2020 Dynasty/Fantasy Week 13 Game Analysis: Ravens 34, Cowboys 17
I take notes during the live watch. I re-watch the game on tape looking for hidden clues to report on. Here are my notes/takes on what I saw and how it related to FF 2020. I write anywhere from 1,000-3,000+ words on each game, and I must move fast to get to all of them through the week…so, please forgive any typos/grammar.
Another week in a row where my football week ends with the Ravens involved in putting me to sleep. Can there not be another week ending Ravens game the rest of 2020, please? Surely, there can’t be any more Baltimore involved in the final game of the NFL week events for the rest of the season…I mean there’s just 4 weeks left?
…wait, what? The Ravens face the Browns on Monday Night Football next week. What the? Son of a…
Come on COVID, we need to shift something to next Tuesday! I can’t take more Ravens games on national TV!
Even Dez Bryant doesn’t want to play for the Ravens anymore.
Seriously, this was a bad football game. The Dallas Cowboys should quit the rest of the season along with Dez. They are a joke.
I’m being salty about things because my take on this game was – the Cowboys are terrible, and the Ravens didn’t destroy them. Not really. It was a bit of a grind for the Ravens. The Ravens had to convert 3rd-downs and 4th-downs and get turnovers to pull away. The 2019 Ravens would have won this game by 30+. The 2020 Ravens were losing to Dallas halfway into the 2nd-quarter and struggled moving the ball too many times. Dallas is a pushover and Baltimore didn’t really push them over with impunity…just a light nudge and then Dallas tripped over their own feet.
I don’t know what happened to the 2019 version of the Ravens, but they are nowhere to be found in 2020 since about Week 3 of this season. I don’t think they exist anymore.
Baltimore rises to (7-5) and needs to win three of their final 4 games to have a shot at a wild card. If they beat Cleveland next week…the Ravens are getting in. I don’t know that they can beat the Browns at Cleveland right now.
Dallas (3-9) is now done for the season. I mean they were pretty well done prior to this game, but with NYG and Washington getting to 5 wins with upset wins Week 13…Dallas would have to run the table to have a shot at the NFC East title, and even then they may fall short. Dallas has a pulse for the NFC East title but it’s very faint. They aren't winning 4 in-a-row. They may not win another game the rest of the year.
Fantasy Player Notes…
-- Lamar Jackson (12-17 for 107 yards, 2 TDs/1 INT, 13-94-1) is not getting any better as the season goes along…he’s getting worse. Fortunately, for him…Dallas is so bad he was able to make a few plays, especially running early when the Dallas linebackers chased fakes and didn’t realize Lamar Jackson would keep the ball himself. What do defensive players do when watching film during the week? Who doesn’t know Lamar is likely keeping it on every run play he can?
Lamar still runs it fine, just not as well as he did last season, but his passing is atrocious. Again, he’s lucky he drew Dallas with most of their secondary out of action.
If you make Lamar work as a pocket passer…you’re going to win the game over the Ravens.
Lamar is Lamar…so he keeps a lot of running plays for himself, never throws to the RBs, and can barely complete passes to receivers – all the supporting cast is dead for fantasy as long as Lamar is at QB, and he will be for a long time.
-- J.K. Dobbins (11-71-1) did not get the follow up ‘push’ as ‘the guy’ to lead the Ravens backfield. Mark Ingram (6-28-0, 1-1-0/1) started! Dobbins sprinkled in with dominant runs but was out more than he was in…and he got a late garbage TD to save his FF-day.
Dobbins is in a timeshare/RBBC…and Lamar is the one taking all the FF-gold as a runner. Fortunately, Dallas is so bad there were numbers to be had for Dobbins-Edwards late, but you can’t FF-survive on 8-11 carries and targets each week.
I love Dobbins, but you gotta trade him in PPR Dynasty this offseason if there is a big believer who wants to acquire him.
-- I was expecting a shutdown performance from the Ravens secondary, but with Jimmy Smith out…Andy Dalton (31-48 for 285 yards, 2 TDs/1 INT) was fairly comfortable all game.
Jimmy Smith back next week is trouble for the Browns…and I think he’ll go after Jarvis Landry.
Dalton faces his ‘revenge’ game against the Bengals Week 14. I’m not sure what a win by a bad Dallas team over a bad Bengals team will prove, but it’s a thing…as it usually is. Run with the revenge factor if you wish. Dalton looks totally fine/capable every week, to me. Just depends upon the opponent and game flow.
-- Before looking at the box score, I would have guessed it was a 60/40 split of touches between Ezekiel Elliott (18-77-0, 4-18-0/6) and Tony Pollard (8-22-0, 1-6-0/1)…but that’s not what happened. It sure seems like Pollard was in a lot more and in key spots early.
Pollard, a receiving star in college…gets one target in a game, per usual. Nice job, Kellen Moore. Great use of personnel. Keep throwing heavy to Amari…they’ll never figure that to happen.
-- Dez Bryant (DNP) got notified he had tested positive for COVID about 30 minutes before the game…then tweeted in-game that he was quitting football because of it.
So many thoughts…
1) How is it player test results just got in minutes before the game?
2) How many people do you think Dez was around the two hours pregame – between his own team and going over to see his old team? Dez is a superspreader event, potentially.
3) Dez’s childish reaction is as you would expect. If the Ravens don’t cut him, then I lose a ton of respect for John Harbaugh. Everyone has worried for years that Dez is an immature, locker room cancer. The Ravens should be making the playoffs, so Dez could matter in a few weeks for the playoff run. Nope. He’s ‘quitting’. Totally in his character…it’s all about Dez and what toys Dez wants to play with.
-- Finally, how bad has Greg ‘the Leg’ fallen? 1-of-4 on field goal attempts in this game.
They probably just stick with him the rest of the season, but they should try young kickers out the next few weeks in prep to hope to find one for 2021…because Zuerlein is definitely getting cut because Dallas will save $2.2M in CAP space when they do.
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Snap Counts of Interest:
48 = Boykin
45 = Mq Brown
44 = Duvernay
21 = Dobbins
18 = Edwards
11 = Ingram
50 = Elliott
31 = Pollard
