Tennessee Titans at Cincinnati Bengals
Game Time: Sunday, November 1st, 2020 at 1:00pm ET
Line: Bengals +5.5

Ryan Tannehill – It wasn’t his best game, but Tannehill still gave a pretty representative effort from a fantasy perspective with 220 yards and two touchdowns against the Steelers. I am actually surprised they didn’t throw more considering the deficit they faced. He has had two touchdowns or more in every game but one. He gets a cupcake matchup this week against the Bengals who just gave up five touchdowns to Baker Mayfield and the Browns last week. Tannehill is a QB1 and will be a popular DFS selection as well. 

Derrick Henry – He has seven touchdowns in the last four weeks, and you just can’t stop this guy. He even had a pretty solid game against the Steelers. It is going to be like Christmas for Henry this week against the Bengals this week as they give up over 130 yards per game on the ground. D’uh, Henry is a great start in both season long and DFS contests in Week 8. 

A.J. Brown – For those who still don’t believe that this guy is one of the better playmakers in the league, maybe that game will convince you. He had six catches and 153 yards with a touchdown against a good Steelers defense. Brown has had at least five catches in every game so far, which is a nice change from last season when he was a little hit or miss. Since he has come back from injury, he has had at least 50 yards and a touchdown in each game. Brown is going to eat the Bengals lunch and is a dynamite start this Sunday. 

Corey Davis – He had his season high with ten targets and a healthy six catches, but unfortunately Davis only accumulated 35 receiving yards. The saving thing for those who started him though was he scored a touchdown. It was a tough matchup, but Davis still ended up with a pretty decent fantasy day. He is not one of my favorite receivers by a mile, but he has taken advantage of a fairly soft defensive schedule which continues this week. Davis is a DFS dart throw, and not a terrible flex consideration for this game against the Bengals. 

Jonnu Smith – The Steelers are a top ten defense against the tight end, averaging just under eight points per game, so it isn’t a shock that Smith came up short. However, it was surprising that Smith only had one catch for nine yards. Is his ankle injury worse than they are letting on? Or was it a tough matchup? I still think that it was more the matchup than the injury, and his world is going to get much easier this week. The Bengals are allowing over 13 points a game to the tight end including three touchdowns to the Browns tight ends last week. Smith should be a great bounce back candidate for Week 8. 

Joe Burrow – He probably would like to play the Browns every week as Burrow had over 700 passing yards and six touchdowns in the two games against Cleveland. He certainly has all of the signs of being a legitimate NFL quarterback, and he now has three solid weapons to throw to. The Titans secondary hasn’t been very good, allowing 15 passing touchdowns in six games. Burrow is certainly the real deal and with the way he has been playing lately I don’t think it would be unrealistic for him to come out of this game with 275 passing yards and two touchdowns.  

Giovani Bernard – He barely averaged three yards a carry last week, but the Browns are one of the better run defenses in football so that shouldn’t have been a big surprise. The good news is that he had five catches for 71 yards and a touchdown to make it a solid fantasy day. The team is not being clear on Joe Mixon ’s injury, but with the Bengals on bye in Week 9 it makes little sense to consider playing him if he isn’t 100 percent when another week of rest is right after this game. The Titans run defense allows nearly 130 yards per game and Bernard will be a solid start for your squads in Week 8. 

Tyler Boyd – He tied his season high in targets with 13 and Boyd finished with 11 catches for 101 yards and a touchdown. Both of his scores this season have come against the Browns. The targets are pretty evenly distributed among the top three receivers, but Boyd feels to be the one with the highest floor. He has only had two games of less than five catches or 50 receiving yards. Especially in PPR leagues he is someone that you can feel comfortable starting every week. The Titans were just owned by JuJu Smith-Schuster out of the slot last week and we should expect another healthy output from Boyd in this one. 

Tee Higgins – The kid just continues to impress, and he really hasn’t had a bad game since he burst on the scene in Week 3. He is tall, he is pretty fast, and he has great hands. He is also in an offense that is throwing the ball an awful lot. He has over 70 receiving yards in three of the last four games and he is a very viable weekly starter on your fantasy team. Given how beatable the Titans secondary has been, Higgins should be a WR3 for this week. 

A.J. Green – It appears the obituary on Green’s fantasy value may have been written too soon as he has risen again the past two weeks. Green has 15 catches on 24 targets for 178 yards in the last two games, and he seems to have found that fire again. The Bengals offense is forced to throw at a ridiculous rate because of how bad the defense is, and as long as Burrow keeps chucking the ball 40 times a game, there should be plenty of targets to keep Green relevant. In my opinion his value would be the first to go if the offense struggled so I might not feature him in many DFS lineups, but he seems to have slid into the WR3 discussion against the Titans. 

Summary: The Titans defense has been playing over its heads this season, but I was also super impressed with their adjustments and the comeback to almost beat the Steelers last week. In Cincinnati, they continue to impress on offense, but the defense is so poor that Joe Burrow can’t put up enough points. I think this will be a fun, high-scoring game, but the Titans will be able to bulldoze the Bengals with Derrick Henry and hit A.J. Brown for a couple of big gains. The Bengals are not quite at a place to win a game against a fairly well-rounded Titans team. 

Prediction: Titans 34, Bengals 27