CFB FFwd/Rew Week 9

by David Kaplen (headChopper) Last Updated 2013-10-26 06:02:26

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 game was brutal to watch. But that’s what I’m here for…to do the dirty work. I figured with Venric Mark out and Kain Colter out I’d take a flyer on Trevor Siemian and Treyvon Green in a couple leagues. Bad move. The Northwestern offense without Colter looked disturbingly bad. The wind was whipping around a bit at the stadium it looked like, but there was no excuse for that poor of a game by Siemian.
  For Minnesota it was an alternating QB strategy. Leidner started, was totally ineffective and Nelson came in for a series and looked good and thus got more reps the rest of the way. Not a good situation for fantasy owners. I’ll hand it to the Gophers though, the defense looks competent. But was it the bad offense of NW that made them look good? Not sure yet, we shall find out more this weekend.

• FFwd Speaking of this weekend, Minnesota hosts Nebraska and Taylor Martinez should be back. Minnesota is at home and has a decent defense. Martinez is coming off an injury and I wouldn’t touch him. Ameer Abdullah is a guy I could see owning in this game and that’s about the only one.
  Northwestern travels to Iowa for this sluggish game. You couldn’t pay me to watch this contest. There is no Northwestern player that I would even consider in this game against an underrated Iowa defense. I also believe that Iowa just shot their load offensively trying to upset Ohio State and will come in flat. Ruddock looked good but I would avoid because of the overall let down. Wiesman would be interesting here, but he is banged up and split carries right down the middle last game. Avoid.

• Rewind I just had to see for myself what would happen to Blake Bell. I took away a few key thoughts in observing this game. Blake Bell is really a bad passer when facing any decent defense. Luckily in this one he was finally given the green light to run. That could mean big things in the future. Jalen Saunders is the best WR on the team. However that means nothing in fantasy as ever since Bell took over, the #1 target has been Sterling Shepard. That didn’t change in this game. Shepard was the first read for Bell all game long and was the most productive WR again for the Sooners.
  Kansas is a 1 trick pony. James Sims is their only hope offensively. Jake heaps threw for 16 yards in this game. That’s not a typo. He was the full time starter with no other QB and only threw for 16 yards. Sims is all they have and unfortunately for him teams know this and are going to load the box to stop him.

• FFwd First off Kansas plays Baylor this weekend. This is a typical Baylor 70-7 win. Book it. Kansas cannot stop them and everyone will get their usual piece of the pie. As for Kansas, no one is playable in my opinion. Iowa State is better offensively than Kansas and struggled to move the ball against Baylor. It’s Sims or bust and I feel like Sims will be stopped.
  Oklahoma now has a big showdown at home with Texas Tech. This has huge implications to the conference and even the BCS with TT being top 10 in the BCS rankings. I think the Red Raiders passing game will be just fine in this one. Oklahoma has shown they will give up points on defense and they haven’t seen any offense this good yet. Fire up the Red Raiders. As for OU, my guess is that they open this up for Bell to run more and that’s a good thing for his value. I think the Sooners will be able to move the ball. I’m looking to Shepard for a sleeper wr. The backfield is too muddled on me risking a spot for any of these guys. Bell, Shepard and an outside shot at Saunders in this shootout for the Sooners.

• Rewind Well I didn’t see this one coming. I thought that Clemson could win this game in a close one. Dead wrong. They didn’t belong on the field with the Noles on this night. Winston is a bad ass. He’s a top 5 QB going forward. Rashad Greene was a beast and easily the #1 target in this offense. Freeman’s stats look nice, but a lot of it came against a deflated Clemson defense in garbage time. He’s a good Rb, but this team, for real life and fantasy purposes, belongs to Winston.
  This was a total meltdown for the Tigers. Boyd was overmatched. He’s better than this; unfortunately he doesn’t have the weapons to stay on the field with a team like the Seminoles. In years past he’s had Watkins AND Hopkins and even a good running game with Ellington to help. Now it’s just Watkins and that’s great against the weaker teams out there, but not a team like Florida State. Watkins did all he could and made value on some sites with the 8 catch game, but everyone else was a failure for Clemson.

• FFwd The week following big games like this is very interesting and dangerous. Let downs are common place. Clemson travels to Maryland for a slowed down, sluggish game against a beat up team. Boyd may try to wipe the memory of the Seminoles game out of his head by having a big game, but I think it’s a tough start in fantasy. I think the chance of a blowout is pretty high here with no offense from Maryland. I think there’s a sour taste in Clemson’s mouth and it may take a couple weeks to get over the heartbreak of blowing a National Championship opportunity. Boyd and Watkins are in play, but they are price dependent and NOT “must starts”.
  Same holds true for the Seminoles in a classic let down mode against a bad NC State team. This game may be to “easy” for them. Winston and Greene are the studs for this team and may have out priced themselves this week with the huge previous game. I doubt you will find them on my teams this week unless someone screwed up on Greene’s salary. Winston is too expensive for me. The running game can be tricky for the Noles and we’ll have to see how the rest of the weekend plays out with values and sleepers from other teams before committing to a Rb from Florida State.

• Rewind Man I love tuning in late night and watching the Brandin Cooks show. It’s what I look forward to most these Saturdays. It’s rare you come across a WR/RB who is this consistent and dominating. You expect it from certain elite QB’s, but there’s always risk with other positions. Not Cooks. He gets it done every, single week. He knocked it out of the park again this week by lining up all over the field, taking bubble screens, reverses and running fly routes for 240 yards and 2 TD’s to go along with his 13 catches. He’s match up proof and seems to pay off every game. No matter how high his salary climbs. Mannion is the beneficiary here as this all inflates his numbers also. Once again not much of a running game for the Beavers. Basically it’s the Brandin Cooks show.
  Cal just struggles too much at times on offense for my liking. Chris Harper was their best player in this game, but 7 catches for 93 yards is hardly excitable. Goff was very average and got yanked in the 2nd half for another young QB, Zach Kline. For the 7th time in 7 games, Cal has 0 help from their running game. It’s a shame too, because Bigelow could be a big time player if they used him properly. Treggs continued his disappearing act and looks to have hit the freshman wall.

• FFwd Cal hits the road to take on Washington this week and I would not be recommending any Cal players. QB is uncertain now as we may get a switch. There is no running game and Harper is the only reliable WR. However if there is a QB switch it could be a bad thing for him as Kline is not as good of a passer as Goff. He actually looked like more of a runner.
  Oregon State hosts Stanford. Mark this down, Oregon State will beat Stanford. Mike Riley does the best job of any coach in the nation at getting his stud player (Brandin Cooks) the ball often, and in the best position to succeed. In this case that means getting him the ball in space and let him do his thing. Oregon State has been the 2nd best team in the Pac 12 since their opening weekend upset. Stanford is overrated this season on defense. They have been torched by Jaelen Strong for 12 catches and 168 yards, couldn’t slow down Sankey or Price as those 2 guys put up 475 yards combined and 4 TD’s on them and then 2 weeks ago, Utah beat them and moved the ball all night up and down the field running and passing. Cooks will have a field day because he cannot be stopped. His price is a bit high now, so I don’t think the value is there. But you can book him for another 10 catches and 200 total yards.
  Stanford is a vanilla offense but Gaffney is a solid play as is Ty Montgomery on sites where the price is still relatively decent on them. However be aware that Oregon State is playing solid defense since that shelling in week 1.