What’s up Karma Nation! Welcome to another edition of my Top Monkey Knife Fight Plays article. If you haven’t made an account yet for Monkey Knife Fight, click on the link and use promo code Karma for a nice deposit bonus! In this article, I will be outlining one of my favorite Monkey Knife Fight football props of the weekend. To find my other prop plays and all of the other staff’s favorite prop plays, make sure to sign up for our NFL Core Plays. I will be breaking down a couple different props I like, but they will be paired with another play that I do not mention here. You have to pick the other side that they are paired with or sign up for our NFL Core Plays and ask us questions about the other side of our prop in discord!
Dalvin Cook OVER 99.5 Rushing Yards:
Cook has been one of the most consistent rushers this season in the NFL, and looks to build on his strong season tomorrow against a poor Cowboys defense. He is helping lead the Vikings to a three straight wins, after starting the season 1-5, on the back of three strong performances.
Cook is looking for a bounce back this weekend after going up against a stout Bears defense. He went from being completely shutdown, with 19 carries for 33 yards. Then when Hicks went out, Cook immediately broke off a 36 yard run, finishing with 11 carries for 65 yards. This was what we all expected, but like every player a good defense will be able to shut them down. Even when Hicks was in and Cook wasn’t running well, they still fed him 19 carries in a close game.
The Cowboys have been bleeding yards on the ground all year. They are coming off a bye week, after holding the Steelers to only 49 rushing yards. Before that game they had been giving up 180 rushing yards a game, including three games of over 200, and one game over 300. While the Cowboys have holes in their defense every where. The Vikings love to run the ball, especially against bad defenses. If the Vikings have the lead in the second half, they run at the fifth highest rate in the league, at 68% of their snaps. While running 78% of the time on first and second down during those games. Cook should be fed at a minimum 30 times this week. The Cowboys rank 28th in rushing DVOA, they are allowing the third worst 5.0 yards per carry.
Ezekiel Elliot UNDER 66.5 Rushing Yards:
Elliot has been a huge disappointment to fantasy owners, since Dak went down with a gruesome leg injury. Really every Cowboys player in this offense went from fantasy stars to, close to fades every slate. That is, until the sites adjust their prices enough to be playable again. The talent is still there, but it just isn’t the high powered-offense it once was. On top of that, the offensive line has had a series of injuries, dropping them from one of the best to one of the worst. Basically nothing has gone right with this Cowboys season.
Elliot will need to play close to the top of his game to reach 67 rushing yards tomorrow. I would take Zeke over if he was still the workhorse back on this team, but it appears Tony Pollard is eating too much into his usage. This is a problem for Zeke, which could have been the perfect get right spot for the Cowboys star running back. The Vikings have allowed 96+ rushing yards in all games this season but the Bears game last week. This doesn’t come to us as a surprised if you take a look at the Bears tendencies. They lead the league in % of passing plays in neutral game script. Minnesota also ranks 15th in run DVOA.
Tony Pollard has really eaten into Zeke’s usage. The one positive about the Cowboys coaching staff is that they know they aren’t making a playoff run so they are limiting the workload on their star running back. During weeks 1-5, Zeke averaged 18 rushing attempts, 72.8 rushing yards, 6.4 targets, 34.6 receiving yards, and played on average 87% of the offensive snaps. Since Dak went down with an injury, Zeke is averaging 15 carries, 52 rushing yards, 4.3 targets,16.3 receiving yards, and is playing 67.5% of the snaps. While Dalton was the QB he never topped 12 carries and played an average of 64% of snaps. This decrease in workload makes him a candidate for an easy under tomorrow. One key piece to realize with props, a good matchup doesn’t mean you have to go over on a player.
