Thoughts on College Football's Week 5 and NFL Week 4

1. Best of the Week

Best Game: Notre Dame at Duke

Another Golden Domer game picked?

This is why you bring Sam Hartman in. Duke has the biggest game of their program, Gameday, night game, no longer having a track around the stadium. The Irish struggled, but finally had the quarterback to bail them out. I think Notre Dame has some things to figure out before USC comes to town, but they have a great signal caller, some talent on the outside, a great running back, and a defense that doesn't break (when they have 11 men on the field).

Best Player: Stefon Diggs (WR) - Bills

6 receptions, 120 yards, and 3 touchdowns. What a stat line. All week the Dolphins were the darlings of the media and Tyreek Hill was the receiver getting hyped up. Diggs showed up and balled out. When he juked two defenders into each other and took it to the house was the back breaker in the game. What a fun talent and good for Buffalo having someone who pairs so well with Josh Allen.

Best Uniform: New York Jets

The Jets should wear the Legacy jerseys for the rest of the season. Every game. Never look back. #Jets #TakeFlight pic.twitter.com/Zpb4rGKyBY

— Jason Klein (@ByJasonKlein) October 2, 2023

These looked beautiful under the lights on Sunday night. The dark helmet with white facemask is a win in my book and I wish more teams went away from the grey facemask in the NFL. Fun fact, only three teams have always had a grey face mask. They are the Cowboys, Raiders, and Cardinals. I understand why the Jets wore white at home, these are crisp and looked great.

2. The Orbit Motion, So Hot Right Now

Everyone wants to talk about motion this year, but one motion keeps popping up more than others: the Orbit Motion. Teams are sending a player in deep motion, behind the quarterback in shotgun or the running back and letting a fast player get a downhill head start at the snap. Sometimes the player continues in the same direction at the snap, sometimes he returns (Echo motion) to where he started. Jet motion, when the player runs directly behind the line on his motion, is great at getting a player outside in a hurry. This is commonly done towards the wide side of the field and it's a sprint to the edge. Orbit motion is great towards the short side of the field and is as close to Canadian football as we get at getting a running start downfield and putting a defender on his heels. Keep an eye on how creative teams are using it.

3. The First NFL Reset Week

The Bills destroyed the darling Dolphins. The Ravens and Titans rolled. Baker could be the king of the NFC South. The Chiefs struggled with the Jets and the Eagles struggled with the Commanders. This was the first weekend reminder that the NFL is built for parity and that's why we love it. Usually this happens again in week 13-14 as well. The hardest part of predicting NFL games is you have to forget what the team did in their latest game and look at trends. Maybe someone else is better than me at doing so.

4. Awards

Figured it was about time to have some awards for the season and see who is on track to make some noise in the postseason. Here are my picks for college and NFL:

College

National Champion: Texas

Other CFP Teams: Michigan, Oregon, Florida State

Texas looks amazing, they have the best win of the season so far, and have really come of age. Quinn Ewers has lost the mullet and gained some footwork and that defensive front is up there with Michigan for the best in college football. The Ducks look like the most complete team out West and they have played great in all three phases this year. Florida State had a great win against LSU and Michigan played their most complete game on Saturday. Georgia wins and they're in, I just haven't been convinced by Beck yet after squeaking one out on the Plains this weekend.

Heisman: Caleb Williams (QB) - USC

He finally threw an interception! Caleb Williams is appointment television. I think he would be a top 15 quarterback in the NFL right now and he gets to play against college kids. The man is a freak and is carrying a USC team that does not have a very good defense (a Lincoln Riley staple). I think if I was a top quarterback in high school I would go to USC, and Williams is the latest example of what Riley can do but he is super charged over the Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray, Jalen Hurts trio that came before him.

NFL

Super Bowl Champion: San Francisco 49ers

Conference Winners: Bills over Chiefs (AFC) 49ers over Eagles (NFC)

I love the 49ers, but I worry about what they will do down four points with two minutes left. But the supporting cast around Purdy may be so good it doesn't matter. This team is hilariously talented and creative on both sides of the ball.

I think the Eagles have a strong case to make it back to the Super Bowl and that defensive front may eat up Purdy. Other the flip side it's a staple, these two teams always clash together but I think the Bills may be able to finally win the track meet.

MVP: Christian McCaffrey (RB) - 49ers

Let's give it to a non-QB! If anyone can do it, it's someone on the 49ers. McCaffrey is the focal point and would be a top receiver if he wasn't such a good running back. For as small as he is he is strong and his quickness makes him so hard to tackle. If he gets through the first level good luck. What they do with him reminds me of 2005 Reggie Bush at USC. It's electric.

5. Play of the Week

DJ Uiagalelei never captured the magic he had after his first start his freshman year during the two years he was the starter at Clemson, but he has been playing great in Corvallis. Clemson's system got stagnant and he was called upon to be a big time rusher for the Tigers. At Oregon State he has been unleashing his deadly arm on deep crossers and play action while being a great runner when he has the open space. Here, we see Oregon State spreading the Utes thin with a 5-wide formation and then running a QB draw into the open area. It's a beautiful play, makes Utah second guess themselves in dime the rest of the game, and gets DJ in a rhythm early.

• Oregon State comes out in 5-wide and Utah responds with 5 man defenders (dots 1-5) a middle linebacker (dot 6) spying on the quarterback, and a free safety deep (dot 7).
• The spy linebacker is supposed to mirror any movement from DJ and allow the other defenders to concentrate on locking down their receiver with a safety over the top. This is a common move against mobile quarterbacks, but if the defenders are looking at their receivers and not the quarterback and he gets loose, he can go for long gains.

• At the snap, the guards and tackles give their defenders the outside rushing lanes and the defenders take the bait. The center (dot 1) first starts toward the right defensive tackle to ensure he doesn't take down DJ, who is looking to run straight up the middle.
• The only defender that sees that this is a run is the middle linebacker (dot 2) and he is heading to make a play.

• The center realizes the guard has the defensive tackle and advances to take on the middle linebacker (dot 1). This is great effort by the center, who goes and finds someone to block at the second level instead of just being happy all the defenders are blocking. These efforts are the difference between 3 yards and 1st downs in football games and something wholly underappreciated.
• The only other defender (dot 2) who has noticed that DJ is running is starting to come forward but has to get through the receiver he was covering who is doing a great job stalk blocking.

• The center gets just enough the linebacker and DJ is in a foot race with a ton of space in the middle of the field (yellow circle). The receivers do a great job blocking, the Beavers are great at the little things, and he has a ton of room.

• DJ first gets touched 10 yards downfield. He is 250 lbs rolling down the field. He is not a great juker, but he can fill the open space and is athletic enough to be a problem. Just a great play call, great execution, and a tone setter for the Friday night victory.