Baltimore Ravens vs Houston Texans Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 2

The Worksheet, a fantasy football overview by Rich Hribar, breaking down everything you need to know for the Week 2 Baltimore Ravens at Houston Texans Sunday afternoon game.

Baltimore	Rank	@	Houston	Rank
-6.5		Spread	6.5
29.75		Implied Total	23.25
38	2	Points/Gm	20	22
6	1	Points All./Gm	34	28
58	27	Plays/Gm	58	26
68	21	Opp. Plays/Gm	67	20
51.7%	4	Rush%	37.9%	26
48.3%	29	Pass%	62.1%	7
39.7%	10	Opp. Rush %	50.8%	25
60.3%	23	Opp. Pass %	49.3%	8

The Ravens are 9-2 straight up and against the spread in Lamar Jackson's road starts.
Baltimore has forced a turnover in 14 consecutive regular season games dating back to last season, the longest streak in the league.
Mark Andrews played a career-high 71.2% of the Baltimore offensive snaps and ran a pass route on 86.7% of the team dropbacks.
In 2019, Andrews averaged 43.8% of the offensive snaps per game and ran a pass route on 57.8% of the team dropbacks.
Deshaun Watson was under pressure on 35% of his dropbacks in Week 1 (eighth-highest). Under pressure, he completed just 1-of-7 passes for six yards while taking four sacks.

Trust = spike production for that player
Bust = down-week production for that player’s standards

Quarterback

Lamar Jackson (TRUST): Regression? It will have to wait. Jackson led all passers in yards per pass attempt (11.0 Y/A) and touchdown rate (12.0%) in Week 1. He runs into another strong matchup in Week 2 against a Houston defense that allowed 20.4 points to Patrick Mahomes in Week 1 while Jackson had 33.5 points against Houston in this matchup a year ago.

Deshaun Watson (BUST): Watson salvaged his Week 1 with 8.7 rushing points, something that is still in his chamber here. But that Houston offense was miserable in Week 1 outside of their early series game script. The Baltimore defense closed the 2019 season as the league’s best defense versus opposing quarterbacks and picked up right where they left off in Week 1 by allowing 0.25 passing points per attempt (third). When these teams played a year ago, Watson scored just 3.9 fantasy points, the fewest he has scored in any game of his career. Houston has extra time to try and get things right on offense after Week 1, but Watson will not be among my QB1 plays this week.

Running Back

David Johnson: Johnson had an efficient open to the season, turning 14 touches into 109 total yards and a touchdown. His 19-yard touchdown run was his longest rushing touchdown since Week 6, 2016. No one is xpecting Johnson to average 7.0 yards per carry here against the Ravens, but his receiving work has room to rise after being targeted just four times on 32 routes, which matched Christian McCaffrey for the most routes run among backs in Week 1. With Duke Johnson sidelined, David is game script proof even in what could stand to be a matchup that gets one-sided, continue to use him as an RB2.

Ravens RBs: Baltimore went with a three-way split in their backfield to open the season. Rookie J.K. Dobbins led the way with 23 snaps (seven touches for 22 yards), Mark Ingram 21 snaps (10 touches for 29 yards), and Gus Edwards 15 snaps (four touches for 17 yards). Dobbins got both carries from inside of the 5-yard line (both converted for scores), but it is hard to say how sticky that will be on a weekly basis. Houston was ravaged for 170 yards from scrimmage by the Kansas City backfield in Week 1 with 163 of those yards coming on the ground. Given the usage here with a lack of receiving upside, Ingram and Dobbins are still just fringe RB2 options.

Wide Receiver

Marquise Brown: Healthy to start the season, Brown led all wide receivers in yards per route run (4.21 yards) among those with double-digit routes. Brown turned six targets into five receptions for 101 yards. The overall passing volume is still going to prevent Brown from becoming a top-targeted receiver in the context of his peers, but he has Tyreek Hill-type potential on a per-target basis. Houston did a solid job on Hill himself in Week 1, but he still found the end zone. Brown should be viewed as a high-upside WR2. If looking for a deeper dig or bench stash, Miles Boykin tied for the team lead with 26 pass routes run in Week 1 with an end zone target.

Will Fuller: Fuller turned in a high-floor Week 1, receiving 31.3% of the team targets (eighth among wideouts). Fuller caught 8-of-10 targets for 112 yards while the rest of the Houston wideouts caught 5-of-12 targets for 51 yards in the season opener. I would expect Brandin Cooks (five targets) and Randall Cobb (three targets) to be more involved than they were to start the season, but if Week 1 was any indication, Fuller is the focal point of this passing game. I also would not chase Cooks or Cobb bouncing back in this matchup. Baltimore has not allowed a 100-yard wide receiver since acquiring Marcus Peters last season and just two top-12 scorers over that span, leaving Fuller with closer to a WR2 ceiling needing to hit a splash play. Despite his hot start, I would handle Fuller as a fringe WR2/WR3 option in Week 2 with the potential to always hit a big play.

Tight End

Mark Andrews (TRUST): Entering the season healthy, playing more snaps, and running more routes, Andrews has a legitimate shot to make a run at being the highest-scoring tight end this season. Houston was below league average in yards per target, receptions, yardage, and fantasy points per game allowed to tight ends in 2019 and allowed a 6-50-1 game to Travis Kelce in the opener. Ravens tight ends posted 8-111-1 in this matchup a year ago with Andrews himself having 4-75-1.

Jordan Akins: Akins ran 32 routes in Week 1 (80% of dropbacks). He was targeted just two times (2-39-1). Baltimore did allow 6-70-1 to Cleveland tight ends in Week 1, but Akins is still a step of faith TE2 option that we are monitoring early in the season.

More Week 2 Fantasy breakdowns from The Worksheet: