Here is a game-by-game recap of each team in the ACC conference to catch you up from last weekend’s action, including Key Players, Injuries, and Players to Watch.
Wake Forest at Clemson
Game Recap: Deshaun Watson kept it going as he led Clemson to the 33-13 victory over Wake Forest to remain perfect on the season. Clemson dominated here as they had 552 yards of total offense to only 152 yards by Wake Forest. It really was a one sided affair in which Clemson showed up on both sides of the ball
Key Players: Deshaun Watson had another big game with 343 passing yards for 3 touchdowns and 44 rushing yards with 1 rushing touchdown. While Watson did throw a couple interceptions, he did what he needed to do for Clemson to win this game. With Wayne Gallman injured, we didn’t see any stand out replacements take the job and run with it. At wide receiver, Germone Hopper led the team with 120 yards and a touchdown on only 3 receptions.
The Wake Forest offense was horrible here, with nobody standing out to be fantasy worthy (as expected).
Key Injuries: Clemson’s Wayne Gallman missed this game with an ankle injury, but he is probably for this next week against South Carolina.
Players to Watch: Clemson visits a struggling South Carolina squad, making Watson a viable play along with Wayne Gallman should he suits up here. It’s tough to predict the receivers here, so we would avoid them.
Wake Forest faces off against Duke next week, and we don’t think this makes any DFS slates. Even if it did, Wake Forest would need to be faded.
Boston College at Notre Dame
Game Recap: Notre Dame held on for a very close victory 19-16 over Boston College. After allowing 5 turnovers and a few late scores, this one was much more of a sweat than expected for the #4 team in the country.
Key Players: Boston college really had no significant players on offense outside of the rushing performance of backup quarterback Jeff Smith going for 100 yards and a touchdown on only 5 rushes due to an 80-yard explosion in the 4th quarter.
Key Injuries: None
Players to Watch: As usual, don’t worry about playing anyone from Boston College against Syracuse this week. This game should in no circumstances make a DFS slate.
UT Chattanooga at Florida State
Game Recap: Florida State dominated the Mocs in a 52-13 layup victory last week. There wasn't much required in this victory as the Seminoles rushing attack flourished here while they scored on 8 straight drives.
Key Players: Five of the Seminoles seven touchdowns came on the ground here, with 2 of those going to Dalvin Cook as he rushed for 106 yards. This was a tough stat line for the elite priced running back however, as he would have only hit around 3 times value. Receiver Kermit Whitfield led the team in receiving with 91 yards and 2 touchdowns on 5 receptions. This is Whitfield's second straight game with at least 90 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Key Injuries: None
Players to Watch: Florida State will face a tough Florida defense this coming week. Florida has only allowed 2 or more touchdowns twice in the past 7 weeks. With the rushing attack leading the Seminoles, they are in a very tough spot against Florida’s 8th ranked rushing defense. We will not be interested as this should be a very slow paced game.
North Carolina at Virginia Tech
Game Recap: North Carolina squeaked by to the 30-17 overtime victory in Frank Beamer’s last home game for Virginia Tech
Key Players: North Carolina’s Marquise Williams underperformed his salary as he passed for only 205 yards and a touchdown while rushing for 74 yards and 1 touchdown. These are decent numbers, but considering where he was priced, we would have liked to have seen more. Elijah Hood had a solid game with 115 yards and 2 touchdowns as he averaged 6.8 yards per carry. This is his second 100+ yard game in a row and his 6th 100+ yard game of the season.
Virginia Tech’s Travon McMillian disappointed us big time as he only managed 80 rushing yards on 21 carries with no touchdowns. The Hokie player of this game was Isiah Ford with 8 receptions for a season high 155 yards and a touchdown.
Key Injuries: None
Players to Watch: The Tar Heels face off against NC State this week. The Wolfpack has had a decent defense all year, but North Carolina should be up big in this matchup with both Williams and Elijah Hood in play depending on salaries.
Virginia Tech will travel to Virginia in a game that should not make any DFS slates in this final week. If it does appear on a slate, we could see a bounce back from McMillian and a cash game consideration for Isaiah Ford.
Syracuse at NC State
Game Recap: In what was a much higher scoring affair than expected, NC State pulled out the 42-29 victory over a struggling Syracuse team that has now lost 8 straight games. Syracuse could never keep up as they managed just over half the total yards and first downs as NC State here.
Key Players: NC State had no stand out fantasy production as 5 different players scored touchdown. Freshman Nyhiem Hines did finish with 139 total yards and 5 receptions for a rushing touchdown, but this was only the second time he had found the end zone all years as Hines is very much a secondary option in this offense.
Syracuse had no stand out players from this game.
Key Injuries: None
Players to Watch: While NC State faces a susceptible North Carolina defense, we can’t recommend anyone form this offense as their primary rusher is out. We expect a committee approach at running back with Brissett falling short yet again.
Syracuse faces Boston College in a game that everyone should fade if it even appears on a slate.
Georgia Tech at Miami
Game Recap: Georgia Tech turned the ball over 4 times to fuel their 21-38 loss to Miami here. While the offense performed relatively equally with only 13 yards different between the 2, Miami was able to make the plays needed to win their 7th game of the season as Georgia Tech has now lost 8 of their last 9 games.
Key Players: Georgia Tech played without starting quarterback Justin Thomas here, and as expected, we saw a number of guys involved in their offensive attack as nobody stood out from a fantasy perspective.
Miami struggled to move the ball on offense as their rushing attack only managed 86 total yards with Joseph Yearby accruing only 47 yards on the ground. Mark Walton grabbed the key carries here as he finished with a couple of touchdowns with only 36 yards on the day. No receivers stood out as Kaaya passed for 300 yards and 1 touchdown with 2 to 3 receptions each spread among 6 different players.
Key Injuries: Georgia Tech’s Justin Thomas is questionable with a head injury going into his next game against Georgia.
Players to Watch: Miami visits Pittsburgh in their last regular season game of the year. Given the uncertainty in touchdown production in their rushing game combined with the amount that Kaaya spreads the ball around on offense, we will not be particularly interested in anyone here if this game makes the slate.
We are not interested in anyone from the Yellow Jackets in their last game of the season against Georgia this week.
Duke at Virginia
Game Recap: Virginia handed Duke their 4th straight loss in the 42-34 victory behind Matt Johns’ career passing day with over 340 yards and 2 touchdowns. While Duke rallied with a couple of touchdowns in the 4th quarter, it was not enough to overcome their slow start after going going down 21-0 in the first quarter.
Key Players: Virginia’s Taquan Mizzell had yet another solid game in one of his best performances of the year with 3 total touchdowns from 104 total yards and 5 receptions. Canaan Severin was shut down for only 1 reception and 14 yards after his huge game last week. Quarterback Matt Johns turned in a career performance with 344 passing yards and 2 touchdowns.
Duke had one stand out performer on offense as freshman wide receiver TJ Rahming has an epic day with 12 receptions for 190 yards and a touchdown. To put things in perspective, the points Rahming scored this last week were almost as many as he has scored the entire season combined. This was definitely an outlier that we wouldn’t expect him to repeat.
Key Injuries: None
Players to Watch: Virginia will face Virginia Tech. This is a tough defensive matchup in which we would look to fade everyone but running back Taquon Mizzell. Mizzell remains a very consistent and viable cash game play despite the tough matchup, as he should be good for at least 5 dump-offs in the passing game with plenty of touchdown upside.
Duke will face Wake Forest this week in a game that in no way should make fantasy slates.
Louisville at Pittsburgh
Game Recap: Pittsburgh jumped out to a 42-24 halftime lead as they held off Louisville for the 45-34 victory to move to 8-3 on the season. Pittsburgh absolutely dominated the ground game here with 244 total rushing yards compared to -1 net rushing yards from Louisville.
Key Players: The story of Pittsburgh’s day comes primarily from their rushing attack as Qadree Ollison dominated the Cardinals to the tune of 152 rushing yards and a touchdown as he combined with 6 other players for 244 total rushing yards. Tyler Boyd had a decent bounce back game with 11 receptions for only his second 100+ yard game of the year with 103 yards and a touchdown.
Louisville’s offense looked really bad here as they just could not establish a run game with only 24 total carries on the day. Both Kyle Bolin and Lamar Jackson played significant parts in this game, but neither could really break out for solid performances. Jamari Staples was the guy to target from this offense as he finished with a career game at 194 yards and a touchdown from 9 receptions. He was a favorite target from both quarterbacks all day as Staples seemed to always be open, including his 49-yard touchdown from Lamar Jackson in the final seconds of the first half.
Key Injuries: None
Players to Watch: Pittsburgh takes on Miami on Friday night in a game that should prove to be interesting as Miami’s defense has not been very great in recent weeks. Both Qadree Ollison and Tyler Boyd should be options worth considering on what should be an interesting slate.
Since coming back from injury, Jamari Staples has posted a couple of really big scores. With at least 100 yards in each game he has a touchdown from (2). The Cardinals face a horrible Kentucky defense next week, so we definitely look for Staples to have some success if this game makes any DFS slates (unlikely).
