With Cook's season over, Vikings look how to make up for loss

[purplefaithful]

The Vikings’ fears about Dalvin Cook’s left knee were confirmed Monday morning, when a MRI showed the rookie running back tore his anterior cruciate ligament in the third quarter of Sunday’s game against the Detroit Lions. He will miss the remainder of the season.
Coach Mike Zimmer said Cook will have surgery once the swelling in his knee subsides, and added the running back has additional damage to his knee typically associated with torn ACLs.
“Like most of these ACLs, there’s a little bit of cartilage; I think a meniscus,” Zimmer said. “It’s a normal, typical ACL.”


“He’s a great kid. I’m extremely impressed with what he’s done to this point,” Zimmer said. “It’s obviously a terrible thing for him and for us but we’ll move forward and go from there. But he’s a great worker, and I have no doubt that he’ll come back from this.”
Cook had run for 66 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries Sunday. His 354 yards in the first four games of his career were the second most in Vikings history, behind only Adrian Peterson’s 383.
It is Peterson’s example that the rookie will now look to follow.
http://www.startribune.com/with-dalvin-c...449078473/

[Guest]

In the short-term, however, the biggest thing the Vikings might miss about Cook is the number of big plays he made in such a short time. He was tied for second in the league with four runs of 20 yards or more — after the Vikings had only six all of last season — and posted another 36-yard gain on a reception.
“Dalvin had unbelievable big-play ability in a lot of different ways,” Zimmer said. “We are going to have to continue to look for more ways to implement some big plays in the offense, probably.”

[Guest]

Zimmer, your teams are 22/3 when your offense scores more than 21 pts...

Good luck...

[Guest]

If the Vikes had that "franchise" QB, it wouldn't matter what we had for RBs.  Does anyone even know who the RBs are for the Pats and Packers?

I thought now that AD is gone, the leadership role comes from the QB?  Looks like Cook was the new leader, and now that's gone too.

[Guest]

@"HappyViking" said:
If the Vikes had that "franchise" QB, it wouldn't matter what we had for RBs.  Does anyone even know who the RBs are for the Pats and Packers?

I thought now that AD is gone, the leadership role comes from the QB?  Looks like Cook was the new leader, and now that's gone too.

In fairness Cook was only being leaned on in absence of Bradford.  Lots of teams need role players to step up when their starting QB goes down.