The duality of football is funny. The sport itself is wildly complex, with so many moving parts on every single play, yet the simplest answer is often the best option.

That goes for this version of the Vikings and their underwhelming rushing attack.

Frankly, no matter how many hours head coach Kevin O’Connell spends at TCO Performance Center in the coming weeks trying to scheme up the perfect game plan, there won’t be marked improvement until the Vikings stop making this thing way harder than it needs to be. There’s no sense in searching from complex solutions. Not when there’s a simple fix staring everybody in the face.

It’s time to hand the keys to young running back Ty Chandler.

He’s undoubtedly the best option for the Vikings in the backfield at the moment. That was on display Sunday night as Chandler looked explosive for the Vikings in a frustrating loss to the Broncos. He finished with 10 carries for 73 yards, bringing more juice to the whole operation whenever he had the ball in his hands.

“He made plays all night,” quarterback Josh Dobbs said. “It seems like when we get the ball in Ty Chandler’s hands, good things happen.”

So why does running back Alexander Mattison continue to get more touches? Never mind that he had 18 carries for 81 yards for the Vikings against the Broncos. His productive night was completely overshadowed by a costly fumble that turned the game on its head.

That’s been the story of this season for Mattison as he has been unable to gain much traction as the lead back.

After entering this season as the unquestioned starter for the first time in his career, he has left something to be desired with his ineffectiveness at the point of attack. As hard as he runs between the tackles, which should be commended, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, he has minus 80 yards over expected this season. That means he’s routinely failing to gain yards unless everything is blocked perfectly up front, and sometimes, he’s actually losing yards despite being put in the optimum position to succeed.

Essentially, if the play is wrong, Mattison is very rarely gong to make it right.

As for Chandler, he has another gear that Mattison doesn’t have. You can’t teach the fact that Chandler runs the 40-yard dash in blazing 4.38 seconds. To compare, Mattison’s best time in the 40-yard dash is 4.67 seconds, which speaks to his inability to hit the hole with the same force.

“You can feel it when he’s out there,” O’Connell said. “There’s a lot that we really love about Ty Chandler.”

That explains why the Vikings continue to draw up plays specifically designed with Chandler in mind. He scored on a direct snap near the goal line in the previous game as the Vikings earned a 27-19 win over the Saints at home. He gained 31 yards on a fake punt this week in the Vikings’ 21-20 loss to the Broncos on the road.

“He is an exciting player with the ball in his hands,” O’Connell said. “We try to find different ways to get it in his hands throughout the game.”

After watching both players perform over the past couple of weeks, there should be more touches for Chandler, and, in turn, fewer touches for Mattison moving forward.

Though there could be some growing pains along the way with Chandler leading the charge — he missed a blitz pick up on Sunday Night Football, for example, and that led to an interception — he could develop into a gamebreaker given more chances to carry the ball.

“I try to make the most of the opportunity every time I get the ball in my hands,” Chandler said. “Just want to be able to bring that speed to the offense.”

Now it’s on the Vikings to let him.  It’s as simple as that.

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