Field Gulls
The Pittsburgh Steelers are 4-1 and might win the AFC North by default. Their rivals have all changed Week 1 starting quarterbacks either for poor play or injury, and the plot twist is that Joe Flacco was the Cleveland Browns starter on opening day and is now the starter for the Cincinnati Bengals. Joe Burrow isn’t coming back any time soon, so Bengals fans get a Joe at QB who knows how to beat an NFC West team in the Super Bowl.
Anyway, the only reason for us to pay attention to this game (outside of scouting future Seahawk Trey Hendrickson) is the presence of former Seahawks receiver DK Metcalf. He was shut down by Seattle outside of this touchdown grab back in Week 2, but he leads the league in yards after catch and he has the highest success rate of his career thus far (61.3%). Metcalf has 19 catches for 356 yards and 4 touchdowns, putting him on course for another 1,000-yard season. Good for him!
The Bengals also have Noah Fant as their default TE1 now that Mike Gesicki is on IR with a pec injury. Fant has 16 catches for 107 yards and a touchdown with a lost fumble. His targets per game should increase with Gesicki out.
Other than that, the Rodgers vs. Flacco “they’re old” storyline, and Mike Tomlin’s tendency to have his teams randomly lose as heavy favorites, I don’t have much in the way of a good justification to watch this game. The open thread is still here to watch at 5:15 pm PT on Prime Video.
