Browns-Bengals isn't always the prettiest matchup, but between the talent on the Browns and the injection of a No. 1 overall quarterback for the Bengals, it was an intriguing one. It mostly delivered, too, with plenty of highlights and scoring. And some frustration.
A frustration for me is the Zapruder-like use of instant replay to freeze-frame every play near the goal line to see if a guy who falls into the end zone actually scored or not. I get that we're trying to get the calls right. It just sucks that we can't actually enjoy a cool-looking touchdown, like the Beckham one, because we need to spend 5 minutes determining exactly where the ball was the millisecond his elbow or shin grazed the tippy-top of a blade of grass. Three times last night -- Beckham, Chubb, Bernard -- we had to spend what seemed like an eternity figuring out if a touchdown was a touchdown. Two of them were overturned. Is this what instant replay is for? Does it make the game better? My answer is no.
QUARTERBACKS:
Baker Mayfield was on his game all night long. He finished with modest numbers (219 yards and 2 TDs) since he only had to attempt 23 passes in a run-dominated win. That's going to be the case a lot this year, at least in games where the Browns are favored and are able to run it with two of the league's best running backs. That's what Kevin Stefanski wants, and last night he got it. Nice NFL game for Mayfield, though; looking a lot more comfortable and confident than he did last year.
Mostly impressive outing for Joe Burrow. He was just a hair off on a lot of throws, which was frustrating for those who used his receivers. But Tyler Boyd dropped a touchdown and A.J. Green couldn't reel another score in that he normally catches; I counted 5-6 balls that really should have been caught, which would have put Burrow over 350 yards with a fourth touchdown. (All three of his touchdown throws were really nice darts.) Guy was getting clobbered back there but at no point did he look shaken or uncomfortable, just kept standing tall and making throws, with some heady runs at times. With a rookie getting knocked around, I watch for him either being too quick to run with it or showing nervous feet. None of that with Burrow, which was very encouraging. Bengals have their quarterback. Fantasy-wise, he's going to have more games like last night, because his defense and line are terrible and the running game will struggle and he'll be playing catch. Just hope he doesn't get killed.
RUNNING BACKS:
The Browns won't run the ball 35 times every week, and they won't face as soft a run defense as the Bengals (who were missing a couple of key guys), which let them average over 6 yards per attempt. But that is going to be the approach most games, so Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt will have a lot of good games. Hunt will play more in passing situations and Chubb will get more goal-line totes (he was actually shaky in those last night, needing 5 attempts from in close to get his short rushing score), and there will be weeks one scores twice and the other doesn't. But it's a great tandem and you're happy with either one -- those who drafted Hunt as a starter should be rewarded most weeks. If one of these guys gets hurt, the other will probably be the league's most productive running back.
Joe Mixon started out very slow a year ago, and looks like more of the same this year. His line is terrible, that's a given. Tough to get rushing touchdowns when there's no blocking in close. The bigger concern is Giovani Bernard playing in most passing situations and in the hurry-up, which this team is going to be in a lot of. Mixon caught 4 balls for 40 yards last night, which saved his otherwise awful evening, but Bernard had nearly twice as many targets and was on the field almost as often (officially, 46 snaps for Mixon and 42 for Bernard). Burrow won't throw the ball 61 times every game, so no one should be blowing the waiver budget on Bernard, but he's going to continue to take some work from Mixon.
WIDE RECEIVERS:
Hats off to Odell Beckham, who got free for a long touchdown and nearly another; he was held on the play. But with both him and especially Jarvis Landry, there simply weren't enough chances to really have a big game. I think it was a positive outing for Beckham and the plus for Landry is that he looked healthy enough. Mayfield will need to attempt more than 23 passes most weeks. Browns have settled on Khadarel Hodge as their No. 3, and he looked good with his chances. But there were only two of them.
Tyler Boyd finished with good numbers, thanks to a garbage-time touchdown that was really a spectacular back of the end zone catch. But he also dropped a short touchdown at the goal line, and it was a little worrying that for a lot of the game he wasn't seeing many targets; Burrow was locked in on A.J. Green and to a lesser extent his tight ends. Just had me a little worried that a healthy Green is going to be more of a negative for Boyd this year than I expected, seeing as I have him in a lot of leagues.
The less said about Green's game the better. A whopping 13 targets and only 3 were completed. Frustrating if you started him. Some were off target, some were arguably drops, some were tough grabs he normally makes. Could have been a big game, instead it was a whole lot of near misses. I think you can be encouraged by the usage -- another game with that many looks and he might catch 10 passes for 150 yards. But tough to watch last night. Tee Higgins is working as the No. 3, showing promise on a couple of plays but will need an injury ahead of him to be viable. Then you had Mike Thomas catching a short touchdown on a slant, that helps no one except those who started Burrow.
TIGHT ENDS:
It didn't take long for those who drafted Austin Hooper to realize their mistake. You were warned. Stefanski's offense isn't going to feature him. He did catch a touchdown just out of bounds last night; there will be occasional red-zone flips. But nowhere near as big a part of the offense as he was in Atlanta. Not a guy you want to have to start.
Drew Sample takes over as the Bengals tight end after C.J. Uzomah suffers an Achilles injury late. Collectively they caught 11 passes and a touchdown on 15 targets; looks like Burrow is going to lean on those guys when the pocket breaks down, so basically every other play. A really nice throw by Burrow for Uzomah's score. Sample should definitely be added in PPR leagues, he should catch a bunch of short throws in this offense. Bad break for those who believed in Uzomah, there were a few.
OTHER:
Randy Bullock made all three of his field goals, too bad he couldn't make the important one last week. Browns didn't attempt any, going for fourth downs several times in field goal range. ... Browns Defense got 3 sacks and forced a fumble. I hesitate to give them too much credit since when a quarterback attempts 61 passes behind a line as poor as Cincinnati's seems to be, you'd better get 3 sacks (one of them was due to a snapped ball while Burrow was trying to call timeout and shouldn't even count). ... Brandon Wilson had a couple of long kick returns; that's three in two games. Those in TD-only leagues should consider the Bengals Defense as a possibility to take one back at some point. They should be handling a lot of kickoffs.