Week 15 Saturday Single-Game NFL DFS Snapshot: Bengals and Vikings Top FanDuel & DraftKings Plays
Welcome to the Week 15 Showdown snapshot, a quick analytical matchup breakdown for single-game DFS players. The first of our three-game Saturday slate features an exciting matchup between the Bengals and Vikings, two teams desperately vying for one of the final two wild card spots in their respective conferences. This game is made all the more difficult to project with the Vikings moving from Joshua Dobbs to Nick Mullens, who took over in the second half of the team’s 3-0 win over the Raiders in Week 14. The Bengals, on the other hand, seem to be hitting their stride with Jake Browning under center and find themselves as 3.5-point favorites in a must-win game at home. Let’s go over the key plays and strategies for this single-game slate.
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Game Environment
Vikings (+3.5, 18.5) @ Bengals (-3.5, 21); Over/Under 39.5
This chart represents the general offensive strategies for each team when the game outcome is still in question (win probability between 20% and 80%). The final two minutes of each half are also excluded. We’ll include last year’s statistics through Week 4 of the regular season. Teams in the upper-right quadrant pass more often and play faster than the average NFL team in neutral game scripts, and conversely, teams in the lower-left quadrant play slower and run more often than the average NFL team.
Quarterback Analysis
While there may be 22 people on the field for every play, each play and game is heavily dictated by the performance of each team’s quarterback. While efficiency isn’t everything for quarterbacks, it is the best indicator of future performance, so we use a trio of metrics to suss out top performers at the position compared to lackluster ones. xDrive Success %, or True Drive Success Rate, is a measurement of a QB’s ability to turn drives into scores weighted by sample size. EPA or Expected Points Added, is a measurement of the QB’s contribution, both running and throwing, to the team’s scoring and production vs. the average NFL team. Completion % over Expected (CPOE)represents the accuracy and efficiency of a QB’s passes compared to league expectations.
Core Plays and Auxiliary Options
- DFS & Season-Long Content
- Lineup Generator
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- Floor & Ceiling Projections
- -Leverage Scores
- -...and much much more!
