Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Howard Lake, Lester Prairie, Winsted, Watertown, Mayer, New Germany, Waverly, MN and the surrounding area

MVP Effort Saves Vikings


Just a few short weeks ago, the Minnesota Vikings season seemed dead in the water. Coming off an embarrassing loss to the Atlanta Falcons, all hope seemed lost (rightly so I might add). With a matchup with the division leading Green Bay Packers, the season was hanging in the balance.

What Vikings fans didn’t see coming was Dalvin Cook’s MVP campaign. Against the Packers awful run defense, Cook ran the ball 30 times and mustered up 163 yards and three touchdowns. Cook wasn’t done, as he was the leading receiver on the team as well, turning two catches into 63 yards and a touchdown in a 28-22 win.

An encore to that performance was going to be tough to do… unless you are Dalvin Cook. Cook ran for 206 yards, only the third Viking to do so (Adrian Peterson a NFL record six times and Chuck Foreman once), on only 22 carries. That is a 9.4 yards per carry if you were struggling with the math. Dalvin also notched two touchdowns as well as another 46 yards through the air in the dominating 34-20 win over the Detroit Lions.

Again, if you struggle with math, let me help you out. In the past two games, Cook has logged 52 carries, 369 rushing yards, 109 receiving yards and six touchdowns. Not too shabby.

For some perspective, Cook leads the NFL with 858 rushing yards, despite missing a game. Cook also leads the NFL in rushing touchdowns with 12 on the season. If you are currently thinking to yourself “12 rushing touchdowns in 7 games seems like a lot of touchdowns,” you’d be correct. That pace of 24 touchdowns would be tied for the 5th most all time in a single season.

Quarterbacks tend to throw for more touchdowns than running backs are able to rush. That is the simple nature of football. However, Cook currently has more total touchdowns (13) than the following starting quarterbacks on the season: Daniel Jones (8), Cam Newton (10), Phillip Rivers (10), Nick Foles (11) and the same as fan favorite Teddy Bridgewater (13). If that doesn’t stop you in your tracks, I’m not sure what will.

Being 3-5 certainly isn’t anything to write home about. However, when looking at the remaining schedule, it’s difficult not to let a little optimism creep in. First, the Vikings are favored by 2.5 points at Chicago this Monday night. While the Bears offense is downright terrible, their defense is phenomenal and the Vikings never win in primetime against the Bears.

However, if they can sneak away with a victory, the Vikings are going to be favored in the next three matchups with the Cowboys, Panthers and Jaguars.

Fun fact time; the next four opponents for the Vikings have lost their past 18 games, carrying losing streaks of 3, 4, 4 and 7. It isn’t unrealistic to say that Minnesota can (and quite honestly should) go 4-0 and get to a 7-5 record.

The last four weeks include difficult matchups with the Buccaneers and Saints as well as rematches with the Bears and Lions. If you want to chalk them up for 2-2 in that stretch, Minnesota has a reasonably clear path to 9-7. Heck, you can even throw a mishap game into the mix to finish 8-8 and Minnesota still has a great shot at the playoffs.

With seven teams qualifying this year, a .500 record likely is going to be good enough to grab that 7th seed. Dalvin Cook should absolutely be in the MVP conversation, especially if Minnesota has a strong second half and pushes for a playoff spot the way we expect them to.

In a season that seemed all but lost, Dalvin Cook swooped in to save the day with one of the most impressive two game stretches in NFL history. It seems unlikely that Cook can continue this historic pace, but even 80% should be good enough to keep the ship righted and to make a legitimate playoff push.

 

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