CFB FFwd/Rew Week 13

by David Kaplen (headChopper) Last Updated 2013-11-23 02:33:40

Welcome to Rewind/Fast Forward. Each week in this article I will hand pick several games and watch them through. Sometimes the box-score can lie and the only way to know the truth is by actually watching the game..or reading an article of someone who did. That is me. I will break down my observations of the previous game and what impacts it could have on the following week and even the entire year moving forward.

• Rewind This was absolutely the most disappointing fantasy game of the day for me. Only because 10 minutes before kickoff ESPN drops the news that Carlos Hyde won’t be starting due to classroom issues. So a mad scramble is on for fantasy owners to get him out. Heck we don’t know if “won’t be starting” means 1 series, 1 quarter or even 1 half. You don’t want to pay good money for a guy missing an entire 1st quarter or half of a potential blowout. Well it turns out that benching for classroom problems was all of 2 plays. Nice Urban Meyer. Glad to see you really know how to lay down the law at your institution of higher learning. So we proceed to watch the guy we yanked out of our lineups go off for 270 yards and 5 TD’s. Basically all GPP hopes out the window and considering he was 60+% owned on DS, most 50/50’s gone also. This game was never in doubt. Scheelhaase looked decent but most of his stats were fluff with the game well in hand. He’s typically an untrustworthy fantasy player. Braxton looked good in this one on the ground.

• FFwd Upcoming for Illinois is a battle of awful with Purdue. 2 crap teams going at it. Purdue is not a fantasy team I want to own any stock in, even though Illinois is a bad defense. I just can’t buy into a QB that is young and has more picks than TD’s, and a leading rusher that had 347 yards this season. Were 10 games in. He has 347 yards. The math tells me they suck at running the ball. Illinois may give us a chance to take Scheelhaase 1 last time for this season because Purdue is so bad on defense. It’s a play that I wouldn’t hate if you made it, but let’s see what his price is before we jump on that bandwagon. I mean after all, he is still Nathan Scheelhaase.

Ohio State draws the lucky lottery ticket known as Indiana this week. I am fairly certain you can expect to see Braxton Miller and Carlos Hyde at a 70+% owned clip on most sites since the word is out that you should load up against Indiana. The only thing that would stop me from making that play is if the salaries are out of the roof, which I suspect they will be. If you are looking for a WR in this one then look at Philly Brown. He is probably your best bet weekly to rack up fantasy stats for Ohio State. But I would guess that this game features a ton of running for the Buckeyes.

• Rewind This game did not play out the way many thought it would. A lot were projecting more of a shootout, but that didn’t materialize because of the strong Wisconsin defense. Indiana was shut down. Stephen Houston is NOT, I repeat, is NOT as good as Tevin Coleman and that’s why he was the backup. Without Coleman this offense isn’t as good. On the flip side, Wisconsin did what we thought they would do, run the ball down Indiana’s throat. Now unfortunately for fantasy owners they decided to run Abbrederis on 2 reverses for TD’s which ate into the stat line of Gordon and James White. Also in garbage time Corey Clement came in and racked up the easiest 100 yards and 2 TD’s you will ever see. Passing game for Wisc was nonexistent, as it usually is. They just run the ball down throats.

• FFwd Now Wisconsin has a game against an improved Minnesota team. First off, no Minnesota players are going to be on my roster. The Badgers are too tough on defense. Next, for Wisconsin, James White is priced out. He cost too much. I have a feeling that Melvin Gordon will be priced much higher this week also. Minnesota features a surprisingly stout defense with a couple of nice NFL type players. For these prices I am avoiding.
  We mentioned already what to expect from Ohio State in this game against Indiana. Now for Indiana offensive players going against the Buckeyes this weekend, keep an eye on the status of Tevin Coleman. This offense is better with him in there and healthy. Ohio State gives up less than 3 yards a carry. That’s 3rd best in the nation. Avoid the running game here for Indiana. The best way to attack them is through the air where there is middle of the pack in the nation. This favors Sudfeld, Lattimer and to a lesser extent Kofi Hughes and Ted Bolser. For a proper price I wouldn’t hesitate to take a shot with this passing game.

• Rewind Next game on the board for me was this Pac-12 showdown between Colorado and California. I was really interested in this game from a fantasy standpoint. I was all over a couple guys in this game because I thought it could be a shootout of bad teams. Wrong. California is so bad they couldn’t get anything going against the putrid Colorado defense until a couple of complete garbage time rushing TD’s. Jared Goff looked lost and pathetic out there at times and I won’t trust him again. He got yanked temporarily in the 3rd Quarter of this one and next time he may not return to the game. Kenny Lawler paid off his salary with 81 yards a TD and his recent success has come at the expense of, once great, Chris Harper. Another 2 catch dud from Harper. I know these guys have a tempting price tag on DK, but I am off this team for good. For Colorado, Sefo Liufau finally looked like he was a decent fantasy option. Of course it comes against a disgustingly bad defense and dream matchup. Paul Richardson did everything but score somehow in this one. He’s matchup proof. I do not trust this running game either. This Cal defense can make runners look very good when they’re really very average.

• FFwd Upcoming for Colorado is a game against USC. Did I say Paul Richardson was matchup proof? Scratch that, I wouldn’t play any Buff’s player against a stingy USC defense. Oh and look here, Cal gets a shot at Stanford. You can mark them off my list also. No way will either Cal or Colorado move the ball against those 2 stout defenses. And on the other side of that coin, both Stanford and USC can all be played with ease this week. Although I may be a tad worried about Tyler Gaffney and his 79 carries in 2 weeks. It may be a good time to get him extended rest for Stanford. Beware of a short day for the Cardinal RB.

• Rewind Last game on tap was the shootout in Jerry World between the Red raiders and the Baylor Bears. This game was everything we thought it would be. 97 points and over 1,100 total yards. For TT, Baker Mayfield got the start and looked like he may hang on to the gig for another week although you never know with Kingsbury. He played good in that 1st Q then fizzled but didn’t do anything egregiously bad to cost himself the job. No rushing game again for the Raiders. Pass catching in this one was weird. It was so spread out. Early on it looked like Amaro was going to dominate again, but he hurt that shoulder and finished with a solid, but could a been huge, line of 4-55 and 2 TD’s. Eric Ward played well but in a shootout you want more than7-82 and a TD from your best WR. Although Jakeem Grant had a nice stat line there isn’t another option I trust in the passing game outside of these 3 receivers for Tech.

For Baylor it was business as usual. Bryce Petty did it again and is one of the best options in the nation for fantasy on a weekly basis. 335 passing yards and 3 TD’s. He added 2 more scores on the ground. He now has 8 straight games with a passing AND a rushing TD. That’s pretty sick production on those sites that devalue passing TD’s. He gets it done on the ground also. Glasco Martin and Lache Seastrunk sat this one out and Shock Linwood looked every bit as good as we thought he would be. He went for 187 and a TD and we will have to see if Seastrunk can return this week. In the passing game it was Levi (not Kevin) Norwood that stole this show. He out produced everyone with 7 catches for 156 and 2 TD’s and added a punt return score for those sites that give you some extra there. Goodley looked very human in this one with a 4 catch day for 101 yards. It seems to me that without Reese he actually struggled a bit with good coverage devoted to him. Interesting to see how this plays out next week.

• FFwd Speaking of next week, Baylor gets a crack at a solid Oklahoma State team. In looking at Baylor’s schedule, this is the toughest test they have left. Oklahoma State is top 10 and this game is on the road for the Bears. This will be fun to watch from a college football fan perspective. I’m not sure how to play this Baylor offense in fantasy this week. This is a solid Oklahoma State defense. Most of these Baylor guys are priced up so high it will be tough to squeeze them on there. Levi Norwood will be the play if his salary didn’t jump up to dramatically.

For Oklahoma State, Clint Chelf looks to be running away with the QB job. He makes for a solid play again. In the running game, Desmond Roland is your starter. However after those 2 huge games he has now gone back to back games with sat lines of 44 yards and 59 yards on the ground. The Baylor defense is tougher than they were last year and after that bad 1st Q against Texas Tech, they were very tough the rest of the way. There is not an Oklahoma State pass catcher I will be eyeballing this weekend.