Bengals vs. Ravens Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 15

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 15 matchup between the Bengals and Ravens.

Find a breakdown of every Week 15 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.

Trust = spike production for that player

Quarterback

Lamar Jackson (TRUST): It wasn’t perfect, but gamers will gladly take Jackson’s output on Sunday over his recent production.

Jackson closed the week as the QB8 (21.1 points).

He completed only 54.3% (19 of 35) of his passes for 6.3 yards per pass attempt with a touchdown and an interception, but he added 43 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

The 10.3 rushing points were the most he has had in a game since Week 1.

It is subjective, but Jackson looked the best he has since returning in Week 9 physically.

His runout as a passer could have been better, but once again, this offense sputtered in the red zone.

They lost a tight call on an Isaiah Likely incompletion, but Baltimore was in the red zone six times on Sunday and only came away with 2 touchdowns.

Jackson has completed a league-low 42.5% (17 of 40) of his passes in the red zone.

He is 12 of 32 (37.5%) in that area since returning in Week 9.

He has a 25% red zone touchdown rate (14th) after a league-high 50% rate a year ago, which we knew would regress.

The positive news is that, aside from Jackson looking better physically, he also threw the ball better on Sunday.

His completion rate was not high, but his 8.6% inaccurate throw rate was significantly lower than the 25%, 21.7%, and 28% rates he had over the previous three games.

Jackson played poorly in this matchup two weeks ago, but the matchup is still a good one overall.

In that Thanksgiving game, Jackson completed 17 of 32 passes (53.1%) with an interception and 2 lost fumbles.

Jackson was inaccurate, but there were a handful of 50-50 plays of which the Ravens ended up on the negative side.

Jackson lost a fumble on the new tuck rule.

His interception came on a tipped pass at the line of scrimmage when Mark Andrews was uncovered for a would-be touchdown.

Isaiah Likely lost a fumble crossing the goal line that resulted in a touchback.

Zay Flowers had a touchdown erased by an offensive pass interference that we have seen go either way.

Horseshoes and hand grenades do not give gamers points for that night, but Baltimore still has one of the highest team totals of the week, and the Cincinnati defense is still one we want to target.

The Bengals are still 30th in passing points allowed per game (17.3), 31st in yards per pass attempt (8.0), and 29th in touchdown rate (6.1%).

They have also allowed 20.7 rushing yards per game (24th) to quarterbacks.

I do believe Baltimore will run the ball more here in this rematch, but I would go back to Jackson as a front-end QB1.

If there is one looming concern here for Jackson outside of the lack of red zone efficiency, it is that he keeps inviting pressure.

Jackson has been pressured on 41.3% of his dropbacks this season.

He was pressured on 44.7% of his dropbacks on Thanksgiving.

The Bengals have hardly pressured anyone this season, especially without Trey Hendrickson.

That was the highest pressure rate for the Bengals in a game this season.

Pro Football Focus has charged Jackson with creating 28.6% of his own pressures this year, which is only behind Jaxson Dart (39.1%) and Shedeur Sanders (33.3%).

Joe Burrow: Burrow built on his debut with a QB3 (23.4 points) scoring week in Buffalo.

He completed 69.4% (25 of 36) of his passes after 52.2% (24 of 46) in his debut on Thanksgiving.

After throwing for 5.7 yards per pass attempt in Week 13, Burrow had 7.9 yards per attempt on Sunday.

He threw 4 touchdowns.

Back-to-back drives with interceptions (both excellent defensive plays) swung the game in favor of Buffalo, but Burrow was much better in his second game back.

One minor worry here is that the game also featured Tee Higgins.

Following last year's trend, Burrow has steadily been more efficient with Higgins on the field.

That inherently makes sense since Higgins is a great player.

Higgins had 2 touchdowns on Sunday, but he experienced concussion symptoms afterwards and is expected to miss at least this week, if not the rest of the season.

Even without Higgins in this Week 13 matchup, Burrow managed a QB11 (19.2 points) scoring week.

He has been a QB1 scorer in three straight games in this matchup.

He started slowly, completing 46.9% (15 of 32) of his passes in the first half for 5.2 yards per attempt, but got better as the game went on.

In the second half, Burrow was 9 of 14 (64.3%) for 96 yards (6.9 Y/A) with 2 touchdowns, highlighted by a 29-yard touchdown strike to Andrei Iosivas.

The Bengals ran 80 plays in that game, which we should anticipate dropping in the rematch, but this game environment can still feature plenty of scoring.

That makes it hard to get away from Burrow as a fantasy QB1.

Games in Cincinnati this year have averaged 65.8 combined points.

Five of those six games have gone over the game total.

I defended Baltimore’s defense entering last week, but Aaron Rodgers just carved them up on Sunday for 8.4 yards per pass attempt and a 67.6% completion rate, the highest rates they have allowed in a game to a passer since Week 5.

Running Back

More Week 15 Fantasy Breakdowns From The Worksheet: