Surfing the Pac 10: Week 2 Recap
September 13th, 2010 by Matt Ryan
Vereen looked good in a 1/2 day of work last weekend.
Cal vs Colorado: Colorado put up little resistance, down 14-0 at the end of the 1st, then falling behind 31-0 at the half before limping home to a thorough 52-7 defeat in which the Cal D scored twice. As you might expect in such a blowout , star RB Shane Vereen was riding the pine in the 2nd half, but he had a pretty good start to the game with 59 yards and a score on the ground and adding 18 more yards and a score through the air. Vereen had 6 redzone attempts; 3 rushes and 3 pass targets. QB Kevin Riley was 15-of-24 for just under 200 yards and 4 scores, 2 to each WR and 2 to each RB. WR Keenan Allen was again the team’s top target with 10 passes throw his way, hauling in 6 for 66 yards and a score. #2 WR Marvin Jones had 100 yards on the day (77 on 3-of-5 receiving, 23 on the ground) with a score. Cal threw zero passes to the TE in Week 2.Washington State vs Montana State: This offense is horrid, cut any ties now. Wazzu had turnovers on its 1st 2 possessions and was playing from behind all day, needing a last second FG to eek out a 1-point win. QB Jeff Tuel faced the weakest D he will see all year and was still sacked 3 times, was harassed all day and barely threw for 200 yards on 17-of-29 passing. RB James Montgomery was great, gaining 116 yards on 20 carries with a score. RB Logwone Mitz was a non-factor. But there is no way this team will ever be in a position to pound the rock this season, the D is swiss cheese and the O cant punch itself out of a paper bag. Montgomery just will not get enough work. None of the WRs had much time to get open, so none had a great day. WR Marques Wilson should be monitored in any Keeper league, but no reason to own him now. If you’re stuck, Wilson could make a decent pinch weekly start at WR on any week, the logic being that Washington State will be out of most games by halftime this season, so when the 2nd and 3rd stringers come in on the opposing Ds, Wilson could find some nice mismatches. He is a great talent playing on a truly bad team.
Washington vs Syracuse: As expected, Syracuse had no answer for WR Jermaine Kearse, who hauled in 9 of the 12 passes that came his way for 179 and 3 scores. #2 WR Devin Aguilar also finished with a very nice 7 catches (of 11) for 81 yards and one score. QB Jake Locker was 22-of-33 passing for just under 300 yards on the day with the afore mentioned 4 TDs and chipped in 15 yards on the ground. RB Chris Polk finished with 117 yards and a score on 20 carries but was kept under wraps most of the day (53 yards came on a long TD run). Husky TEs only saw 2 passes come their way, but interesting both went to Marlion Barnett and not Chris Izbicki. OF NOTE: a Syracuse D that really penetrated and annoyed Akron in Week 1, registering 3 sacks, had trouble even getting to Locker in Week 2. The Husky OL kept their star QB’s jersey almost completely clean allowing no sacks and only a few knockdowns.
#7 Oregon @ Tennessee: The big fantasy story here was RB Kenjon Barner vs LaMichael James, and despite being bottled up most of the evening (72 of his 134 came on one play), James owners should be breathing a huge sigh of relief based on how it appears both players will be used as the season goes on. Barner’s 1st touch in a close game (well, a close half…) came at the start of the 2nd quarter on a swing pass. His first carry was with about 12 to go in the half. He finished the 1st half with only 2 catches and 2 carries. Translation: the offense does appear to belong to James. Not that Barner won’t steal some carries, yards, and scores from time to time. But James definitely appears to be The Man. James had 4 consecutive carries on a pivotal drive late in the 2nd that would lead to a FG that cut the deficit to 7 point. To start the 2nd half James had drives where he was fed the rock on 5 straight plays and another where he got it 2 straight plays. (NOTE: Barner did not have consecutive carries till James was out of the game.) Sweet Baby James even showed his wheels off by taking one 72 yards to the house on a blown coverage. After tying it up at the half, Oregon had a huge 3rd going up 2 scores on 2 plays (the long run by James and a pick-6 by the Oregon D) and James did not play in the 4th, so his stat line might not be all that impressive as it could have but rest assured that James should turn out to be the stud work horse you though he would be when you drafted him. As far as Barner: he will still get his touches, but interesting that when the game was out of reach, it was Remene Alston who saw mop-duty in the 2nd half. Barner had 5 2nd half touches then sat after his 70-yd punt return early in the 3rd. Alstongot the rest of the action. So from a fantasy prospective, Alston might be the better #2 fantasy option for the Ducks as they should be blowing some folks out this season.
Pass catchers: WR Jeff Maehl was the top target (7) and pass-catcher (5) but the young Tennessee secondary did a good job keep him from breaking free. He should be the beneficiary of the potent 1-2-3 Duck ground attack, but he really needs QB Darron Thomas to step up his game to have any real week-2-week value: Thomas was again hovering around 50% completion percentage, going 17 of 33 for 202. TE David Paulson might be the bigger fantasy factor given the relative value of their positions. He scored for the 2nd straight game and while he might not score every week he ought to be good for 4-8 catches and 40-100 yards and it at least a threat to score every week. In short, he should continue to be a major factor in the Ducks offense.
HIDDEN NUGGET: Striking from deep, scoring on Special Teams and on D, the Ducks only had 4 trips into the Red Zone, but 3 of them were passes. Translation: Don’t give up on QB Thomas yet. He is still learning the position, and while he may not be uber-effective at the moment as far as moving the ball between the 20’s, it appears the Staff plans to use him more as the field shortens, both on play fakes on rolling him out.
Arizona State vs Northern Arizona: If Week 1 was for showcasing the rushing game, Week 2 was all about the air attack. QB Steven Threet was 33-of-49 for 391 and 3 scores. The main beneficiary was WR Michael Willie, who had 8 catches (of 10 thrown his way) for 114 yards and a score. Be careful of adding him right away and remember the competition: the Sun Devils have played 2 straight 1-AA opponents, and Willie only had 2 catches for 12 yards last week. Keep an eye on Mr. Willie but don’t pull the trigger just yet. WR Aaron Pflugrad was still the teams #1 target with 14 balls tossed in his direction. The rushing game was clearly not the point of emphasis in this scrimmage as Arizona State only attempted 9 rushes in the 1st half, most of the other 20 2nd half carries were in clock-kill mode, so don’t be alarmed at the ugly YPC the Sun Devils put up in this game, the offense looks to be more potent than it has been in recent years. RB Deantre Lewis looked like a true freshman in Week 2, only generating 9 yards of offense on 5 touches. Don’t worry — too much. Lewis has been getting rave reviews since arriving on campus and is still a prime candidate to be the teams #2 RB.
Arizona vs The Citadel: RB Nic Grigsby had 10 carries for 40 yards in the 1st half before breaking off a 67 yard scoring scamper to start the 3rd, he was done after that finishing with 107 yards on 11 carries. Supposed #2 RB Keola Antolin only had 2 carries for 2 yards but hauled in 4 passes of 4 thrown his way for 53, true frosh RB Daniel Jenkins 6 carries. But the story was TD Vulture RB Greg Nwoko who finished with 72 yards and 2 scores on just 7 carries. However the race for #2 RB shakes out, after Grigsby, Nwoko appears to be the best fantasy RB option. QB Nick Foles and both backups looked crazy-sharp, as the QB unit completed passes to 11 (of 13 ) different targets en route to a collective 300-yard day through the air. Starting WRs Juron Criner and David Douglas were done before halftime, (Criner actually left the game with a minor shoulder ding) so neither got a full scrimmage this week. Criner‘s injury is considered ‘minor’ and until we learn otherwise he still figures to be the main cog in the passing attack.
#16 USC vs Virginia: It was an ugly evening at the Coliseum as the Trojans eeked out a 17-14 win over a Virginia program they whalloped 52-7 just 2 seasons ago. Granted these 2 programs are in vastly different places than they were in 2008, but still there are some alarm bells going off in Southern Cal as Week 1 was marred by defensive lapses and Week 2 was uglied up with offensive ineptitude and penalties. But the silver lining, it appears we have a starting RB and the #1 WR might be every bit as good as advertised: RB super-frosh Dillon Baxter saw his first collegiate action to the tune of 49 yards on 9 rushes, but RB Marc Tyler led the team with 17 carries and 60 yards. RB Allen Bradford finished with 10 yards on 3 carries, if you’ve been hanging on to him hoping against hope, it is time to let go. QB Matt Barkley was a pedestrian 20-of-35 for 202, so clearly he will need to learn something from this game when watching the film, but the offense seems intent on getting WR Ronald Johnson the ball early and often: He again led the team in targets with 12, but opposing DCs are also starting to get the trend and double-covering the awesome wideout, and he only ended up with 5 receptions for 58 yards (note: RoJo had a 52 yard scoring strike negated on a holding penalty), for the second game in a row WR Woods finished second with 5 targets.
UCLA vs #25 Stanford:
On paper, the Bruins should be substantially better than how they have played the first 2 weeks, this team is having some serious issues on both sides of the ball. At the moment and outside of K Forbath, there is no reason to own any Bruin in any league in any format this season. The OL can’t protect or open holes and the WRs can’t get open…The rest of the offense seems horrendous as well. A change was made @ QB and neither one is ownable. QB Kevin Prince went 6-0f-12-for-39 yards with a pick and 2 sacks while QB Richard Brehaut was only better in the strictest of interpretations going 5-of-9-for 42 yards with a pick and only one sack….
If there is any good news it could be that there will likely be a change @ RB too: RB Jonathan Franklin led the team with 11 carries and 72 yards, but this team needs massive change and it will become increasingly difficult to keep true frosh Malcom Jones off the field much longer. Jones averaged 7.4 last week, going for 52 yards on 7 carries, mostly in the 3rd quarter. UCLA was down 28-0 to start the 4th and forced to throw.
Along with 63 yards on the ground, Stanford’s QB Andrew Luck finished with 2 TDs (one to WR Ryan Whalen) but only 151 yards passing as Stanford just didn’t need to do a whole lot to win this game. In fact, they hardly even needed their offense, as they could have won this game just with the D and Special Teams.
If we learned anything this week it was that the RB situation might be getting a little clearer. RB Stephan Taylor had 9 of the first 12 carries in the 1st half, the other 3 went to RB Tyler Gaffney. Taylor finished with 81 yards on 20 carries while Gaffney chipped in 28 on 8. It appears at the moment that Gaffney is not the team’s 1st rushing option. RBs Anthony Wilkerson and Usua Amanameach only had 3 carries and they all came in mop-up time. Keep in mind that Jeremy Stewart did not play this week due to a minor injury, but it looks as things might be settling down to more of a 1-a/1-b situation with Taylor and Stewart rather than the a/b/c/d/e fantasy fiasco we had earlier. Do not expect anyone to emerge as the next Gerhart.
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