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Pittsburgh's pace makes them more potent

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger signals a touchdown against the New England Patriots in the second half of an NFL football game, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

Welcome to Snaps, Pace, and Stats, which examines trends in snap totals and no-huddle usage. This year I’ll be looking at individual players on Fridays in Advanced Matchup Plays, which will appear both here and on RotoGrinders. Before that, however, it is helpful to take a 30,000-foot view of the upcoming games, in the hope of finding out which ones will be played on fertile fantasy soil.

Rank Week 2 Snaps 2015 Snaps/Game Opponent Wk 2 Snaps 2015 Opp Snaps/Gm
1 Houston (82) Houston (77.5) Carolina (82) Carolina (74.0)
2 San Francisco (82) San Francisco (74.0) Pittsburgh (82) St. Louis (72.5)
3 New England (76) Carolina (70.0) Buffalo (76) Buffalo (72)
4 Tennessee (74) Atlanta (70.0) Cleveland (74) Kansas City (71.5)
5 Carolina (72) DEN/NO (69.5) Houston (72) PIT/PHI (70)

 

Jacksonville at New England

Despite their up-tempo reputation, and the fact that they ran the fifth-most plays last season, the Patriots often abandoned the hurry-up. The quintessential “game plan offense” would extend to their pacing, and that is still the case. New England just ripped off 34 no-huddle plays against the Bills, after a Week 1 game in which they only skipped huddling on five plays.

Now the Patriots face a Jaguars team that allowed the fourth-most snaps in the league last year. Jacksonville finished sixth in no-huddle rate (17.4 percent), partly by design and mostly out of necessity. Despite their feisty defensive efforts against the Panthers and Dolphins, don’t be surprised if New England spreads the Jaguars out and pushes the pace, despite talk of a slower-paced “Blount game.”

 

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Pat Thorman is a Lead Writer for PFF Fantasy and was named 2013 Newcomer of the Year by the Fantasy Sports Writers Association. You can follow him on Twitter at @Pat_Thorman

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