CFB FFwd/Rew Week 8

by David Kaplen (headChopper) Last Updated 2013-10-18 23:03:59

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 What just happened Blake Bell? You destroyed a ton of my H2H teams. Contrary to what we may have thought after his debut this season, Blake Bell is not a good passer. He is also NOT looking to run the ball and that is his strength. Texas kept him in the pocket and made him throw and he couldn’t deliver. A recipe that is sure to come up again for Bell down the road. Texas played the game of the year for them and the key was the running game.29 carries for Gray is phenomenal. 23 more carries for Malcolm Brown. Both went over 100 yards and both looked good, but Gray is the stud here. He just has that look when he runs that every play is a potential home run.

• FFwd Upcoming for Oklahoma is Kansas. Seems like a cupcake matchup and it is. However I am petrified to throw Bell on my teams at this point. I’m going to need to do some soul searching on this one. His 1st start came against Tulsa and he lit them up. However they are not a good defense and don’t belong on the field with the Sooners. Throw that game out and Bell’s next 3 starts have been subpar. Decent against Notre Dame and putrid against TCU and Texas. He is who we thought he was. Bad passer, good runner. Not a good combo when you’re not looking to run. Nobody is separating themselves in this backfield so avoid them all. The WR’s are off the board if their QB cannot get them the ball consistently.

• Rewind Kentucky is never a team you should look to for fantasy purposes so 86 that idea. As for Bama, this was eye opening for me. Of course you had the typical AJ McCarron deferring to the running game like he does 70% the time. The other 30% he goes out and puts up great numbers. In this one he was a game manager and put up good yardage because the Wildcat defense is so bad. The revolution to me came in the running game. All the backs did well. After all it is Kentucky as the opposition so they can’t help but to put up good numbers. However it was the split carries that really grabbed my attention. After Drake fumbled in the 1st Q I thought Yeldon would take over. Yeldon came back out on the field and promptly fumbled in the red zone himself. Not good Yeldon, not good. They both went for over 100 yards and 2 TD’s each, but against better competition those numbers won’t be so easy to come by. This line doesn’t look nearly as dominant as it has in the past.

• FFwd This is not the TJ Yeldon show I think we all expected to start the year. Going back in Saban Alabama history he is a split carries kind of guy. When Ingram was the man, we all longed for Trent Richardson to get the bulk of the work. When Trent took over, we saw how good Lacy was and couldn’t wait for him to start. When Lacy started we were in awe of TJ Yeldon and were eagerly looking forward to this year. Now it’s supposed to be Yeldon’s show and we are on pins and needles waiting for Drake to get the starting nod because he seems so much better than Yeldon most of the time. Arkansas is up next for Bama and I wouldn’t expect too much from McCarron or his wr’s. Alabama’s potential lies in the running game and I am not sold that Yeldon gets enough of the carries over Drake to risk playing him this week unless the price is depressed.

• Rewind Even though I dislike the Aggies, I love tuning in to watch Johnny Manziel. He is fun to watch. This game however was odd to witness. Ole Miss puts up 38 points. However their clear #1 wr catches 1 pass for 3 yards. Their all-purpose RB stud gets hurt but even before then was doing nothing at all. And their starting QB did well with 300 yards passing and 3 TD’s, but lost 2 easy TD’s to the backup. Meanwhile for the Aggies, 41 points looks juicy…until you see Manziel threw for 0 TD’s. He did run for 2 scores and had good yardage, but for his price tag this is a disappointing game. Malena still proves to be the #1 Rb, even though he is far less talented than his 2 backups. He stole a goal line TD in the 1st Q and that helped him hit value. The big shocker here was Mike Evans with 4 catches for 46 yards and all of it coming late in the game. He looked to me like he was still struggling through the injury that forced him to leave Arkansas game early.

• FFwd So now these Aggies host Auburn this weekend. This should be interestingly fun. Auburn is slightly overrated right now on defense but good enough on offense to keep Manziel and boys in this game through 4 Q’s. Evans needs to prove he’s healthy before I touch him again. Also on a side not Manziel came up grabbing his knee on a play during the Ole Miss game and missed a couple snaps but came back to finish the rest of the game. I doubt it means anything, but I’m keeping an eye on it none the less. I’ll pass on Malena this week as his output is too directly tied to TD’s and this seems like a Manziel dominated week.
  LSU travels to Mississippi and this one is pretty simple. Fire up LSU players as Ole Miss is not good on defense. Sit Ole Miss players because LSU is still decent enough to shut these boys down and after the total blank Moncrief and Scott fired I wouldn’t touch them.

• Rewind Mancrush alert- Brandin Cooks you are now added to the list you beautiful bastard. This kid is such a stud. For 3 Q’s it looked like he was going to do poorly and all his owners were going to each sh*t. Then Washington State decided to stop playing football and Cooks went off for 3 quick TD’s late. Mannion wasn’t particularly sharp and Wash. St. has a better defense than what people think, but when Wazzu rolled over in the 4th Q Mannion piled up some cheapies. Storm Woods was back in this one but this line cannot run block and I wouldn’t pull the trigger on him until they prove otherwise.
  Connor Halliday did what he does best. He imploded in the 4th Q of this game. This was a cake matchup and he got vulture by the running game on 2 of the TD’s. Then he threw 3 int’s in 5 plays and got yanked from the game as the Beavers put up 35 straight points thanks to those picks. Running game was nonexistent as usual outside of the 2 scores, and you cannot depend on that every week. There is no #1 wr out here. Gabe marks was vastly overrated after a few decent games in a row, if anything the kid Mayle looks good.

• FFwd The Beavers have a cake matchup with Cal Saturday. Here’s the problem- the only 2 starter worthy players, Cooks and Mannion, are through the roof on price. If for some reason this is the game they use to get Storm Woods going then neither of these guys will reach value. This is a tough call. I would absolutely recommend both players if the caps are loose enough to get other good players around them. Otherwise it may be a pass for me.

Washington State takes on Oregon this weekend and this will be an arse kicking. Halliday may end up without a job if he throws another 3 picks and I wouldn’t play any of these Cougar players in this blowout. Oregon is too good on offense to be slowed down by this defense, therefore all the usual Ducks are money. Keep your eye on the status of De’Anthony to see if he pays this weekend.