Shield Spartans: Week 2 Update

Quarterbacks

The group of Spartans' starting signal callers shrank from two down to one this past week. Brian Hoyer was demoted to the backup position in Houston behind Ryan Mallett. Kirk Cousins faced off against one time Spartan Nick Foles who has landed with the St. Louis Rams and Cousins proved to gave a much better day this week. The run game was the star for the Redskins, but Cousins was efficient and took what the defense gave him to have a very productive day. Rams' coach Jeff Fisher made sure to talk about Cousins in his post-game comments, saying the Redskins will be fine with him at the helm. Being that this is Washington and nothing can go too well for Cousins, reports surfaced today that Cousins and his competition at quarterback Robert Griffin III "refuse" to speak to each other. This doesn't really seem like Kirk and I'll choose to believe the guy who would "refuse" to talk to his teammate would be the same guy who asks coaches to only show good film in front of others and has a helicopter daddy still.

Running Backs

Jeremy Langford was a part of just 3 snaps in the Chicago Bears season opening loss to the Green Bay Packers last week, but he was told before this weeks' game against Arizona he was going to get an entire possession. Langford answered the bell scoring his first career touchdown on a one yard rush in the second quarter. Langford ended up with 6 carries for 21 yards and that touchdown, as well registering a tackle on special teams.

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Next week the Steelers will get Le'Veon Bell back and it will be interesting to see the role of Langford as Matt Forte's backup in Chicago continue to evolve.

Wide Receivers

Bennie Fowler was dressed once again for the Denver Broncos on Thursday night football in a win over the Kansas City Chiefs, but he is still waiting for his first career catch. Fowler did get on the stat sheet with a tackle on special teams. Keshawn Martin will get a change of scenery as he was traded from the Houston Texans to the New England Patriots. Martin was inactive in week two as he arrived in New England on Friday and will hope to pick up the playbook before week three. Keith Mumphrey was held without a catch for Houston but did have six punt returns for 58 yards, with an average return of 9.8 yards and his longest return being 15 yards.

Tight Ends

Dion Sims had a scary injury last week with Miami, when he hit his head hard on the ground. Sims is making good strides towards a full recovery but was held out of the Dolphins loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Garrett Celek had two catches for ten yards in San Francisco's loss to Pittsburgh.

Offensive Line

Dan France was not active on Sunday for the Bengals.

Defensive Line

Domata Peko started the game for the Cincinnati Bengals and registered his first two tackles of the 2015 season, bringing his career total to 446. Peko also showed some versatility as he was brought in on 6 offensive plays to beef up the Bengals offensive line. Will Gholston had a much more productive week two with 6 total tackles, 3 of them being solo after just a single tackle last week. Gholston took the 3rd most snaps of defensive ends on the Tampa Bay roster, including some snaps at defensive tackle. Gholston also was credited with blocking an extra point in the win over the New Orleans saints.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The extra point was blocked by Will Gholston. Gholston blocked a punt against Baltimore last season (10/12/14).</p>&mdash; Buccaneers PR (@BuccaneersPR) <a href="https://twitter.com/BuccaneersPR/status/645686582146670593">September 20, 2015</a></blockquote>

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Linebackers

Max Bullough and Marcus Rush did not play in their team's games. Taiwan Jones and the New York Jets play tonight but Jones is likely not going to be dressed for the game.

Defensive Secondary

It has not been an easy transition for Trae Waynes to the NFL, something the 1st round pick addressed in a column he wrote for The Players' Tribune. After not playing a single defensive play for the Minnesota Vikings in their week one loss Waynes still has not registered any stats after week two. Darqueze Dennard registered just one tackle in the Bengals win and had zero passes defended. Trenton Robinson tied for the team lead in tackles on the Washington Redskins with 6, as he played in all of his team's 52 defensive plays. It was only the 2nd career start for Robinson.

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