2022 Week 15: Bengals 34, Buccaneers 23 (Dynasty/Fantasy Analysis Game Report)
This game was 17-0 Tampa in a blink, it seemed. Cincinnati could do nothing on offense. The Buccaneers were flying around on defense. Tampa can never get offense going early this season, they rarely/never take early leads in 2022 -- but they did here. A 17-3 Bucs lead at the half. The Bengals totally flustered and the Bucs sky high with themselves.
That’s when the Bengals decided to re-prove to the world that they are the best team in the NFL…an extension from when they were the best team in football starting Week 16 last season…and they got referee-call-screwed out of a Super Bowl title…and now they’re back as the top dog. They really never left…we just won’t acknowledge them.
The Bengals looked as bad as they have all year, and the Bucs looked their best of 2022…in the 1st-half of this game. Cincy never panicked and just came out in the 2nd-half and reversed everything. The Bengals went on scoring drive after scoring drive and the Buccaneers couldn’t take a punch and couldn’t answer and they died…and the next thing you know it’s a two-score then three-score lead for Cincy and the game was suddenly a joke in favor of the Bengals. Just a half prior, the Bucs were DOMINATING the Bengals. It was reversed in the 2nd-half and the Bucs went back to being embarrassing. It’s such a bad team.
Yet, Tampa Bay somehow still leads the NFC South at (6-8). If they were in any other division, we’d be mocking the Bucs incessantly and claiming Todd Bowles should be one-and-done and that Tom Brady should’ve never come out of retirement. Instead, we all think the Bucs will back their way into the playoffs and then beat Dallas in the 1st-round. Oh, the faith we have in Brady. I’m not sure the Bucs can even win this division yet…
Cincinnati has won six straight and eight of their last 9 games and are now one game out of the #1 seed spot -- with a game against Buffalo Week 17 as the likely determinant for that #1 seed (both BUF and CIN have a tiebreaker over KC). My money is on the best team in football -- the Cincinnati Bengals.
*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…
-- Tom Brady (30-44 for 312 yards, 3 TDs/2 INTs) is not failing at age 45+. Despite the poor O-Line protection, Brady has adjusted and is completing 66%+ of his throws the past five games with 10 TDs/6 INTs…throwing 45.0 times per game in that span. He’s throwing a lot, forcing passes…usually due to early deficits and lack of any run game…but he’s putting up decent numbers despite the challenges.
Week 16 at Arizona, indoors with an XFL secondary from the Cardinals -- it could be a big week for Brady.
-- I didn’t fully realize how much Russell Gage (8-59-2/12) was a part of this passing game in this game -- a game high 12 targets and 4 end zone throws, two of them landed for TDs. It’s the second time this season that Gage has 12 or more targets in a game. Week 3, Gage went off for 12-87-1/13…with several TB WRs out. This game, with Julio out, Gage scarfed a bunch of targets again.
It’s an easy throw for Brady…Gage working almost like his old school Edelman. Gage working short allows Chris Godwin (8-83-1/8) to work all over and gives more space for Mike Evans (5-83-0/9) to work deep.
We might see Gage with another solid-to-heavy target game Week 16 at Arizona…maybe. Gage’s game outputs have been all over the place but when he’s played 60%+ of the snaps in games this season, he’s getting decent targets and some huge spike target games.
With a lot of good WRs working in negative temperatures with 15+ or 25+ MPH winds in Week 16…Gage is working indoors versus no-name corners.
-- The rise of the easy throw to Gage takes those easy targets away from the RBs…thus Rachaad White (11-38-0, 1-5-0/2) flopped as did Leonard Fournette (10-44-0, 4-30-0/4) for FF output. When Tampa gets a lead, then they don’t need to throw every play and thus doesn’t force Brady into a lot of checkdowns to the RBs. Tampa led early in this game and went a whole other way on game script from their normal (down and chasing). When Tampa did get down, it was later in the game and TB didn’t have many possessions.
If Tampa smokes Arizona quickly Week 16…the RBs could starve for targets again.
-- Cade Otton (1-20-0/1) only had one target here. Prior two games, Otton averaged 7.5 targets per game. Week 16 versus the Arizona TE defense is theoretically a good matchup, but we’ll see. TEs vs. the Arizona defense hasn’t been working as well the past few weeks and then Otton’s targets are still unpredictable anyway. A sketchy/hopeful sleeper TE for Week 16.
-- Tee Higgins (5-33-/8) returned to action with no real effects shown from his hamstring issue. He played 80% of the snaps and looked fine.
Tyler Boyd (5-35-1/5) played with a broken finger…and also looked fine.
No worries on them for Week 16.
-- Tampa Bay’s defense has given up 35 and 34 points their last two games, but they also faced SF and CIN those two weeks. Prior to that they had a four-game streak holding opponents to 17 points or fewer. It’s a solid enough defense that is getting a Week 16 gift from God with facing Arizona and them having to go Trace McSorley at QB…who is THE WORST.
Snap Counts of Interest:
66 = Godwin
60 = Mike Evans
46 = Russell Gage
43 = Fournette
29 = R White
42 = Mixon
25 = Perine
