Thursday Night Observations

Perfect

I don’t want to jinx it, but it’s been a good week. I had the Bengals +6.5 in my picking pool, not Circa though, I had Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase in a key NFFC league, and Chase in two other leagues including the Steak, a 14-teamer where I lost Chris Olave, Stefon Diggs, Rashid Shaheed and maybe CeeDee Lamb. I also picked up and started Rashod Bateman in that league and had Roquan Smith (12 tackles) going too.

I don’t know what else to say except that it was maybe a perfect game. And it was cool the Bengals went for two, essentially locking in the cover (though my 6.5 was good in OT anyway.) Apparently there were penalties that should have been called on the two-point conversion, but I missed them, and in any event, it’s not like I’m a Bengals fan, and they had already covered.

• Burrow is a great QB now that he’s 100 percent healthy. He processes information so quickly, has no problem checking it down if the first reads are covered. And he scrambles well and keeps his eyes downfield. He’s a top-three real life QB when healthy.

• Chase is so good there are almost no words. Faster than Justin Jefferson and CeeDee Lamb, the most dangerous wideout in the league in the open field. If he gets it in space, it’s like 50/50 vs the entire defense whether he makes it to the end zone. What a beast, and you see what he can do with 17 targets.

• Chase Brown had a devastating fumble, but scored the TD and benefited from all the checkdowns.

• Lamar Jackson actually struggled for much of the game, but the 84-yard missed-tackle TD to Tylan Wallace (of whom I had literally never heard before this morning) really pushed him over the top. He did show nice touch on the few throws and just wears out the defense that had him dead to rights a few times only to see him escape.

• Bateman was actually Jackson’s top target, and Mark Andrews had another solid game, but there are a lot of mouths to feed with Diontae Johnson, Zay Flowers and eventually even Isaiah Likely again, not to mention a running QB and a dominant early down back.

• Diontae Johnson had no impact whatsoever and actually slipped on one of his two targets. It was better than Khalil Herbert’s debut though — Herbert fumbled his only carry and was never seen again.

• Derrick Henry was bottled up for most of the night, but he did manage a short TD. Gameflow wasn’t in his favor as the Bengals led most of the way and won time of possession.

• The Bengals defense actually played great, applying constant pressure, keeping the energy up even after being run ragged by Jackson. And they held Henry in check too. That missed tackle on Wallace for an 86-yard TD right after giving up the short-field TD following the Brown fumble sunk them.

• It’s tough watching this version of Justin Tucker who missed a PAT. I used to compare him to Mariano Rivera, but Rivera stayed great through his final season, while Tucker has slipped big time.