3 Daily Fantasy Football Matchups to Exploit in the Divisional Round

Minnesota Vikings' Rushing Offense

Be cool while also being different. Sometimes, slates like this will allow you to do both.

If you're playing the Sunday-only slate, you're going to be scrambling to find palatable passing offenses. After watching the Carolina Panthers move the ball through the air against the New Orleans Saints last week, many will find solace in the Minnesota Vikings. That's certainly not a bad idea, especially with Case Keenum being just $7,600 for the Sunday-only slate.

But with many likely flocking to the aerial attack, it could allow the Vikings' running backs to go a bit overlooked. Given that they're in a pretty good spot, too, we may want to give Latavius Murray and Jerick McKinnon some love.

The Saints have struggled to stop the ground attack all year. They're 28th in schedule-adjusted rush defense and 2nd-worst among teams playing this weekend (only the Patriots have been worse). It hasn't mattered much because they've often been able to get out to a lead and force their opponents to throw, but this Sunday could be a wee bit different.

With the Vikings at home and rocking a sporty defense, they enter this one as five-point favorites. The Saints haven't been underdogs by more than a field goal since September, and Vegas has favored the opponents just five times the entire year. This gives the Vikings a rare chance to exploit the big weakness, and their track record suggests they'll be happy to oblige.

Overall, the Vikings had the fourth-lowest pass rate in the league during the regular season. When leading, they threw the ball just 48% of the time, according to Sharp Football Stats. The only teams ranked lower than that to face the Saints this year were the Chicago Bears and Buffalo Bills. The Bears ran for 157 yards despite a loss in New Orleans, and the Bills lost 47-10, nullifying any threat their ground game could otherwise pose.

As long as the Vikings are able to keep the game close, they should be able to move the ball on the ground. And they have been fully willing to pound it this year. Why wouldn't we dig their backs?

The big question then boils down to which guy we need to use. Both have their own appeals.

We'll start with Murray, who is just $6,500 for the Sunday-only slate. If you're hunting for touchdowns, he'll be your guy.

From Week 5 on (after Dalvin Cook's injury), the Vikings ran the ball inside the 10-yard line 32 times. Murray had 20 of them, McKinnon had 8, and Keenum had the other 4. Murray also had 12 of 20 carries inside the five, so the touchdown upside is high, especially if you think the Vikings will put up points.

There's also some yardage upside here to increase the appeal in Murray. He went off for 111 yards in the season finale in his third consecutive game with at least 20 carries. They leaned on him heavily down the stretch, and in a plus matchup at home, we can't overlook Murray.

While Murray is easily the better option and the guy to whom we should have more exposure, McKinnon is at least interesting, as well.

McKinnon's the bigger threat in the passing game, and as Alvin Kamara has shown this year, that means a whole heck of a lot to a player's fantasy value. McKinnon had eight targets in Week 15 against the Cincinnati Bengals, and he has had five or more in seven games this year. When you're as athletic as McKinnon, that can go a long way.

On top of that, McKinnon has still been on the field a ton. His snap rate has been above 50% in 10 of 12 games since Cook's injury, in part allowing him to top 17 FanDuel points four times. Because he can make some magic with the ball in his hand, McKinnon's ceiling is pretty snazzy, too. He's fully viable at $6,100.

There will be temptation to pay up for Kamara or Mark Ingram because of the disgusting things they have done this year. But at the end of the day, Murray and McKinnon are in a timeshare, too, they're at home, and their team is favored. We shouldn't have similar expectations for those two as we may have for the others, but with the pricing where it is, we don't need to. Having them be a pivot off of the likely massive ownership on the Vikings' passing offense is just icing on the cake.