Alfred Morris v Orleans Darkwa
If this isn’t one of the better fantasy football head-to-head match-ups nobody saw coming. Ok, honestly, if you can show me a Tweet or dated Facebook post claiming these two were going to be guys who impacted your fantasy playoffs, I’ll buy you….something. Send it over to me on Twitter, and we’ll work something out.
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Moving on. In Week 13, Alfred Morris ripped off 127-yards on 27 carries and added a touchdown because fantasy wins are all about touchdowns.
Orleans Darkwa had just fourteen carries and totaled just 32-yards from them. His touchdown saved a rather dismal fantasy week, but whoa this is underwhelming in a vacuum.
Fortunately for us, we don’t play this game in a vacuum, and if you do, you’re doing it wrong.
Darkwa has only broken 100-yards rushing once in 2017. He’s gotten less than 40-yards as a starter, three times. Including the last two. However, he’s getting Eli Manning back facing a Cowboys team who may or may not be susceptible to an upset, depending on which squad shows up.
Morris has three starts this season, and has a combined 216-yards rushing in those appearances. However, 127 of those came in one shot. As did his only score of the year.
So, you have one guy who has had some success and fair amount of consistency in more than three starts. And another who may have just found his golden moment playing against the team he used to run for.
Who do you start? If you’re me, and I am, you go with Morris. For two reasons.
The first one is the Redskins defense. They’re giving up the eighth most fantasy football points to running backs this years, and for good reason.
The second, is volume. The Cowboys have no reason to go away from Morris. In the two starts previous to the one against Washington, Morris got just 20 carries, and Dallas got the ‘L’. In Week 13, he got 27, and his team ran through and over the Redskins.
Meanwhile, Eli Manning’s return to the starting position he was robbed of so unceremoniously threatens Darkwa’s workload. Especially when they get in scoring position.