The Worksheet, a fantasy football overview by Rich Hribar, breaking down everything you need to know for the Week 8 Cincinnati Bengals at Cleveland Browns Monday Night Football game.
| Cincinnati | Rank | @ | Cleveland | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -3 | Spread | 3 | ||
| 25.25 | Implied Total | 22.25 | ||
| 24.7 | 8 | Points/Gm | 24 | 10 |
| 18.9 | 7 | Points All./Gm | 26.6 | 28 |
| 67 | 6 | Plays/Gm | 67 | 6 |
| 61.9 | 12 | Opp. Plays/Gm | 60.6 | 6 |
| 5.5 | 14 | Off. Yards/Play | 5.6 | 12 |
| 5.2 | 9 | Def. Yards/Play | 5.7 | 20 |
| 36.89% | 25 | Rush% | 47.33% | 8 |
| 63.11% | 8 | Pass% | 52.67% | 25 |
| 42.03% | 16 | Opp. Rush % | 47.88% | 29 |
| 57.97% | 17 | Opp. Pass % | 52.12% | 4 |
- 66.7% (12-of-18) of the Cleveland touchdowns have come via rushing, the highest rate in the league.
- 61.9% (13-of-21) of the touchdowns allowed by the Browns have come via rushing, the second-highest rate in the league.
- 18.1% of the offensive plays run against the Browns have come inside of the red zone, the highest rate in the league.
- Joe Burrow has scored 63.5 fantasy points in the red zone, second to only Patrick Mahomes (78.6).
- The Browns lead the league in plays of 10 or more yards (105).
- 17.2% of the Cleveland carries have gained 10 or more yards, fourth in the NFL.
- 7.3% of the Cincinnati carries have gained 10 or more yards, last in the NFL.
Trust = spike production for that player
Quarterback
Joe Burrow: Burrow has been sizzling the past two weeks, pacing the position in fantasy scoring in each of the past two games. This past week, Burrow threw for 481 yards, his league-leading fourth time hitting 400 yards passing since the start of last season.
A big component of the past two weeks has been the Bengals scrapping their under center offense and playing more into Burrow’s wheelhouse. Burrow has been in the shotgun 87.5% of the time the past two weeks after a 69.3% rate prior.
The Bengals have been hyper-aggressive as a result, going 21% and 23% over pass rate expectation the past two weeks.
Burrow and the Bengals did feast on two massively decimated secondaries as well as the 29th and 32nd-ranked pressure defenses on top of their own in-house adjustments.
The Browns are getting after the quarterback, pressuring passers on 38.2% of their dropbacks, third in the league. But that hasn’t helped them much. When pressuring quarterbacks, Cleveland is allowing 7.6 yards per pass attempt, 29th in the league.
Overall, Cleveland is allowing 0.44 passing points per attempt (21st), 7.5 yards per attempt (24th), and 3.9% touchdown rate (16th). Cleveland has only allowed multiple passing touchdowns in two games this year, but that has more to do with running backs going wild on them as noted in the bullet points than their actual pass prevention prowess. This is a better defense than the past two the Bengals have faced, but not one camping out at the front of the league. Burrow may not be the QB1 overall again, but he is still a QB1 in Week 8.
Burrow has just 21 pass attempts since the start of last season without Ja'Marr Chase on the field. The loss of Chase is a ding to his ceiling, but Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd provide solid weaponry to work with still.