• RB Joe Mixon, Houston Texans — over 18.5 carries: The former Bengals working again racked up 30 carries on his solution to 159 yards and a rating in Week 1. Over 100 yards of that got here after contact, with the veteran averaging 5.3 yards per carry. Mixon performed a key position in preserving the Texans’ offense on monitor, changing a primary down or landing on 30% of his rushes.
• Houston Texans QB C.J. Stroud vs. Chicago Bears QB Caleb Williams: The shiny lights of Sunday Night Football shine on a quarterback duel between two of the league’s brightest younger stars — the reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year and the latest No. 1 general choose.
• Unlock your edge with a PFF+ subscription: Get full entry to all our in-season fantasy instruments, together with weekly rankings, WR/CB matchup charts, weekly projections, the Start-Sit Optimizer and extra. Sign up now!
Estimated studying time: 3 minutes
Game Overview
The shiny lights of Sunday Night Football shine on a quarterback duel between two of the league’s brightest younger stars. On one aspect of the sector, we now have C.J. Stroud, the reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year. On the opposite, we now have Caleb Williams, the primary general choose of the 2024 NFL Draft.
Williams struggled to realize footing on the helm of this Bears offense in his regular-season debut, as first-year gamers are likely to do. On 35 dropbacks, he managed lower than 100 passing yards, averaging simply 3.2 yards per try, the bottom amongst Week 1 starters.
Williams even struggled from a clear pocket, grading within the thirteenth percentile, a far cry from his 91st-percentile school efficiency in the identical scenario. He’ll have to return to that kind to rebound in Week 2.
Meanwhile, C.J. Stroud delivered a stable Week 1 efficiency however obtained away with a couple of key performs that might have shifted the end result in a tightly contested matchup. The Colts pressured Stroud successfully, racking up 5 sacks, tied for the second-most in Week 1. That stress sped up the second-year QB’s processing, main to 2 turnover-worthy performs that simply escaped the protection’s grasp.
Stroud may face comparable points this week, as Matt Eberflus’ protection made a robust impression in Week 1. The Bears’ cross rush generated the league’s fourth-highest pass-rush win charge (55.3%) and pass-rush productiveness (30.3). They harassed Titans QB Will Levis with blitzes and simulated pressures, turning stress right into a trio of late, back-breaking turnovers.
Week One
Tyrique Stevenson Pick Six (1)
pic.twitter.com/fwiQgckgX8— NFL TD Videos (@NFLTDVids) September 8, 2024
In a recreation of inches, the place victory is discovered throughout the margins, the turnover battle will imply all the things in a tough-fought matchup like this.
RB Joe Mixon, Houston Texans: Over 18.5 carries (-107, 3.0% PFF Greenline Edge)
The offseason addition of RB Joe Mixon seems to have sparked a hearth that the Texans offense desperately wanted on the bottom. In 2023, Houston ranked twenty eighth within the league in EPA per rush, a charge that skyrocketed to a top-six mark after Week 1.
The former Bengals working again racked up 30 carries on his solution to 159 yards and a rating in Week 1. Over 100 yards of that got here after contact, with the veteran averaging 5.3 yards per carry. Mixon performed a key position in preserving the Texans’ offense on monitor, changing a primary down or landing on 30% of his rushes.
Houston will wish to emulate that efficiency once more this week as they face a Bears protection that struggled to cease the run and safe tackles final week.
Chicago ranked beneath common in EPA allowed per rush final week however earned only a 47.4 workforce run-defense grade. The low grade was attributed primarily to missed tackles within the run recreation, with the workforce failing to safe six tackles in opposition to Tennessee.