Saturday, October 11

Double Coverage

The feature everyone loved in the preseason, Double Coverage, is back this week. There have been many dynamic duos in history. Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison. Batman and Robin. Peanut butter and jelly. And today, we bring you yet another great duo. Tosten and I will be giving our views on a player each week; one of us for him, and one of us against him. Today's topic: Denver Broncos running back Michael Pittman.

A-Koz: Start Pittman
There's no Selvin Young in the lineup for Denver this week. Ditto for Tony Scheffler. Two of Denver's better offensive weapons have both been ruled out because of groin injuries. For once, we may actually have an idea who the main back will be in the Mike Shanahan offense. That guy is Michael Pittman. Even before Young got hurt, Pittman was getting the majority of the red zone carries for Denver. Granted, you know my feelings on guys who are too reliant on getting red zone carries and touchdowns (see any of my rants on Joseph Addai), but that won't be the case for Pittman this week. He should see a lot of carries, giving him plenty of chances to rack up yards. The Jacksonville run defense isn't the same without Marcus Stroud. Their run defense is ranked a mere 15th in the league, a far cry from their usual stout self. This was also a defense that allowed a Pittsburgh Steelers offense that was without three running backs last week to run for over 100 yards. Weak, Jacksonville. But you know who will be strong? Michael Pittman.
Tosten Burks: Bench him
Yes, Selvin Young is out on Sunday. And yes, Michael Pittman has been the most productive Denver running back other than Young so far this year. But Mike Shanahan is also the spawn of Hades and the sky is also blue. What does that mean? Start Andre Hall. Michael Pittman is a goal line back, nothing more. Hall, coming in at 10 pounds lighter than Pittman, is more in the mold of a between-the-20s tailback, and unless Shanny has Ryan Torain on his fantasy team or something, Hall will be the main beneficiary of Selvin Young's groin injury. This isn't to say that Pittman is necessarily a bad start—Scheffler being out could possibly translate to more goal line touches for the goal line back, Pittman, so he could step up as he has so far this year and pick up a score or two down in the red zone. But Hall is the guy who will get the yards and the majority of looks out of the backfield.

1 comment:

Tosten Burks said...

Ahaha...
*slowly post-editing this...*