Week 1 Reactions: Defense Wins (Fantasy) Championships

DEFENSE WINS (FANTASY) CHAMPIONSHIPS?

The Ravens shut out the Bengals in Cincinnati on Sunday, racking up five sacks, picking off quarterback Andy Dalton four times and recovering a fumble in a 20-0 win. Dalton's struggles obviously affected top wideout A.J. Green, who caught five of 10 targets for a game-high 74 yards, while tight end Tyler Eifert was only thrown to once, catching that pass for four yards.

Making matters worse, the Bengals spread out their backfield touches fairly evenly, and rookie Joe Mixon, who many expected to be a viable fantasy asset this season, was the worst of the bunch, finishing with nine yards on eight carries. Meanwhile, Giovani Bernard rushed seven times for 40 yards and Jeremy Hill racked up 26 yards on his six carries. Mixon did catch all three of his targets for 15 yards, though Bernard caught half of his two for 39 yards and Jeremy Hill lost two yards on his single target. There was plenty of optimism for Mixon this summer after the Bengals used a second-round pick on him, but the presences of Hill and Bernard, who was returning from a torn ACL, was always going to limit his upside. Well, the Ravens certainly did a great job of limiting it themselves, but this backfield looks like a running-back-by-committee if I've ever seen one, which is hardly an ideal situation for fantasy owners as they face off against the Texans in Week 2.

Speaking of the Texans, they were absolutely dominated by the Jaguars on Sunday in a 29-7 loss. Wait, what? The Texans won the AFC South after going 9-7 last year while the Jags slumped their way to a 3-13 record, but all of that was forgotten Sunday as the Jaguars piled up 10 sacks while Dante Fowler returned a fumble 53 yards for a touchdown to make it 19-0 at the half. Texans quarterback Tom Savage was absolutely dreadful, completing seven of 13 passes for 62 yards while losing two fumbles before he was replaced by rookie Deshaun Watson at halftime. Many believed Watson would eventually take over under center for the Texans but Sunday was certainly earlier than anyone expected after Savage was named the starter during training camp. And while Watson was better -- 12 of 23 for 102 yards with one touchdown, one interception, one fumble lost and 18 rushing yards on two carries -- it wasn't nearly enough against a Jags defense that saw Calais Campbell post four sacks while Yannick Ngakoue had two and four others had at least a half-sack. It was such a dominant performance that the Jaguars changed the name on their Twitter handle to #Sacksonville.

Unfortunately for the Jags, they used that Twitter account to announce that wide receiver Allen Robinsonsuffered a torn ACL in his left knee, which will end his season. Robinson had one catch for 17 yards before suffering the injury in the first quarter, and the Jags will now have to rely more on Allen Hurns, Arrelious Benn and Marqise Lee (the three combined for 54 yards on four catches Sunday) in the passing game. Luckily, rookie running back Leonard Fournette was very strong in his NFL debut, rushing 26 times for 100 yards and a touchdown while also adding three receptions on three targets for 24 yards. T.J. Yeldon sat out with a hamstring injury, leaving Chris Ivory to grab the backfield scraps, but with the way Fournette ran the former two are likely to battle for limited touches while the Jags rely on the latter.

The Jaguars weren't even the strongest defense Sunday, as the Rams (4-12 last year) totally overwhelmed the Andrew Luck-less Colts in a 46-9 victory. The Rams returned two interceptions for touchdowns, sacked quarterback Scott Tolzien four times and picked up a late safety when backup Jacoby Brissett was tackled in the end zone after recovering a fumble that was close to giving the Rams their third defensive touchdown of the day. Brissett did complete a 50-yard pass to Donte Moncrief to set up Marlon Mack's three-yard touchdown run, which ended a 27-point run for the Rams and pushed the defense's fantasy total down a bit because of the points allowed. In addition to the defensive dominance, the Rams got excellent quarterback play out of second-year man Jared Goff, who completed 21 of 29 passes for 306 yards and a touchdown, which he threw to rookie Cooper Kupp (four catches on a co-team-high six targets for 76 yards). Todd Gurley got in on the fun too, rushing 19 times for 40 yards and a score while also catching five of six targets for 56 receiving yards. Let's not get too carried away with the Rams after a strong performance against a couple backup quarterbacks, but the future definitely looks brighter.

ROOKIE WATCH

The Vikings will see what they have with Dalvin Cook on Monday, but fantasy players who put their trust in rookie running backs were mostly rewarded in Week 1, aside from Mixon. In fact, the three highest-scoring running backs this week were rookies, led by the Chiefs' Kareem Hunt, who put up a massive 246 total yards and three touchdowns against the Patriots on Thursday. Hunt didn't even have the starting job in Kansas City until Spencer Ware tore the PCL and LCL in his right knee toward the end of training camp, but there's little reason to think Charcandrick West will be any kind of competition after that stellar debut.

Following Hunt was Bears rookie Tarik Cohen, who rushed five times for 66 yards and caught eight of 12 targets for 47 yards and a touchdown in the Bears's 23-17 loss to the Falcons in Chicago. Cohen led the team in targets, receptions, receiving yards and rushing yards, though the backfield still likely belongs to Jordan Howard, who rushed 13 times for 52 yards and a touchdown and caught three of five targets for 14 receiving yards. Howard was very close to scoring one other time, but he dropped a pass right before the goal line. Despite the stat line, Cohen is in no position to poach a significant number of carries from Howard, as his 5-foot-6, 181-pound frame just isn't big enough to handle the load, but if you were ever looking for the next Darren Sproles, we seem to have found him.

Fournette's success was discussed above, but let's not forget the other rookie running back who is competing to be the best backfield freshman this year: Christian McCaffrey. The Stanford product didn't have a huge debut, but it was certainly noteworthy that he got more touches than any other Panthers running back or wide receiver. Jonathan Stewart led the backfield with 18 carries for 65 yards while catching both of his targets for 17 yards and a touchdown, while McCaffrey racked up 47 yards on 13 carries and caught five of seven targets for 38 yards. There was always the expectation that Stewart would get most of the carries when he was healthy, but the Panthers made it clear early on that they want to get the ball in McCaffrey's hands, which is all you could ask for as a fantasy owner.

And for those who got much more then they could ask for, congratulations to fantasy owners who not only took late-round draft fliers on Kenny Golladay but also had the intuition to start him Sunday against the Cardinals. After a muted first three quarters, Golladay caught two fourth-quarter touchdowns to put the Lions up for good in their 35-23 win. Quarterback Matthew Stafford gave quite a bit of his attention to Golden Tate (10 catches on 12 targets for 107 yards) while also throwing touchdowns to Marvin Jones and Theo Riddick, but Golladay showed that he can be a big end-zone target, something that will certainly keep him useful. Unfortunately, Stafford's tendency to spread the ball around likely limits his upside overall.

As for the other rookie wideouts, the Titans' Corey Davis was really the only one who made somewhat of an impact, as he had a team-high 10 targets, which he turned into six catches for 69 yards. However, quarterback Marcus Mariota has a number of options in the passing game (he targeted six other players, including Delanie Walker and Rishard Matthews nine times each) that Davis is highly unlikely to have as big of an impact as the first-year running backs.