The Cincinnati Bengals aren’t headed for the playoffs, and I’ll be sad when their season ends. They’ve become the perfect fantasy carnival for 2024, a loaded offense that can’t stop anything on defense.
Pittsburgh marched into Cincinnati and beat the Bengals on Sunday, 44-38. For Cincinnati fans, the game felt like a rerun. The Bengals racked up 375 yards of offense and 25 first downs but it wasn’t enough because Pittsburgh’s offense went for 28 first downs and 520 yards of offense. For one day, Arthur Smith had Bill Walsh mojo with the Pittsburgh play sheet.
Joe Burrow threw for 309 yards and three touchdowns in the loss (23.16 fantasy points), and most of the Cincinnati production went to the skill players fantasy managers need. Ja’Marr Chase (6-86-1 for 17.6 points), Tee Higgins (5-69-1 for 15.4 points) and Chase Brown (100 total yards and 17.5 points)) all had touchdowns. Half of Burrow’s targets went to Chase or Higgins. Brown had 12 carries for the day, Khalil Herbert had just one. We love this type of narrow ball distribution.
I wasn’t sure if the Steelers would aggressively target Cincinnati’s lousy secondary, but they did. Russell Wilson rang up 414 passing yards and three touchdowns (27.86 fantasy points), gobbling 10.9 yards per attempt. His 38 pass attempts were a season high. The Pittsburgh target tree was wider than we’d like, but George Pickens (3-74-1 for 14.9 points) still got home and Pat Freiermuth (6-68-1 for 15.8 points) was handy if you needed him. And tailback Najee Harris continued his underrated season, handling 22 touches, good for 129 total yards and a score.
It’s a downer to note that the rematch between these teams doesn’t come until Week 18 a week after most fantasy leagues are concluded. But let’s bookmark the rest of the Cincinnati schedule for fantasy purposes. The Bengals travel to Dallas and Tennessee, then close the fantasy playoffs with home games against Cleveland and Denver. The over has hit in nine of 12 Cincinnati games, despite numbers that are routinely in the high 40s or even over 50. I see no reason why that trend will slow down.
The NFC’s best version of a carnival might be in Washington, where the Commanders ranked fifth in offensive DVOA entering this week, but just 28th in defensive DVOA. Jayden Daniels was back in form in a 42-19 trouncing of Tennessee, throwing for three touchdowns and running in a fourth. That pushed Daniels to the top of the overall scoring leaderboard with SNF and MNF left to play, scoring 28.64 points in Yahoo default scoring.
The two primary Washington pass catchers came home Terry McLaurin continued his career season (8-73-2 for 23.3 fantasy points) and Zach Ertz (3-35-1 for 11 points) is still handy in his age-34 season. The backfield was more of a platoon approach, but Brian Robinson (16-103-1 for 17.4 points) and Chris Rodriguez Jr. (13-94-1) both punched in scores, the Rodriguez spike a garbage-time special. Running backs love those fourth-quarter carries, running through and around tired, disengaged defenders.
Washington sits in Week 14, then finishes the season with three potentially fun games: at New Orleans, then home with Philadelphia and Atlanta. Mark your calendars.
Most of the Tennessee angles were misses, other than touchdown hero Nick Westbrook-Ikhine (3-61-2 for 19.6 points), who’s now scored eight times in eight games. His season stats read like a glorious misprint 20 catches, 365 yards, eight touchdowns. Because NWI has seen snap shares greater than 90% since the DeAndre Hopkins trade, we’ve been able to shoehorn him into a bunch of sleeper columns and is a clear waiver target. Maybe Westbrook-Ikhine will graduate next week, when managers need to navigate the final bye-week challenge (six teams don’t play) of the season.
Note: I’ll continue to add Week 13 analysis as Sunday unfolds.