I woke up to an interesting e-mail this morning. Well, actually I woke up to a neighbor’s leaf blower but that’s a story for another day. I get tens of e-mails every year and do my best to respond. This time I thought I would do so publicly since it was sent to me in a respectful, and not trolling manner.

“Lord” Zola,

I’m sorry to say I’ve been disappointed with your DFS Strategy pieces this football season. I’ve been a fan of your work for a long time and after reading your baseball columns, I was planning on cleaning up in football. It seems like your advice is either wrong or not even advice at all. Don’t get me wrong, I love the site and use the DFS Playbook, but I was hoping to be able to supplement that with some of my own thinking the way I did using your ideas for baseball.

I hope you take this the right way. It’s just that your column isn’t what I expected.

Point well taken. i was actually thinking about this earlier in the week. Not so much that I've been wrong a couple of times but more so that I didn't do a great job at the beginning of setting the tone that I saw this space as more of a personal laboratory than strictly a strategy library.

The e-mail referenced our DFS Playbook. I don't want to misrepresent Jeff and Ted, but I'm pretty sure if someone were to introduce themselves at the Famous Dave's event this Sunday and told them they love the DFS Playbook but like to mix in their own picks, Jeff and Ted would tell them that's exactly what they should be doing.

I see my role in the process as guiding your individual thinking. And even if it turns out a hypothesis was wrong, your eyes should be opened with respect to thinking outside of the box.

Maybe this is a better way to make my point. It truly bugs me when I hear something like, "What do I need to learn this for? I'm never going to need it." Admit it, you've said it. I know I did. Several times, in fact. It wasn't until I was teaching in grad school that I had an epiphany. A lot of the time, what's being taught is completely irrelevant. You're right, you're never going to use most of the stuff you learned back in the day. But hopefully, you learned how to learn. The subject matter is moot. What you'll need to use later in life is the process you used to learn. You'll remember what you actually need and forget the rest. The key is when there is something you need to learn, you know how to do it.

That's sort of what I'm trying to accomplish here. Maybe you don't agree with some of the experimental concepts I've discussed over the course of the season but hopefully you've learned some measure of scientific thinking so you can research your own hypothesis and build a better lineup.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Or, at least improve his or her chances of winning a cash game.

Anyway, the original topic of today's piece was going to be using the tables presented earlier in the week to identify a couple players to start or fade this weekend. So here goes.

The Detroit Lions have thrown for the seventh most yards in the league. However, collectively, they've faced the ninth softest defenses defending the pass. It stands to reason that Detroit may struggle a little against strong defenses since they've done their damage against a bunch of weaker units. This week they face the Minnesota Vikings at home. Playing at home, indoors, Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson may seem like a good play but the visitors have the sixth stingiest unit against the pass. There's pretty good chance you weren't on Stafford anyway, but I'll be fading Megatron as well.

Conversely, The New England Patriots are ninth in terms of passing yards but they've done it facing some very strong defenses as their collective rank is seventh best. The Miami Dolphins visit Foxboro this weekend and bring with them the third staunchest defense against the pass. While I still wouldn't play Tom Brady since he's priced in the top-five quarterbacks on FanDuel and DraftKings, I won't shy away from Julian Edelman or Rob Gronkowski since the Patriots put up goodly yards regardless of the quality of opposition.

The Oakland Raiders average the fewest yards on the ground in the league. However, they've gone up against the third best composite rushing defense so when they face a weaker unit, they may have a shot to do some damage, especially on a bang-for-the-buck basis. The Kansas City Chiefs welcome the Raiders into town this week. This means Latavius Murray and his mates will square off against a squad that is next to last against the run. There's a good chance you were using Murray regardless, but this should pave the way for even more exposure.

In that same game, Jamaal Charles leads the sixth best running attack against the ninth worst rushing defense. The catch is Kansas City has faced, on average, the best rushing defense in the league but yet have still managed to successfully tote the rock. Assuming Charles is healthy, he probably would have some decent percent ownership. But since his price is set against how he runs versus strong defenders, he has a chance to really give a great return on your investment this week.

Good luck with your DFS lineups this week as well as those of you still alive in your traditional league playoffs.