Can a player like Odell Beckham “turn it up a notch”, so to speak, when his team is playing on national television? Sometimes it seems that way, when he’s making a three-fingered catch against the Cowboys. When the Browns played on MNF a few weeks back, Beckham made another remarkable catch and also turned a short reception into a long touchdown.
But Beckham has been around for a lot of years, and he’s played many times in big games without making much of an impact at all. Arguably his worst game as a pro came in a playoff loss at Green Bay, where he failed to come up with some catches he would normally make after taking a lot of heat for flying to Miami for a boat party during the week. Beckham caught only 4 of the 11 passes thrown his way in that game, for 28 yards.
Ultimately, Beckham has played 65 games as a pro. Almost a third of those games have been nationally televised (either on Monday, Sunday or Thursday night, plus the playoff game). And his numbers haven’t tended to be better when the bright lights have been shining.
In Beckham’s nationally televised games, he’s averages 6.1 catches for 86 yards, with 12 touchdowns in 19 games. In PPR scoring, that works out to 18.5 points per game.
In Beckham’s 45 regular games (where he’s presumably less interested or focused?) he’s averaged slightly more catches, yards and touchdowns – 6.6 receptions per game for 93 yards, with 33 touchdowns. That works out to 20.2 PPR points per game, on average.
Of the top 16 games of Beckham’s career, only four of them came in prime time.
Of his 10 worst games, six of them came in prime time.
It’s not something I think anybody should be giving much weight to. I don’t think we need to be trying to play the psychologist role. Best to just focus on the matchups as they come along. Namely, how well are the Browns doing getting the ball to Beckham? And how has the opposing defense been playing (especially if it’s seen some Beckham-like receivers recently)?
Here’s the run down on the 65 games Beckham has played so far, ranked best to worst. I’ve got the prime time games in bold.
| ODELL BECKHAM'S GAMES (Best to worst) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Opp | Result | Prime? | Tgt | Rec | Yds | TD | PPR |
| 2014 | Was. | W 24-13 | -- | 15 | 12 | 143 | 3 | 44.3 |
| 2016 | Balt. | W 27-23 | -- | 10 | 8 | 222 | 2 | 42.2 |
| 2015 | at N.O. | L 49-52 | -- | 9 | 8 | 130 | 3 | 39.0 |
| 2014 | Dall. | L 28-31 | Sun. | 11 | 10 | 146 | 2 | 36.6 |
| 2014 | Phil. | L 26-34 | -- | 21 | 12 | 185 | 1 | 36.5 |
| 2015 | at Mia. | W 31-24 | Mon. | 9 | 7 | 166 | 2 | 35.6 |
| 2014 | at St.L. | W 37-27 | -- | 12 | 8 | 148 | 2 | 34.8 |
| 2014 | at Ten. | W 36-7 | -- | 15 | 11 | 130 | 1 | 30.0 |
| 2015 | at Was. | L 14-20 | -- | 18 | 9 | 142 | 1 | 29.2 |
| 2017 | at Phil. | L 24-27 | -- | 13 | 9 | 79 | 2 | 28.9 |
| 2018 | at Atl. | L 20-23 | Mon. | 11 | 8 | 143 | 1 | 28.3 |
| 2019 | at NYJ | W 23-3 | Mon. | 10 | 6 | 161 | 1 | 28.1 |
| 2015 | Atl. | L 20-24 | -- | 12 | 7 | 146 | 1 | 27.6 |
| 2016 | at Cle. | W 27-13 | -- | 11 | 6 | 96 | 2 | 27.6 |
| 2018 | at Car. | L 31-33 | -- | 14 | 8 | 131 | 1 | 27.1 |
| 2015 | NYJ | L 20-23 | -- | 11 | 6 | 149 | 1 | 26.9 |
| 2016 | at Phil. | L 19-24 | Thu. | 20 | 11 | 150 | 0 | 26.0 |
| 2016 | Cin. | W 21-20 | Mon. | 11 | 10 | 97 | 1 | 25.7 |
| 2015 | S.F. | W 30-27 | Sun. | 11 | 7 | 121 | 1 | 25.1 |
| 2014 | Ind. | L 24-40 | Mon. | 11 | 8 | 156 | 0 | 23.6 |
| 2018 | at S.F. | W 27-23 | Mon. | 11 | 4 | 73 | 2 | 23.3 |
| 2018 | Jac. | L 15-20 | -- | 15 | 11 | 111 | 0 | 22.1 |
| 2018 | Was. | L 13-20 | -- | 11 | 8 | 136 | 0 | 21.6 |
| 2015 | Was. | W 32-21 | -- | 9 | 7 | 79 | 1 | 20.9 |
| 2017 | LAC | L 22-27 | -- | 8 | 5 | 97 | 1 | 20.7 |
| 2016 | Phil. | W 28-23 | -- | 10 | 4 | 46 | 2 | 20.6 |
| 2015 | N.E. | L 26-27 | -- | 12 | 4 | 104 | 1 | 20.4 |
| 2016 | at Pitt. | L 14-24 | -- | 16 | 10 | 100 | 0 | 20.0 |
| 2018 | at Hou. | W 27-22 | -- | 10 | 9 | 109 | 0 | 19.9 |
| 2015 | Car. | L 35-38 | -- | 9 | 6 | 76 | 1 | 19.6 |
| 2015 | at T.B. | W 32-18 | -- | 17 | 9 | 105 | 0 | 19.5 |
| 2014 | at Dall. | L 21-31 | -- | 6 | 4 | 34 | 2 | 19.4 |
| 2016 | Dall. | W 10-7 | -- | 9 | 4 | 94 | 1 | 19.4 |
| 2015 | at Phil. | L 7-27 | Sun. | 8 | 7 | 61 | 1 | 19.1 |
| 2016 | Was. | L 27-29 | -- | 11 | 7 | 121 | 0 | 19.1 |
| 2016 | Det. | W 17-6 | -- | 8 | 6 | 64 | 1 | 18.4 |
| 2014 | at Sea. | L 17-38 | -- | 9 | 7 | 108 | 0 | 17.8 |
| 2018 | T.B. | W 38-35 | -- | 4 | 4 | 74 | 1 | 17.4 |
| 2016 | at G.B. | L 16-23 | Sun. | 12 | 5 | 56 | 1 | 16.6 |
| 2016 | N.O. | W 16-13 | -- | 11 | 8 | 86 | 0 | 16.6 |
| 2014 | at Jac. | L 24-25 | -- | 8 | 7 | 90 | 0 | 16.0 |
| 2017 | at T.B. | L 23-25 | -- | 15 | 7 | 90 | 0 | 16.0 |
| 2014 | S.F. | L 10-16 | -- | 13 | 6 | 93 | 0 | 15.3 |
| 2014 | Atl. | W 30-20 | -- | 5 | 4 | 44 | 1 | 14.4 |
| 2019 | Ten. | L 13-43 | -- | 11 | 7 | 71 | 0 | 14.1 |
| 2018 | at Phil. | L 22-25 | -- | 9 | 5 | 85 | 0 | 13.5 |
| 2018 | N.O. | L 18-33 | -- | 11 | 7 | 60 | 0 | 13.0 |
| 2018 | Chi. | W 30-27 | -- | 9 | 3 | 35 | 1 | 12.5 |
| 2019 | LAR | L 13-20 | Sun. | 9 | 6 | 56 | 0 | 11.6 |
| 2016 | at Dall. | W 20-19 | -- | 8 | 4 | 73 | 0 | 11.3 |
| 2018 | Phil. | L 13-34 | Thu. | 10 | 6 | 44 | 0 | 10.4 |
| 2015 | Phil. | L 30-35 | -- | 7 | 5 | 54 | 0 | 10.4 |
| 2016 | at LAR | W 17-10 | -- | 9 | 5 | 49 | 0 | 9.9 |
| 2016 | Chi. | W 22-16 | -- | 7 | 5 | 46 | 0 | 9.6 |
| 2015 | at Dall. | L 26-27 | Sun. | 8 | 5 | 44 | 0 | 9.4 |
| 2016 | at Was. | W 19-10 | -- | 7 | 5 | 44 | 0 | 9.4 |
| 2018 | at Dall. | L 13-20 | Sun. | 9 | 4 | 51 | 0 | 9.1 |
| 2015 | at Buff. | W 24-10 | -- | 12 | 5 | 38 | 0 | 8.8 |
| 2017 | Det. | L 10-24 | Mon. | 5 | 4 | 36 | 0 | 7.6 |
| 2015 | Dall. | W 27-20 | -- | 6 | 4 | 35 | 0 | 7.5 |
| 2016 | at G.B. | L 13-38 | Post. | 11 | 4 | 28 | 0 | 6.8 |
| 2016 | at Min. | L 10-24 | Mon. | 9 | 3 | 23 | 0 | 5.3 |
| 2014 | at Phil. | L 0-27 | Sun. | 4 | 2 | 28 | 0 | 4.8 |
| 2019 | at Balt. | W 40-25 | -- | 7 | 2 | 20 | 0 | 4.0 |
—Ian Allan