CFB FFwd/Rew Week 2

by David Kaplen (headChopper) Last Updated 2013-09-06 00:39:14

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 South Carolina game told us a lot more about USC than it did North Carolina. For one, this USC offense has the makings of being really good. Specifically Mike Davis. He ran hard behind a solid offensive line. Watching Davis reminds me of watching a poor, poor man’s version of Marcus Lattimore. When he broke his 75 yarder, he surprised me with his speed. All I had seen up to that point was a lot of power, so he has a nice mix. When Ellington and Anderson get back for USC, Shaw will have some nice targets, because I was thoroughly impressed with Shaq Roland. For UNC, Romar Morris ran tough against a good defense. I think you take anything from this game from the UNC offense with caution. They are better than they showed. This USC defense was too tough

• FFwd Only week 2 and USC has a big game against Georgia already. Georgia got manhandled by Clemson’s O-Line and Mike Davis should have a nice game against UGA. It feels like a running attack coming from USC, so I don’t think I am recommending Shaw this week. Georgia just is going to have a tough time stopping this ground game.
  UNC is home versus a weak opponent, Mid Tennessee. The fear in this game for me is a blowout and therefore lack of passing from Renner after the first Q or so. However behind a stout offensive line and having looked somewhat decent against USC, I would have no problem thrusting Romar Morris into my lineups. He seems to be the #1 RB and averaged 4.6 YPC vs. a tough SEC defense. This game will seem like Pop Warner football compared to last week.

• Rewind I really wanted to dissect this West Virginia game because last year they were so potent on offense and their coaches haven’t changed. So it was about finding out who was going to be QB, RB and lead WR for them going forward. I’ll say it now; I didn’t like what I saw at all. The lone Bright spot was Charles Sims. He is a tough runner that has good speed also. He runs a tad bit upright for my liking, but he still is effective. Here was the drawback with Sims; He had to give away too many carries to his backup. With 7 minutes left in a tie game, Sims wasn’t even on the field to start the drive. His backup, Dreamius Smith, was. Later that drive, with 1st and goal from the 2 yard line, he was taken out of the game for Smith. Smith then got the goal line carry. He failed to convert, needed to come out and it was the 3rd man, Wendell Smallwood who then came in and got the goal line carry and TD from the 2 yard line. Paul Millard seems to be the guy who is going to be the starter, but he looked very average against an inferior opponent. He never took any deep shots. Just dinking and dunking to very poor WR’s. Speaking of WR’s, there weren’t any in this game I would be turning too for fantasy teams anytime soon. No “Tavon Austin(player-profile)”:/players/Tavon_Austin-16562’s or Sted Bailey’s in this group. Mediocre at best.

• FFwd Now they travel to Oklahoma to take on the Sooners. Now Oklahoma has struggled on defense the past couple of years, so the tendency is to think that this game may be high scoring. However I am avoiding Mountaineer players like the plague. They didn’t show me anything in the passing game to suggest they are going to be a good offense. The West Virginia offensive line looked average against a bad team, so I think they may get pushed around by the Sooners in this one.

• Rewind I am so glad I chose the Notre Dame game to watch because it opened my eyes to something I never saw last year- This team is now a pass first squad. Had I not seen it with my own eyes I would have gone weeks without recognizing that Tommy Rees actually looks good back there at QB for this team. Gone are the stud RB’s and instead were left with a total split backfield. I didn’t see anyone, not even a speedy George Atkinson that impressed me enough to want to roster moving forward. However the passing game was crisp. In the 1st Q Rees hit a couple nice TD throws to DaVaris Daniels and it looked like that was going to be the man for the Irish WR’s. However over the course of the next few Q’s it was TJ Jones that emerged as a viable target for Rees. He didn’t get the TD’s, but he was the first option as a possession WR. Then out of nowhere the athletic TE, Troy Niklas scored on a 66 yard TD that was mostly run after the catch. When A TE can outrun secondary guys it should tell you something about his speed.

• FFwd Moving forward I am avoiding the backfield against Michigan and maybe, eventually, 1 guy will emerge. Niklas seems like he is going to be a boom or bust guy. Not a whole lot of catches each week, but the potential for a long TD or 2. In this upcoming game against the Wolverines, the ND wide receiver I am going to roster is TJ Jones. He seems to be the slightly better option between him and Daniels although that could change soon.
  As for Temple, they take on a weak defense in the Houston Cougars this week. The running game is not great as they have lost a couple of stud backs from last year and didn’t look very good this week. Meanwhile their QB, Connor Reilly, dropped back and threw a ton. Now some of that was a product of being down early to ND, but some came from the fact that they just couldn’t get anything going on the ground. This game with UH should be a shootout and I would think, at the right salary, Reilly could be sneaky good this week.

• Rewind This was the game I was looking forward to more than any other this weekend. Specifically Nick Marshall’s debut as QB in the Gus Malzahn offense. I was completely disappointed in what I saw from this kid. He didn’t run nearly enough to offset how bad of a passer he was. No accuracy at all. He missed wide open guys by 10 yards. I heard cam Newton comparison’s coming in and those are all squashed now. This QB didn’t run with near the force of Cam. I was expecting Tre Mason to be the bell cow coming in and, although he received the most carries, he gave up a lot of carries to 2 other backs in the rotation. All were effective, but splitting carries 4 ways is tough to envision when rostering a fantasy RB. Remember Marshall will also grab 10 carries a game in this offense.
  Washington State was who we thought they were. Definitely NOT the juggernaut we all though Leach’s offense would be last year. Halliday doesn’t dink and dunk and that’s what he needs to do in this system. He tries to go for the home run pass and as a result throws a ton on INT’s. Marks was technically the leading WR, but it was all short stuff. Also Halliday spread his looks all around the field to about 7 different WR’s and RB’s. Dom Williams is the big, dominant guy on the roster, but Halliday just couldn’t find him in this game. Also, per usual, zero running attack from a Leach team.

• FFwd Although I was unimpressed with Marshall and the offense has flaws, the next matchup is super juicy. I wouldn’t expect any passing game out of this team so all the emphasis, against Arkansas State, will be on the running game. Mason and Corey Grant are possible plays here. And for what it’s worth, this is the team Malzahn coached last year. I actually think he may take it easy on them and not run up the score. He left them after they gave him a coaching job. Just a thought.
  Washington State gets USC and I think I will be avoiding most of these guys for the Cougars. No running game eliminates all the RB’s. Spreading the ball around eliminates the WR’s. All that’s left is Halliday and I don’t like this matchup for him. Auburn is weaker and he threw 3 picks and against only 1 TD vs. them. Leach didn’t have any issue pounding the big goal line full back anytime the team got within the 3 yard line. He doesn’t trust Halliday and neither do I.