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Sets, Snaps and Stats: Week 2

FredJacksonCutting_smThe weekly Sets, Snaps and Stats report is a summary of participation, formation, target and other data mined by PFF’s game charters. Used with PFF Fantasy’s own signature stats, our aim – as always – is identifying relevant trends to provide out subscribers with a competitive advantage.

Taking Tempo-Ture

Week 2 brought us another handful of games whose statistical totals were directly affected by at least one of the offenses taking an up-tempo approach. The most glaring example again came courtesy of the Philadelphia Eagles. While they did not match last week’s whopping total of 77 plays, their opponents snapped the ball more as a result of the matchup.

San Diego, who ran only 51 Week 1 plays against the Texans, wound up tying for the league lead in Week 2 with 79 snaps versus the Eagles. They likely can thank this, as well as the season only being two weeks old, for being able to populate multiple fantasy positional leader boards for the first time in quite a while. We will have more on their potentially rejuvenated signal caller later on.

Also making their debuts in the top five were the Bengals, Texans, Panthers, and Rams – meaning that we have an entirely new group of snap leaders. Factors such as facing up-tempo opponents (Carolina vs. Buffalo and San Diego vs. Philadelphia), overtime games (Houston vs. Tennessee), and playing most of a game in catch up mode (St. Louis vs. Atlanta), should ensure a steady rotation in top five. Over time, however, trends will hopefully begin to emerge that can be capitalized on for fantasy purposes.

Ranking

Week 2 Snaps

2013 Snaps

Opponents’ Snaps

1st

San Diego (79)

Baltimore (158)

Buffalo (165)

2nd

Cincinnati (79)

New England (153)

Denver (156)

3rd

Houston (78)

Houston (152)

Philadelphia (149)

4th

Carolina (76)

NY Jets (144)

Washington (147)

5th

St. Louis (73)

Denver (140)

NY Giants (145)

We can already see that facing up-tempo teams has contributed to more snaps for opponents of Buffalo, Denver and Philadelphia. The Giants’ and Redskins’ foes have simply benefitted from going up against bad defenses, at least to this point in the young season.

Ranking

Week 2 Snaps

2013 Snaps

Opponents’ Snaps

32nd

San Francisco (51)

Pittsburgh (108)

Seattle (100)

31st

Pittsburgh (55)

Tampa Bay (115)

New Orleans (111)

30th

Tampa Bay (56)

Atlanta (116)

Cincinnati (116)

29th

Philadelphia (57)

Minnesota (117)

Oakland (116)

28th

Detroit (57)

Oakland (124)

Houston (118)

In a development that should surprise absolutely nobody, it is not a good idea to start your fantasy players when they match up with the Seahawks. The Bengals are making a bid to be added to that list as well. The Raiders may be an opponent to avoid if all else is equal, not only due to a potentially surprising defense, but because they so far seem to prefer to take the air out of the ball – resulting in fewer possessions and snaps for everyone involved.

As we await the arrival of more snap data in the coming weeks to see how it alters the fantasy outlook around the league – something that Steelers backers certainly hope occurs – let’s take a look at a handful of Week 3 matchups that could be affected by up-tempo offenses, followed by the rest of this week’s Sets, Snaps and Stats.

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Please note that penalty plays are removed from the snap totals and will differ from what is posted in our Premium Statistics game logs.

Pat Thorman is a Lead Writer for PFF Fantasy. You can follow him on Twitter at @Pat_Thorman

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