Monday Night Showdown Slate- Steelers @ Bengals

Jeff Bergerson
By Jeff Bergerson December 20, 2020 21:28

Monday Night Showdown Slate- Steelers @ Bengals

Steelers (-14.5) @ Bengals , Game Total = 40

DVOA
Steelers against the run #3
Steelers against the pass #1
Bengals against the run #18
Bengals against the pass #29

This game is pretty simple and I really can’t see it going any other way than a Steeler mauling of the depleted Bengals.  It only makes sense to build rosters with 5 to 1 Steelers -to- Bengals.

It will be interesting to see if the Steelers acknowledge their running game in this one against a bad rush defense in the Bengals (5th most yards allowed per game-131).  They have disregarded it so many times this season, and further muddying the water is the fact that James Conner is questionable.  I am willing to own a few shares of Conner if he plays or Benny Snell if he does not with the game script being so positive and the Bengals rush defense so bad.

Obviously, Ben Roethlisberger is an absolute must in this game as he decimated the Bengals in their meeting in week 10 putting up 333 yards and 4 touchdowns.  I will own him on all my rosters and 25-30% captain.  All wide receivers are in play including James Washington, the Steelers #4 guy as he has caught a touchdown in each of the last two games and is only $4,400.  My favorites in order with price considered Diontae Johnson, Chase Claypool,  JuJu Smith-Schuster, and James Washington.

The Bengals have been miserable against the tight end position all year long.  Eric Ebron continues to get targets (at least five in each of his last 8 games).  He has also been targeted in the redzone in 10 games this season. I will be overweight Ebron for this slate.

The Bengals offense has been a joke without Joe Burrow and has mustered only 50 points combined over their last five games.  In their last meeting the Steelers defense held them to 10 points and scored 12 DK points.  The Bengals are even worst now, so I will be firing up the Steeler defense on at least a third of my rosters.

Trying to identify which one (or two max) Bengals I will own on rosters.  Joe Mixon is not expected to play.  It certainly is not going to be Ryan Finley.  Since we know they will being playing with a negative game script, it makes the most sense to own a receiver or a pass catching runningback.  AJ Green put up a goose egg on five targets against the Steelers in week 10 is not real encouraging.  I am going to go with Tyler Boyd and Tee Higgins.  Against the Steelers last time, Higgins caught 7 balls for 115 and a touchdown on 9 targets.  He is strangely $1,600 cheaper than Boyd, so I will have more exposure to Higgins.

We cannot count on hardly any carries by Gio Bernard, but if we are looking for catches out of the backfield he is the option we want as he has 20 targets over their last five games.  I also kind of like mixing in Trayveon Williams who is only $1,200 and saw 12 carries last week and 3 targets of which he caught all of them.

 

Must Haves:

Roethlisberger $11,800

D Johnson $10,200

Smith Schuster $10,000

Claypool $8,600

 

Favorite players for the price:

Ebron $6,400

Higgins $6,800

 

Low Dollar Options:

J Washington $4,400

T Williams $1,200

Jeff Bergerson
By Jeff Bergerson December 20, 2020 21:28

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