Elation & Frustration
Dalvin Cook’s Amazing Season
It would’ve been easy to give a game ball to Dalvin Cook for Sunday’s performance but for that snag by Kyle Rudolph for a touchdown.
Cook, after all, rushed for 97 yards and scampered for 86 receiving yards and scored one touchdown on the ground against a very tough Dallas Cowboys defense. That’s a total of 183 yards from scrimmage, which made him both the leading rusher and the leading receiver for the Vikings during that game.
And for that performance, Cook earned the NFC Offensive Player of the Week award.
To date, Cook leads the league in rushing and is merely nine yards from reaching 1,000 yards on the season. He has scored 10 touchdowns and is averaging 4.9 yards per rush.
He has caught 40 receptions for 424 yards, averaging 10.6 yards per reception. He is averaging 12.2 yards after catch per reception.
The Star Tribune‘s Ben Goessling points out that Cook is ahead of Adrian Peterson‘s pace for total yards and touchdowns from Peterson’s legendary 2012 season:
With 2,097 rushing yards and 217 receiving yards in 2012, Peterson accounted for 2,314 yards on 388 touches — an average of 5.96 yards per touch. Through 10 games, Cook has 1,415 yards (991 rushing, 424 receiving) on 243 touches, which is an average of 5.82 yards per touch. He’s had 12 more rushing attempts and 19 more touches through 10 games than Peterson did in 2012, and has accounted for 132 more yards, with three more touchdowns and the same number of fumbles.
Dalvin Cook 2019 vs. Adrian Peterson 2012: It’s a fair comparison
It is a delight to watch. And Cook has got to be elated with how his season has turned out so far.
The Maddening Case Of Alexander Mattison
The Vikings struck gold when drafting Alexander Mattison to back up Dalvin Cook and serve as the new Latavius Murray.
The Vikings running game does not miss a beat when Mattison subs in for Cook. He’s not Cook but Mattison has speed, he has power, and he’s really tough to take down.
He’s got vision, he can block and pass protect and he can catch.
Oh, yeah, he can also hurdle.
And he can leap. I mean, really leap!
So far this year, Mattison has picked up 389 yards on 79 rushes for a 4.9 yard average and one touchdown.
But as impressive as Mattison’s season has been so far, it has also been maddeningly frustrating. For fans, and no doubt for him.
As impressive as his performance against Washington was, he had 40 yards negated by penalties. Gah!
He proved can track a ball over the shoulder when he caught one such pass in the end zone against the Chiefs. Unfortunately, it was just out of bounds.
Against the Cowboys, it looked like Mattison had scored his second touchdown of his NFL career, only to have it called inches short.
But it wasn’t just once he was called short of the goal line.
As frustrating as those moments have been, the Vikings are enjoying an embarassment of riches in the backfield, and we haven’t even mentioned C.J. Ham, Ameer Abdullah and Mike Boone.