2022 Week 15: Browns 13, Ravens 3 (Dynasty/Fantasy Analysis Game Report)
So, on the Saturday three-game showcase…we got the game of the year candidate IND-MIN event on TV first, which bled into this ‘worst watch’ game of the year candidate. What a snooze fest.
A battle of field goals and missed field goals…three made field goals vs. four missed field goals. The weather wasn’t great, it affected the kicking game, but it wasn’t so bad that it should’ve neutralized the two offenses…that was more on the two QBs. Both QBs played sloppy, uninspired games…and thus a sloppy, uninspired game was the overall result. The team with the least turnovers won. Either team could’ve won, and Cleveland did everything they could to give this game to Baltimore, but the Ravens wouldn’t take it.
Baltimore falls to (9-5) and on the verge of handing the AFC North over to the Bengals. The Ravens have had a gift schedule for weeks, and they’ve totally flopped with it. Baltimore has good tiebreaker wins over the other wildcard hopefuls, so one more win should get them into a wild card. Their division title chances are slipping by the week. They don’t deserve it anyway, they aren’t in Cincy’s league, but the easy schedule is keeping them in it.
Cleveland jumps up to (6-8), which keeps faint wild card hopes alive…if they can win out and get a ton of help. Really, it’s all but over. Their final 3 games on the schedule are all winnable, but it’s not likely the Browns can seal that kind of deal. They’ll likely finish with 7 wins, 8 max., and no playoffs. This team just doesn’t look inspired to go on any win streak. They hardly won this game that they kept trying to lose.
*Note any fractional numbers in parentheses (4/2) or (2/3), etc., are a ‘split’ stat on our definition of a ‘quality start’ (or not) marker on a player -- using 14 PPR points in a game for RB-WR-TE and 21 for a QB…point levels that are good/productive/well above average starts for a Fantasy week. Trying to identify trends, consistency (or not) in players we might not normally realize.
A (3/2), for example, means: 3 times the player hit at/above the mark, and 2 times they did not.
Fantasy Player Notes…
-- Not much for FF to take away from this game from the Ravens offense, because Tyler Huntley (17-30 for 138 yards, 0 TDs/1 INT) likely won’t start next week, Lamar should be back. But if Huntley does start, it will be the same run-game dominant/weak passing game scenario as there has been with Lamar…only more run game with J.K. Dobbins back.
Specifically on Huntley, he does not look as good as he did filling-in last year. No spark to his game. He’s not striking any fear into opponents with his run ability anymore. Huntley is not creating any future with his play here. If he does start again Week 16 vs. ATL…I would expect about the same numbers across the Ravens offense as they had here -- nice run game totals and weak pass game tallies. But I don’t think it will be a whole lot better, and it wasn’t prior, with Lamar back at the helm.
The Ravens have scored 16 or fewer points in four of their last 5 games.
-- Deshaun Watson (18-28 for 161 yards, 1 TD/0 INT, 6-22-0) looked better than Tyler Huntley here, but not that much better. Three starts so far for Deshaun, and three events where you have to be asking, as a Browns fan, ‘What exactly did we pay the most lucrative contract in NFL history for? Certainly, we must have received the wrong player?’
You would/should take Brock Purdy, right now, as your NFL franchise QB over Deshaun Watson…as just one example of the massive mistake the Browns have made.
I could buy ‘rusty’ for a week, maybe two but this is beyond that. Watson has no life/spark to his game. His teammates don’t seem to be all that into it either. A major problem looming, but all the Browns can do is sweep it under the rug and pray he snaps into it…and that’s what they’ll be crowing/praying about all offseason…that having an ‘entire/normal offseason’ will make for a vast change. We’ll see.
For Week 16…you have to assume ‘more of the same’ facing a very tough Saints defense that may be in the playoff mix still.
-- Three games into the Deshaun era, and I really do not detect that there is a ‘favorite’ receiver for him that has emerged. Over the three games, things have been spread around Cooper-DPJ-Njoku pretty well.
The one option that catches my eye a tiny bit above the others is David Njoku (3-28-0/6). Watson seems to be warming up to his TE and Njoku is becoming a real slick option in the passing game and a beast after the catch, when they can get him the ball. Njoku is trying to break out, but it's not totally locked in yet.
-- Nick Chubb (21-99-0, 0-0-0/2) had little running room against a very good Ravens run defense, but he grinded out yards, salting the game away late and just fell shy of a 100+ yard effort.
Kareem Hunt (4-24-0, 1-3-0/1) continues to be a waste of time. As long as the Browns are in the playoff picture, I guess Hunt is the Chubb handcuff…but once the Browns are done, so should Hunt be…we should see Jerome Ford getting work late in the season when the Browns are ‘done’.
-- Two games back for J.K. Dobbins (13-125-0, 1-3-0/1)…and back-to-back 120+ yard rushing games. He’s not doing anything special…he’s just taking touches behind a good O-Line against bad run defense opponents. He has good matchups the rest of the season.
-- The Mark Andrews (3-31-0/7) swoon continues…a (4/2) start with a now (0/7) streak.
Andrews is a (4/9) this season.
David Njoku is a (5/7).
It’s not working with Andrews, but how could you bench him? Recent trends say you should…but I don’t know how you could.
Snap Counts of Interest:
46 = Chubb
17 = K Hunt
62 = Njoku
27 = H Bryant
24 = Justice Hill
24 = Dobbins
11 = Gus E.
