Dalvin the Maestro
Dalvin Cook authors masterpiece performance in Minnesota Vikings' victory over Detroit Lions
MINNEAPOLIS -- Dalvin Cook overtook the NFL's rushing lead and put together another career day in the Minnesota Vikings' 34-20 win over the Detroit Lions.
The day held special meaning for the fourth-year running back to do it in front of a future Hall of Famer and the player he replaced in Minnesota after he was drafted in the second round in 2017.
With Adrian Peterson on hand, Cook rushed for 206 yards -- a career high -- and two touchdowns on 22 carries and caught two passes for 46 yards, setting a personal best for scrimmage yards with 252. Cook reached his previous career high (226 yards) last week in a win over Green Bay.
"It means a lot to me," Cook said of having Peterson present on his milestone day. "A guy that has done it before me and was in the same shoes I was in, just a few years ago. It means a lot. When I got drafted, I really didn't know what I was getting myself into. I thought I was going to be a guy that just came in and played behind Adrian. But they drafted me to come play right away, and I had to be ready. I was just a kid; didn't know. Just to be playing on the field with Adrian, it's always a blessing for me to soak that up, every time."
Last week, Peterson called Cook "a lethal weapon," a compliment the Vikings' star has embodied in back-to-back wins for a Minnesota team (3-5) that is suddenly inching closer to being in the hunt for one of the last playoff spots in the NFC.
"Lethal weapon, yeah that made me feel great," Cook said. "Like I said, I can't say enough about him. We can sit here and I can tell you so much about him, how I feel about him. I'm just, if he hear this or he don't, I'm just glad that I got a chance to watch him growing up as a young kid. To see that, it was something special for me. He don't know how he impacted my career as far as a running back. I appreciate him for everything. Just for being my big brother for anything. All Day, just keep doing you, man, and I appreciate it."
Despite having missed 1½ games after injuring his groin in Seattle in Week 5, Cook now leads the NFL in rushing with 858 yards and a league-best 10 rushing TDs. In his past two games, the running back has amassed 478 scrimmage yards and six total TDs, the fourth player ever to reach that feat in a two-game span.
Cook's performance in Week 9 was filled with plenty of highlight-reel plays. Some, like the 70-yard touchdown run he broke off in the fourth quarter, held noteworthy statistical value. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, the expected rushing yards on that TD was 7 yards, meaning Cook had 63 rushing yards over expectation. It's the fourth time this season in which the Vikings' back has posted at least 30 rushing yards over expected on an attempt this season. As it stands, no player has more than two such runs this season (Miles Sanders and Sony Michel each have two).
"I think the most impressive run for me, among several, was the flip," quarterback Kirk Cousins said. "We pitched it out to him late in the game with a corner blitz. And he made the corner miss and was able to dart up the field for a big gain. That play was not looking good with that corner blitz. But when you have a great player like that that can make somebody miss, it turned into a big gain and that says a lot about Dalvin and his ability."
Others won't show up on the stat sheet but held equal importance to the success of the Vikings' offense. On Irv Smith's second touchdown, Cook picked up a critical block as the tight end came across the formation to give Cousins the space to find Smith in front of the end zone.
"Dalvin is a terrific player because it doesn't matter to him," coach Mike Zimmer said. "Obviously he wants to get 200 yards every week but he's going to do all the dirty work ... he's going to do everything. That's why he's a captain. That's why he comes to work every single day. He's a terrific leader, he's energetic and guys in the locker room really love him."
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/30281550/dalvin-cook-authors-masterpiece-performance-minnesota-vikings-victory-detroit-lions
Hurry-up Vikings, we ain't getting any younger!
The Vikings need to win a few more games quickly to get Dalvin Cook into the MVP conversation.
@"Carl Knowles" said: The Vikings need to win a few more games quickly to get Dalvin Cook into the MVP conversation.Well Dalvin better run all year because we’re stuck with Cousins now.
RS found Cook, traded up to draft him, he develops in the Vikings system and then the Vikings resign cook for r less than kamara or McCaffrey.
It's hard to poke any holes in anything the Vikings have done around cook.
The dude can just play. .
Over his past four full games, Cook has produced 821 yards from scrimmage and nine touchdowns
I was honestly laughing at the 13 yard pitch play that should have been a 5 yard loss. He made the two Detroit defenders look like they shouldn't be in the NFL. He's unbelievable in the open field and it's so much fun to watch.
@"purplefaithful" said: Over his past four full games, Cook has produced 821 yards from scrimmage and nine touchdowns...and some here didn't want to pay him. He's everything to this team and the best RB in the NFL.
@"StickyBun" said:He's going to be even more important tomorrow. When Cousins is outta here and we have some freakish, athletically gifted QB who's about 24 years old starting for the purple.@"purplefaithful" said: Over his past four full games, Cook has produced 821 yards from scrimmage and nine touchdowns ...and some here didn't want to pay him. He's everything to this team and the best RB in the NFL.
@"purplefaithful" said:@"StickyBun" said:He's going to be even more important tomorrow. When Cousins is outta here and we have some freakish, athletically gifted QB who's about 24 years old starting for the purple.@"purplefaithful" said: Over his past four full games, Cook has produced 821 yards from scrimmage and nine touchdowns ...and some here didn't want to pay him. He's everything to this team and the best RB in the NFL.
?
@"purplefaithful" said:@"StickyBun" said:He's going to be even more important tomorrow. When Cousins is outta here and we have some freakish, athletically gifted QB who's about 24 years old starting for the purple.@"purplefaithful" said: Over his past four full games, Cook has produced 821 yards from scrimmage and nine touchdowns ...and some here didn't want to pay him. He's everything to this team and the best RB in the NFL.
I had a sort of gloomy feeling this weekend about the outlook of so many young QBs. Sure, Mahomes look unstoppable, but Philly is about ready to run Wentz out on a rail. Goff has regressed. Lamar Jackson is playing well, but I'm not sure Deshaun Watson is everything we thought he'd be a couple years ago. Kyler is promising but probably limited to one kind of offense.Of the QBs taken last year, Tua and Burrow look promising, but the one who might look the best was the 3rd one taken. Justin Hebert.
All this to say odds are about two of the top four QBs taken in the next draft probably won't be the QB they were expected to be. And missing on the first couple doesn't necessarily mean we're missing on the best pro QB.
But then I could be just trying to make myself feel better about picking later...
lets all take a moment and thank the Lions for passing on Tua...
@"purplefaithful" said: lets all take a moment and thank the Lions for passing on Tua......and taking Jeff Okudah, who might be the worst performing 1st rounder so far this year.
Viking fans should also be thankful we've been able to watch three of the most explosive offensive talents of the last couple decades in Cook, Peterson and Moss.
People who were disappointed with Dalvin Cooks grade last week should be happy to know...
— PFF MIN Vikings (@PFF_Vikings) November 9, 2020
Dalvin Cook’s 91.2 PFF grade through 9 weeks is the highest for a RB through 9 weeks since Adrian Peterson’s 92.3 in 2007 🐐 #SKOL pic.twitter.com/7uAd4IgSfi
All that talk about Vikings not signing Dalvin Cook sounds silly nowA strong case can be made that Cook is the best all-around running back in the NFL. That's why the Vikings signed him to a big contract before the season started despite his injury history.
Don’t pay him. Call his bluff. Trade him, if possible, because running backs are basically interchangeable.
One didn’t need to search hard to find those sentiments being said about Dalvin Cook in August when his contract negotiations with the Vikings had reached an impasse.
Seems silly now, eh?
Cook’s price tag has been shoved deep into the background, at least until he limps off the field again, if that unfortunate time comes. Then you know darn well how the narrative will shift. See, that’s why you shouldn’t pay a running back big money.
Sorry, it cannot be both ways.
A strong case can be made that Cook is the best all-around running back in the NFL. He’s one of the most dynamic players in the league. He makes defenders look like their arms are covered in Crisco. His hop-on-my-back performances the past two games are reminiscent of Adrian Peterson’s MVP dominance.
This is why the Vikings paid Cook big money. This is why they built their offense around him. This is why the organization embraced a contrarian philosophy and invested heavily in a running back with an injury history at a time when the NFL practically mandates an opposite approach.
Yep, the Vikings made the right call.
Cook has been nothing short of brilliant in resurrecting hope for this season. He leads the NFL in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns and a bunch of fancy rushing metrics.
He looks like a force of nature in the way he is running the ball, slicing and dicing defenses with bursts of speed, power and elusiveness.
His 70-yard touchdown run put Sunday’s win over Detroit on ice and earned a spot on the TV highlight packages, but it was Cook’s next carry that had me watching over and over.
Cook took a pitch from Cousins 7 yards behind the line. A Lions defender was right there in position to drill him. Cook somehow managed to keep his eye on the ball with a guy bearing down on him, then catch it, sidestep the tackle and turn a big loss into a 13-yard gain.
That’s a special athletic gift.
Cook made it look effortless. He does that a lot. He looks like he’s playing the game at a faster speed than everyone else.
At some point, odds are, he will get injured again. The decision to sign him to a five-year, $63 million contract will still be the right call. He is their best and most important offensive player by a mile. Why wouldn’t the team value and reward him as such?
The running back position has been devalued in the modern NFL but that doesn’t mean the Vikings overpaid Cook or were foolish to commit that kind of money to his position. If anything, they made financial miscalculations on Kirk Cousins and a few others.
The arguments against Mike Zimmer’s desired template are well-established: It’s a passing league. Quarterbacks should be the focal point of the operation, not running backs. But that’s a conversation about Cousins’ aptitude and organizational decision to extend him, rather than Cook’s value.
Can a team in today’s NFL win a championship employing a throwback blueprint? That depends on many factors.
Is the quarterback capable of performing at a championship level if/when the defense stops the run? Is the offensive line a strength or liability? Is the defense fortified enough to hold up its end of the deal?
The Vikings didn’t set a new market for the running back position when extending Cook. They found reasonable compromise given his injury history.
Concerns about durability always will be there, especially with Cook’s hefty workload, but injury risk is true of any position and any high-priced contract handed out. It was notable that Cook slipped out of bounds at the end of a few runs Sunday rather than put himself in position to absorb unnecessary contact. Smart.
The Vikings offense is functioning exactly how Zimmer wants it, with Cook as the centerpiece. This era of football frowns upon that approach, but the Vikings have a unique talent in the backfield, they paid him accordingly and he’s performing at a historically high level.
It’s hard to argue with that.
https://www.startribune.com/all-that-talk-about-vikings-not-signing-dalvin-cook-sounds-silly-now/573023711/
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