Fantasy football is more than just the weekly head-to-head games we’ve all grown to love. On Underdog Fantasy, managers can put their player-projection skills to the test by predicting player stats. Here are my top Underdog Pick’em plays for the Cincinnati Bengals vs. Buffalo Bills NFL Divisional Round pick’em contest.
Top Underdog Pick’ems for Bengals vs. Bills
Underdog Pick’ems allows fantasy managers to predict stats and fantasy-point totals for almost all fantasy-relevant players. You can make two picks that pay out 3x your entry fee or add more selections to your entry for higher payouts.
The levels are 3x, 6x, 10x, and 20x, progressing with each additional pick’em you add to your entry. Let’s take a look at this week’s Underdog Pick’ems.
Samaje Perine Lower Than 28.5 Rush + Receiving Yards
Last week, I was on Samaje Perine lower than 32.5 rushing + receiving yards. For a fifth consecutive game, he didn’t come close. Yet, Underdog only adjusted this number down four yards. It’s just not enough.
What’s interesting is Perine’s snap share has actually been going up recently. He out-snapped Joe Mixon last week, playing 53% of the snaps. While it certainly isn’t ideal that Perine is on the field more, he’s not touching the ball more. The Bengals are just throwing a lot — and not to Perine.
MORE: NFL DFS Sleepers & Busts Divisional Round
Joe Burrow threw the ball 32 times against the Ravens last week. Perine and Mixon, meanwhile, combined for just 13 carries. The game before was no different, with Burrow chucking it up 44 times compared to 17 carries for the running backs.
The Bengals went extremely pass-heavy against a weak Ravens offense incapable of keeping up with them. That’s their passing volume floor against the Bills.
In a 1.5-drive sample size in the Week 17 canceled game against the Bills, Burrow attempted four passes compared to two Mixon carries. Expect a lot of passes and not to Perine.
Joe Mixon Lower Than 12.5 Rush Attempts
Continuing on the same theme as above, we have the Bengals not throwing and Mixon not on the field as much.
Mixon carried the ball exactly 11 times in his back-to-back games against Baltimore. In Week 18, Cincinnati had positive game script throughout, and yet, they still threw the ball. Last week, with more neutral game script, they also threw. Basically, the Bengals just throw.
Mixon has been below this number in three of his last four games. As previously mentioned, Perine out-snapped him last week. I love this one.
My Underdog Entry
Underdog requires pick’ems from at least two games for an entry to be valid. Last week, my entry on the Cowboys vs. Buccaneers game failed because I forced it. This week, I’m not going to force it.
I scoured the options for the Bills over and over again. There just isn’t anything that jumps out at me.
So, rather than force a pick on Buffalo, I’m going to take the two Bengals’ pick’ems and combine them with the second Dak Prescott pick’em that I left out of the Cowboys vs. 49ers entry (because you can only have one pick’em per player). With that said, here’s the entry.
