward.

Quick Hits

QB Ben Roethlisberger improved his fantasy day with a quarterback sneak for a touchdown, as his 270 yards passing and two touchdowns were not exciting on their own. With no turnovers and only one sack, Roethlisberger effectively managed the game against an excellent Ravens defense and has played solid football on the road this year. He’s an every-week fantasy starter.

WR JuJu Smith-Schuster rebounded from a down week to post seven catches for 72 yards on nine targets in week nine. He had several big-time catches to move the chains, although he did have a bad drop. Smith-Schuster is clearly behind Conner and Brown in usage but still remains an excellent fantasy wide receiver with room for improvement. His excellent red zone usage should have produced more than two touchdowns so far on the year.

Rookie RB Jaylen Samuels was the backup running back this week over RB Stevan Ridley. His limited usage does not provide any fantasy value except in dynasty leagues, where he his stock is improving. Rookie WR James Washington was active this week and saw five targets. He turned them into a disappointing two catches for 17 yards.

TE Vance McDonald continued a string of mediocre performances with three catches for 25 yards on 6 targets. TE Jesse James got behind the defense for a big 51 yard gain but otherwise was held to one catch for two yards. McDonald is still in consideration as a fantasy starter, though owners should be looking to improve if possible. James can be left on waivers.

K Chris Boswell missed another extra point and has been erratic this year.

Pittsburgh’s defense did an effective job limiting the Ravens to 16 points, but two sacks and no turnovers led to a disappointing fantasy day for anyone who streamed the defense.

The Steelers will face the Carolina Panthers at home on Thursday Night Football in week 10.

-Erik Smith

Ravens

Joe Flacco was not good

Sure, Joe Flacco didn’t turn the ball over or anything in this game, but he was still bad. On 37 pass attempts, Flacco managed just 206 yards and no touchdowns, for a solid QBR of 54.2. And yes, that’s just 5.6 yards per attempt, which considering how bad the Steelers secondary had been this year, is pretty pitiful. And even worse, Flacco made a huge rookie mistake at the end of the game. Down a touchdown with less than a minute to go and no timeouts, Flacco managed to do the one thing you should avoid at all costs in that situation—he got sacked. And it wasn’t like he got sacked right away, it wasn’t like a linebacker busted through the offensive line unblocked and came at Flacco. No, Flacco was running outside the pocket and was too focused on making a play that he didn’t throw the ball away. That ran off plenty of time and made a comeback nearly impossible. They attempted a stupid short play with a million laterals, but of course that didn’t work. Flacco was a much worse real-life quarterback in this game than he was a fantasy quarterback, but he wasn’t good at either. I don’t think you can trust Flacco at all in almost any format going forward. And side note: a great way to guess if the Ravens lost a game or not—see if Flacco threw the ball more than 35 times. If he did, they probably lost.

The receivers were volatile yet again

I thought John Brown could be in for a good game here and he did the exact opposite, catching just three balls on six targets for 15 yards. Oddly enough, Willie Snead led the team in targets with eight, catching seven of those for 58 yards. As for Michael Crabtree, he logged seven targets, which is great to see, but caught just three of them for 32 yards. This was just a bad offensive game for the Ravens all around, and I think the takeaway here is that none of these receivers are trustworthy, no matter the matchup. Brown is going to be a feast-or-famine guy while Crabtree will be touchdown-dependant and Snead will be useful but likely victim to a volatile target share.

Alex Collins was predictably underutilized

Alex Collins saw just nine carries in this game for 35 yards, though he got a touchdown which helped salvage his fantasy value. It was good to see the Ravens trust him in the red zone, I just wish they would balance their offense more and give him more work. I’ve said it a thousand times, if the Ravens want to win, the cannot rely on Joe Flacco to throw the ball 35+ times. That’s just not who he is, he’s not a quarterback who can carry his team to a win. The Ravens succeed with a balanced offensive attack. You give Collins 15+ carries, the team will do better. It’s been proven time and time again, I’m not sure why they don’t seem to get this. As for the other running backs, Javorius Allen saw just one carry but was somewhat involved in the passing game, logging five catches on five targets, albeit for just eight yards thanks to how short-yardage focused the Ravens were. Ty Montgomery was inactive for this game, I’d expect he’ll make his Ravens debut next week and probably will eat more into Allen’s workload than Collins’.

Still nothing in the tight end game

I think the Ravens are just lying when they say they want Hayden Hurst to be more involved in this offense. In a game where Flacco threw the ball 37 times, Hurst saw just one target (a 21-yard catch) while Mark Andrews saw six. There’s still nothing here.

-Ben Palmer