Cincinnati

Bengals

Perine saw only four carries in this one, but he turned his lone goal-line touch into a one-yard touchdown to barely salvage what was still a relatively disappointing day. Perine was out-snapped by Chase Brown 38-12, with Brown also leading the way with 11 rush attempts. Perine will be hard to trust as anything more than a desperation RB4 play next week against the Titans.

Gesicki’s lone target came on an end zone target from Joe Burrow that resulted in a six-yard touchdown. The 31-year-old tight end has now scored in all five games he has appeared in this season, but has managed just 10 yards on two receptions in his last two games. Fellow tight ends Erick All and Drew Sample combined to catch five passes for 45 yards and one touchdown on five targets. Gesicki has run 15 routes in each of his last two games and is purely a touchdown-dependent option in Week 8 against the Titans.

The Ravens held Brown in check both on the ground and through the air, with his longest play coming on an eight-yard reception. Even with the Bengals scoring 35 unanswered points in the second half alone, Brown was unable to find the end zone, and watched from the sidelines as Samaje Perine vultured a one-yard touchdown run from him down near the goal-line. Brown out-snapped Perine 7-to-3 in the red zone, but that won’t help fantasy managers much. This continues to be a tough season for Brown, who has just one touchdown on the year and has yet to surpass 82 yards from scrimmage in any game this season. He shouldn’t be considered as anything more than an RB2 next week against the Titans.

Chase caught just two passes for 23 yards in the first half, but he popped up for a 30-yard gain in the fourth quarter on a drive that he capped with a two-yard touchdown to save the day for his fantasy managers. His seven targets tied Tee Higgins for the team-high this week, but Higgins had the far more productive day. He’s still in search of his first 100-yard performance of the year, but Chase has now found the end zone five times and has gone for 60-plus yards in four of six games this season. He’ll be on the WR1 radar next week against the Titans.

Higgins came up big multiple times for the Bengals in the second half after they were shut out 13-0 in the first half. He hauled in passes of 10 and 19 yards on the Bengals’ opening drive in the second half to help set up an eventual six-yard touchdown pass to Mike Gesicki, and hauled in a 13-yard touchdown of his own on the following drive. He would also make two catches of 40-plus yards, and came up six yards short of a second touchdown on an impressive 44-yard grab — his longest play of the day. Higgins has gone for 140-plus yards in two of his last three games and has topped 90 yards in four of six games this season. He profiles as a high-end WR2 in next week’s game against the Titans.

After throwing for just 55 scoreless yards in the first half, Burrow and the Bengals came out firing on all cylinders in the second half. Trailing 13-0 at halftime, Burrow immediately orchestrated a nine-play, 66-yard drive that ended with a six-yard touchdown pass to Mike Gesicki, and followed that up with four more touchdown drives on his team’s next four possessions to jump out to a 35-13 lead. Burrow was as sharp as could be in the second half, completing 16-of-18 attempts while also completing two passes of 20-plus air yards. Burrow has now thrown four touchdowns in back-to-back games and has four multi-touchdown games this season. He’ll be on the QB1 radar next week when the Bengals play host to the Titans.

All exited in the third quarter with a knee injury and walked off the field on his own. The third-year tight end has a history of bad knee injuries, so this one is a bit concerning. All was having a decent day against the Ravens and left the game with three receptions for 26 yards on three targets.

The Bengals are coming off their bye at near-full strength, with all five inactives healthy scratches. Stewart, who was the No. 17 overall pick in last year’s draft, has appeared in just three games this season, totaling three tackles and one sack.

Pitcher suggested that when they run the ball more from shotgun — as they did last week against the Dolphins — Perine’s a better fit for those kinds of plays. The Bengals spent a lot of time this offseason working on an under center run game to get Brown more explosives, but that has gone for naught early on in the season. We may indeed see more Perine in Cincinnati’s running game after they return from the bye week, lowering Brown into the RB2 range.

He’ll be sent to injured reserve. Hudson tore his pec in Week 5’s win over the Dolphins. The injury will likely keep him sidelined for the remainder of the regular season. Hudson had played 28 percent of the team’s offensive snaps and seen seven targets through five games, mostly functioning as a blocker. Drew Sample would see more snaps with Hudson sidelined.