Film Review: Anderson Ascends

Cincinnati vs. Indianapolis

I can't claim to know too much about his broader history, but for this year at least Marvin Lewis is running a clinic on awful personnel management. The insistence on starting Jeremy Hill – a player Lewis concedes is his worst at the position by benching him outside of the first drives of each half – is the most easily recognized instance of this. Lewis tells you at the outset that he is only doing this for superstitious reasons, or perhaps to be withholding toward Joe Mixon, who deserves scorn as all rookies do. In this particular game, though, Lewis got to work on mishandling his team's receivers.

Whereas teams traditionally select wide receivers ninth overall with the intention of using them in football games, especially when the receiver in question might be the fastest player in NFL history, a more enlightened coach like Lewis knows that it might actually be a better idea to leave that player on the bench for an undrafted return specialist like Alex Erickson, whose absence of pedigree and history of fumbling could perhaps offer a refreshing contrast to Ross' unmatched explosiveness. When Ross finally saw the field, the Bengals wisely used the 5-foot-11, 188-pound speed demon to block on the edge like a tight end on a Mixon sweep to the same side.

Is it a coincidence that events like this occur as Andy Dalton struggled at home against one of the league's three worst pass defenses? Who can say. Dalton played poorly for his own part, but that's usually the case. Even the Bengals usually don't screw up a spot like this, and yet it took a 67-yard screen pass to Mixon just to get Dalton to 243 yards against a defense that was allowing nine yards per pass. There's no insight to take away on A.J. Green's disappointing game – the surrounding circumstances dictated his underwhelming numbers. Josh Malone is a very good prospect and one who might provide fantasy utility after Lewis is fired down the road, but not anytime soon.

Mixon's 18 yards on 11 carries was certainly an ugly figure, but as has been the case all year, you have to attribute it to the offensive line more than anything else. Between that line and Lewis' aversion to obvious answers, it's hard to see Mixon providing anything consistent until the previously mentioned firing.

Jacoby Brissett was somewhat promising as he tried to bounce back from the ten-sack nightmare he suffered the prior week, withstanding attempted tacklers as he's known to do while steadily hitting a cushion-heavy Cincinnati defense for chain-moving gains. T.Y. Hilton had a couple drops on tough catches, but with just seven targets on the day his box score likely would have been disappointing anyway. Brissett needs to throw him the ball more. Jack Doyle's huge game now has him on pace for 96 catches, all but locking him in as a TE1 the rest of the way.

Marlon Mack continues to show interesting explosiveness off the bench, but the Indianapolis backfield will only make so much room for him as long as Frank Gore is healthy. Gore is doing just enough to hold on, and this running game is unlikely to be prolific enough for both players to make reliable impacts week to week.

Buffalo vs. Oakland

Zay Jones finally showed some signs of life for Buffalo, catching three passes for 32 yards, and he would have had a gain of about 30 yards on a sideline catch if Tyrod Taylor had managed to keep the ball in bounds. Generally, though, the Bills receivers continued to show a remarkable inability to create separation. The playcalling appeared to give up on the hope of any such thing – the routes very rarely went more than 10 yards downfield, which is a waste of the threat Taylor poses as a runner.

After a relatively slow first quarter, LeSean McCoy started to take over the game from the second quarter onward. He's almost impossible to stop once his clairvoyance kicks in. Very few runners in league history are as good anticipating and manipulating space.

Although he ran effectively and had the better box score between himself and Jalen Richard, DeAndre Washington's lost fumble was a crushing development for Oakland since Buffalo returned it for a touchdown. The two runners usually look almost identical whenever they get the ball, and their usage is mostly identical, too. If Marshawn Lynch were to miss any other games this year, it would be a coin flip as to whether Washington or Richard had the better projection in any instance.

Derek Carr began the game well enough, but from the second quarter or so onward the Oakland passing game sputtered. Unlike previous instances this year, Amari Cooper drops can't be blamed for the fact. Cooper's owners shouldn't panic despite the bitterness of another wasted week – he saw ten targets. Carr simply wasn't spotting open receivers often, and his throws were often both ill-conceived and inaccurate. Given the way he played against the Chiefs a week prior, it doesn't seem like his back injury would have had much to do with it. It might simply be true that throwing downfield will never be his forte, but Buffalo takes away the short passing game. Jared Cook played well for the second week in a row.

New England vs. Chargers

It was a relatively tough matchup against the Chargers pass defense, but this game was another instance where the Patriots were completely unable to generate downfield production. They don't target Brandin Cooks deep, they don't target Phillip Dorsett anywhere, and Danny Amendola has always been an underneath specialist. Chris Hogan struck downfield a good amount last year, but his injury obviously complicated things in this particular case. Rob Gronkowski is the team's best downfield threat, but they often need him just for moving the chains. I'm not worried about this offense as a whole, but it's going to be more efficient than explosive unless they start getting Cooks or Dorsett downfield.

That just might be a wrap for Mike Gillislee. Rex Burkhead is ahead of him, Dion Lewis is way ahead of him, and James White will of course not be challenged in his unique role. Burkhead might pose enough of a presence to keep Lewis' fantasy utility limited, but Lewis is doing well with his touches. It just might be a situation where Burkhead is also too good to leave on the bench all game.

It hasn't hurt his numbers much, but Melvin Gordon has looked rather slow, at least lately. I have no idea whether his knee and foot issues have factored into it, but Malcolm Butler easily gained on him in a straight line during Gordon's 87-yard touchdown run. Butler was timed at 4.62 seconds in the 40-yard dash at his pro day, which is is to say a likely 4.65-4.70 at the Combine. Even if Gordon was just running out of gas, I have to think the wear and tear has slowed him. Something to keep in mind in future projections.

As has been the case any time I've seen him this year, Philip Rivers struggled to throw anywhere but the slots or flats. On one throw that he attempted to send downfield, maybe about 25 yards, the pass was way off target, forcing Keenan Allen to commit an offensive pass interference to prevent an interception. I just can't see this changing. Outside of screens and hooks, Rivers appears unable to complete passes to players other than Allen, Gordon, and Hunter Henry.

Pointless notes: Travis Benjamin's amazing punt return for a safety was amazing. Joey Bosa did whatever he wanted all game and is safely on a Hall of Fame trajectory.

New Orleans vs. Chicago

Mitchell Trubisky showed some promise in this one and was robbed of a touchdown pass on the play where Zach Miller suffered his gruesome leg injury. The reads were still simple and he still hasn't shown much as far as downfield passing, but at least he's playing within his means right now and offers some mobility in the meantime.

When Trubisky did get things going downfield it was to previously quiet wideout Tre McBride, who possesses some encouraging prospect traits despite his obscurity. It doesn't feel like stats worth chasing in most leagues, but with 4.41 speed and explosive leaping ability, he's worth monitoring at least. He saw five targets in 42 snaps in this one after seeing none in the prior 78 snaps.

Jordan Howard isn't ripping big gains left and right like he did as a rookie, but he still withstands contact uniquely well. He generally looked a bit sluggish to me in this game, though, and it would make a lot of sense if his mammoth workload is catching up to him. He's still a bad receiver, and in the fourth quarter he had an ugly play where he tangled himself up and dropped the ball while trying to turn around for what would have been a clutch catch in Chicago's comeback attempt.

Despite two costly fumbles, Mark Ingram ran hard and generally proved productive, including as a pass catcher. While those two fumbles would normally be a concern for his playing time, it's hard to see New Orleans changing the role of Alvin Kamara a whole lot, and with Adrian Peterson gone there's no obvious threat to Ingram's function as the primary between-the-tackles back. Kamara was nearly charged with a fumble of his own in the second quarter, but his knee hit the ground just before the ball fell out. I would guess these two good running backs will continue to coexist as they have.

Drew Brees and Michael Thomas continued to play well, but the explosiveness has lacked in this offense so far. Even with his target rate up from 8.1 per game to 8.9, Thomas' per-target touchdown percentage and YPT currently sit at 3.2 and 7.7, respectively, after posting figures of 7.4 and 9.4 in those same categories last year. Next week's matchup with Tampa Bay should help.

The invisibility of Willie Snead and especially Sean Payton's indifference toward him is something I can't explain. The playing time that used to go to Snead is almost entirely going to Brandon Coleman who, like Snead, arrived to New Orleans as an undrafted free agent in 2015. Coleman saw 87 targets in the last two years, while Snead saw 205. Has either of these two players changed fundamentally since then? I don't think so – even in his elevated role this year, Coleman has seen just 19 targets in seven games, whereas Snead was averaging around seven targets per game in the last two years. I think Snead pretty clearly offers more than Coleman, but it of course won't matter as long as Snead is playing four snaps a game.

Philadelphia vs. San Francisco

It looked like it would be more of the same for Alshon Jeffery when Carson Wentz overthrew him on what should have been a 22-yard touchdown in the first quarter, but Jeffery managed to at least find the end zone later on. Not that I meant to frame any of that as Wentz's fault – the two merely haven't been on the same beat so far, more or less rotating the blame for past missed opportunities. I still think these two players are too good to not finish the season on a tear, so hopefully this effort provides some momentum there. Nelson Agholor only saw three targets, but it seems like he's ahead of Torrey Smith in the rotation at this point. Mack Hollins might be the next one to jump over Smith.

I can't imagine why the Eagles chose to stop using Wendell Smallwood in this game after utilizing him as the lead back the week prior, but the Jay Ajayi trade makes it a moot point. Smallwood is toast, and LeGarrette Blount takes a significant hit too.

For San Francisco, there's not much to take away from this game. Even for C.J. Beathard, whose rough showing might have precipitated the trade for Jimmy Garoppolo, was dealing with conditions too harsh to put all the blame on him. Carlos Hyde had very little opportunity in this one between the botched game flow and Philadelphia's ruthless defense. As promising as Matt Breida is, I wouldn't take his touchdown for a sign of an imminent role increase. The Garoppolo trade is great news for Pierre Garcon, though, as he could push for top-15 distinction in PPR scoring for the weeks Garoppolo is active.

Tampa Bay vs. Carolina

A windy day this might have been, but it's difficult to tell how much of the respective terrible quarterback box scores can be blamed on that fact. Devin Funchess and Mike Evans each had nice first down catches in the second quarter called back on penalties, while Kelvin Benjamin had two impressive sideline receptions that were narrowly ruled out of bounds due to off target throws.

I thought Doug Martin was easily the most impressive player for the Tampa offense, and his showing was particularly encouraging since Luke Kuechly (concussion) was back on the field for Carolina. As long as Jameis Winston doesn't tank the offense, I think you have to like Martin's chances of a big game against New Orleans this week.

The Carolina run blocking hasn't been very good, but Jonathan Stewart and Christian McCaffrey are providing such poor returns on the ground game that it's getting difficult to justify giving either one carries. The Panthers have a general problem of tipping off their intentions to use McCaffrey on gimmick plays – perhaps getting Curtis Samuel more involved post-Benjamin can help a bit with that. Cameron Artis-Payne only totaled eight yards on four carries, but he ran hard enough to get further looks, especially since all of his carries were within the red zone.

Cam Newton's throwing velocity looked as good as it has all year, but the improvement in his arm strength might be offset somewhat by the Benjamin trade. Funchess hasn't been efficient at all, and is still probably at least two years away from his full form. Greg Olsen can't get back soon enough. Samuel and Russell Shepard should otherwise split the workload opened up by Benjamin's departure.

Jets vs. Atlanta

Robby Anderson had Ricardo Allen beat and would have been wide open for a touchdown after running an out-and-up on the Jets' first drive, but Allen interfered to stop the play. Eric Tomlinson would score on the next play. Anderson's route tree isn't terribly diverse since he's too skinny to play in the middle of the field regularly, and the resulting high depth of target leads to a somewhat low catch rate, but his length and speed give him real skill as a downfield target. He's the Jets' WR1 as long as Jermaine Kearse, an underneath and intermediate target, is the team's second-best wideout. Anderson absolutely smokedDesmond Trufant on his touchdown reception. I like Anderson's chances of having a really big game or two before the year is over, assuming Josh McCown stays healthy (KNOCK ON WOOD). Austin Seferian-Jenkins was solid, but he'll be a touchdown-dependent fantasy option outside of PPR formats, because he just doesn't run routes down the field.

I have nothing to offer on Bilal Powell and Matt Forte. They're both alright, and both playing too much for the other to accumulate much in the way of numbers.

Steve Sarkisian is to Todd Haley as down is to up. Whereas the latter consistently, creatively schemes ways for Antonio Brown to get open, the former can't conceive a scripted opening beyond a screen pass. Until Sarkisian is removed from his role, Julio Jones will need to blatantly beat double teams, and generally prove heroic, to get looks. At least Julio was able to draw a pass interference call at the Jets' one-yard line in the second quarter. Austin Hooper had a nice touchdown in the first quarter where he improvised after a goal-line playaction went nowhere. He dropped what would have been a second touchdown in the second quarter.

If Tevin Coleman's knee was sore, it certainly wasn't obvious on tape. I realize Devonta Freeman is a very good running back, but the Falcons might as well get Coleman more involved since Julio's usage is so badly lacking. Both Coleman and Freeman merit heavy workloads.

Seattle vs. Houston

Wow. I thought this would be a bad setup for Deshaun Watson, but despite his three interceptions, the rookie was compellingly good. His first quarter touchdown pass to Will Fuller felt like a single-play negation of most criticisms toward Watson as a prospect – especially the one regarding his throwing velocity. As much of a distinction as there might be between velocity and distance, for Watson to sling a 59-yard touchdown so quickly and at a perfect angle all but erases any concerns about his arm. Watson still makes a lot of throws that are insanely aggressive, but if you can get away with it against Seattle on the road, who cares?

With the downward pressure Watson's mobility applies to defenses, the vertical threat posed by Fuller is that much more effective. For DeAndre Hopkins to make such explosive plays was unexpected, but these things can happen when the disorienting contrast of the Watson/Fuller dynamic spreads a defense thin.

As long as Watson is moving the ball like this, Lamar Miller will be in scoring position at a frequency he's never before had the benefit of. He could be a game changer in fantasy leagues down the stretch – think the RB1 people drafted him to be last year – so long as he stays healthy. It's a significant caveat, but it's hard to identify any other necessary accommodations.

For the second week in a row, Russell Wilson played out of his mind. His first touchdown pass to Paul Richardson was the sort of long-distance straight rope that almost no one other than him is capable of throwing. As tempting as it is to look at Richardson's touchdowns, I still consider Tyler Lockett the better player. Both are probably worth owning in many leagues, at least so long as the Seattle running game ceases to exist.

If not C.J. Prosise, I think we've reached the point where the Seahawks should seriously consider an arrangement where J.D. McKissic is the team's lead running back. Thomas Rawls and Eddie Lacy seemingly can provide nothing.

Washington vs. Dallas

Dak had a disappointing box score on a rainy day where Dallas netted an easy road victory. There of course should be no conclusions reached about Dak, Dez Bryant, or Jason Witten given the fact. Ezekiel Elliott was excellent again, but his for-now reactivated suspension makes that rather moot.

More interesting is the Washington offense, which features a quarterback accustomed to above average results that his fantasy owners are similarly accustomed to. I'm not convinced either group will be happy going forward. In this particular case, the Dallas defensive line had a lot to do with it, as David Irving and Demarcus Lawrence are a tandem that will soon be known as among the league's most feared. But even more generally, what is Cousins to do with an offensive line where its left tackle, center, right guard, and right tackle are all hurt? What is he to do when DeSean Jackson and Pierre Garcon have been replaced with Josh Doctson and Ryant Grant?

Grant would be a backup if not for Jay Gruden's arbitrary attachment to him, and Jamison Crowder, good as he might be, has a slot receiver skill set. Cousins may be forced to run a checkdown offense with a bad offensive line. At least Crowder showed a little bit downfield in this one – Cousins made a great throw between the corner and safety on a play where Crowder beat the coverage deep in the first quarter. Terrelle Pryor would have had a first down catch on a 3rd and seven in the second quarter, but Cousins threw it too far out of bounds. Cousins just isn't looking at Pryor or Doctson when they're on the field.

Rob Kelley still can't play. That Washington sticks with him to any extent is something I find discouraging for the prospects of their coaches figuring out how to fix the offense generally, particularly in the context of mishandling Doctson and Pryor.

Detroit vs. Pittsburgh

Juju Smith-Schuster's breakout game got started on a play where Pittsburgh faked a screen to Antonio Brown on the same side of the formation, and the corner on JSS completely bailed on his assignment. Why you wouldn't run a play like that with Martavis Bryant, I'll never know. Ben Roethlisberger still managed to underthrow JSS, who would have gotten even more yardage on a good throw. Juju's 97-yard touchdown in the third quarter, however, was an impressive play where he dusted the single press coverage with a great release and never got caught afterward.

As much as I think Pittsburgh wasted Bryant's considerable talents, JSS definitely is better at creating yardage after the catch over the middle of the field, where he breaks tackles more effectively than the gazelle-like Bryant. I guess since Roethlisberger can barely hit a barn further than 20 yards downfield at this point, Bryant's theoretical skills beyond such depths are moot. Antonio Brown had a third quarter touchdown catch reversed on an offensive pass interference call. Roethlisberger missed a completely uncovered Darrius Heyward-Bey in the end zone shortly beforehand.

The Lions showed little concern over the Pittsburgh passing game early in downs, and given the Steelers' 20-point output, that's pretty clearly the way to game plan against Pittsburgh. Le'Veon Bell is the engine of an offense where Roethlisberger mostly chucks the ball the rest of the time, so force the Steelers to lean on the latter as much as possible. You certainly don't limit Bell to 79 yards from scrimmage by playing six in the box.

Matthew Stafford generally played well, and had a perfect touchdown throw dropped by Darren Fells at the end of the second quarter. It was a relatively tough catch, but one that should have been made on a good throw. The Joneses – Marvin and T.J. – both stepped up with Kenny Golladay (hamstring) out. Marvin was expected to do such things, but this marked a career game for the younger T.J., who had modest expectations heading into this year. With 17 targets in the last two games, T.J. could have some continued streamer appeal if Golladay misses more time.

As much as Ameer Abdullah has certain useful traits – namely his burst, quickness, hands, and motor – his lack of speed and power reduce him to a part-time player in a functional offense, and the six carries assigned to Dwayne Washington indicate Detroit is realizing this. Of course, that Washington suffered a concussion might make it a non-issue for Abdullah in the meantime. But Abdullah is more suited to a James White-type role than a starting one.