Brad Mills USATODAY Sports
Alfred Morris ended last season by tallying at least 100 yards and a touchdown in three of his final four regular season games (he scored twice in the lone game in which he didn’t record 100 total yards), resulting in fantasy football owners spending a first-round pick on him this season.
Those owners, however, have been mildly disappointed this season, as Morris has yet to record a single one of those types of games. Is this a bit of a sophomore slump? Was Morris simply the beneficiary of the Robert Griffin III breakout campaign? Or is this one of those slow periods that happens sooner or later to everyone?
Related: Fantasy Football 2013: Target Ryan Tannehill As Bye Week Replacement
Coming off of a bye week, I’ve got Morris ranked as a top-five running back this week as his Washington Redskins travel to Texas to take on the Dallas Cowboys. Even though it is early in the season, that week of extra rest and preparation is very important, especially when opposing a divisional rival.
I expect for Morris (rib) to be near 100 percent healthy, and be a player that gave the Cowboys all sorts of problems last year. As a rookie, he carried the rock 57 times against Dallas for 313 yards (5.5 yards per carry) and scored four times.
In addition to past success, Morris also has a few positive trends when it comes to his workload. First, his carry count has increased with each passing week this year, and with the bye week to rest and recover, that trend is likely to continue (16 carries in Week 4).
Another trend working in his favor is that after the Redskins’ bye week last year, Morris was handed the ball at least 20 times in all seven contests (20-plus carries in only three of nine games pre-bye).
The Cowboys didn’t force the Denver Broncos into a single punt last week, and with their secondary allowing opposing quarterbacks to complete 68.7 percent of their passes, Dallas can’t realistically stack the box to stop the threatening Redskins rushing attack. In a standard league, I prefer Morris to 2013 studs like Reggie Bush, Trent Richardson and LeSean McCoy this week.
Always happy to provide fantasy answers @unSOPable23
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Hopefully you took this advice, and it’s not only applicable for week 5.
Streaming defenses, week by week advice.
