Evan Silva’s Matchups: Colts at Bengals

Indianapolis @ Cincinnati

Team Totals: Colts 22.5, Bengals 21.5

Held under 16 fantasy points in six of eight starts, Gardner Minshew remains two-QB/Superflex playable against a Bengals defense that’s allowed 30+ points in three of its last four games. Cincy is ceding a league-high 8.1 yards per pass attempt. … Even as the results didn’t follow, Zack Moss’ usage was dominant in Week 13’s win over the Titans, recording 23 touches on a whopping 94% playing-time clip. Cincinnati has hemorrhaged 4.54 yards per carry to enemy backs, setting up Moss for locked-in RB1 valuation in what projects as a neutral-script affair that would allow the Colts to feed their post-Jonathan Taylor bellcow. … With double-digit targets in eight of 12 games, Michael Pittman is a certified volume monster at the center of Indianapolis’ RPO-based attack. He’s fed high-percentage passes while having earned a mammoth 33% target share on Minshew’s 2023 attempts. … Even after he flopped at high DFS ownership in Week 13’s victory, I’m going right back to Josh Downs as a WR3 starter against a Bengals defense giving up the NFL’s 10th-most yards to enemy wide receivers. … A bet on Downs is a bet against Alec Pierce, who surprisingly out-targeted Downs (6 to 5) in Week 13. Catching two longballs for gains of 36 and 55, Pierce went off for 3/100/1 receiving after not topping 53 yards in any Weeks 1-12 game. … The Colts’ four-way TE rotation of Andrew Ogletree, Kylen Granson, Mo Alie-Cox, and Will Mallory continues to delete each individual’s fantasy relevance.

Week 13 Bengals hero Jake Browning runs into a middling Week 14 matchup against Indy’s pass defense, which ranks 20th in fantasy QB points allowed and has yielded the NFL’s 11th-fewest yards per pass attempt (7.1).