Smack Tripper said:
I hope it was the appendectomy but he really hasn't done anything to distinguish himself on the field. He had a convoy on that 16 yard run and I though he'd rip off. 40 but there was no gear to kick it into.
I'm just glad I own Anderson In leagues with ball and I'm stashing him in leagues without
See, I disagree. I think he's looked pretty good. He's not Adrian Peterson or Jamaal Charles (or Gio Bernard or Le'Veon Bell), but he's a pretty strong starter. His YPC was junk in week 1, but he led the league in missed tackles forced that week because he got met at or behind the line of scrimmage on over 80% of his carries. He consistently gained extra yardage and it was a strong effort even to approach 3 ypc. This week, both Anderson and Ball again were getting met head-on within a yard or two of the LoS on most plays, and both backs did a good job of taking advantage of the few plays where they were able to get past the line with some semblance of momentum intact. Anderson had a pair of carries where he was able to rip through half-hearted arm tackles and turn in a ~10 yard gain. On Ball's second reception he made a nifty move to avoid the initial tackler and was able to run it out for 16 yards. On his 23-yard gain on 3rd-and-24, Ball juked out the first two would-be tacklers without getting touched, and when a third defender was able to catch up to him while he was dodging the first two, he carried that defender on his back for five extra yards to get the ball down close to the line to gain. Ball's getting what's there every time, and then half the time at least he's adding extra afterwards. I'm watching the coaches' film and I'm not seeing him missing his reads at all. He's making smart decisions and doing what's asked. He doesn't pop off the film, largely because he isn't a physical freak like a lot of the best backs, but neither do guys like Frank Gore. At the end of the day, it's just a question of what you do with what you have.
Plus, Ball's been much improved in both the receiving game and in pass protection. I believe he gave up his first pressure this week, but it's really hard to fault him for it- it looked to me like Vasquez was supposed to pull and provide help on the left, but he was slow getting over, which left Montee Ball one-on-one against an onrushing Tamba Hali, who was in the backfield immediately with momentum intact after not being slowed at the LoS. Any RB in the NFL is going to be hopelessly overmatched when they're one-on-one against a 260-pound pro bowl pass rusher with a full head of steam. Hali just bull-rushed Ball and ran him over.
Anyway, Ball's playing well, and I don't get this eagerness everyone has to shuffle him off the field and replace him. He's not quite at Moreno-vs.-New England or Moreno-vs.-New York levels from last year, but my take is that he's playing better than Moreno did in most of his other games. I'm sure Denver is extremely happy with what they have in Ball. They're showing absolutely no interest at all in replacing him. Hillman didn't play a single snap against Kansas City. C.J. Anderson had an entire drive all to himself (the touchdown drive just before halftime), but outside of that one drive he only played a single snap all game; after Ball had his 23-yard gain on 3rd-and-24 followed by his quick 4th-and-1 conversion while the defense was still confused, he came off the field for one snap to catch a breather and then went right back on. Ball's now topped 70% of Denver's snaps in back-to-back weeks after no Denver RB did it once last year. He's getting boatloads of snaps, he's playing pretty well with them, and everyone in Denver seems to be quite pleased with him. C.J. Anderson is worth owning for the same reason that James Starks is worth owning, but Montee Ball is the workhorse and I really don't see him getting supplanted this year.
well, you just e-mail him your demands. Ball was more productive running the ball than Moreno last year, by a significant margin. I just know that even special once-in-a-decade RBs are going to struggle when the D-line is one yard deep in the backfield at the point of attack. Something has to change or Ball isn't going to produce as projected.
