Dalvin Cook‘s injury comes at a time when the Minnesota Vikings don’t have the luxury of sitting back and waiting. The Vikings are in the thick of the NFC wild-card race. If the playoffs were to begin today, they’d be watching from home.
What they have working for them is an offense that is still plenty explosive, even without Cook for the short term. Given who’s on the schedule and what the Vikings do well, they’d be wise to unleash Kirk Cousins even more without Cook in the lineup.
Cook has already missed two games this year, and Alexander Mattison filled in admirably. One of those games was against the Detroit Lions, who the Vikings play on Sunday. Minnesota fed Mattison early and often in that game. He delivered, rushing for 113 yards on 25 carries. However, a late rally by the Lions had the Vikings relying on a 54-yard Greg Joseph field goal as time expired to capture the win.
Things should be different this time around.
Detroit has taken a super-conservative approach offensively since Dan Campbell assumed play-calling duties in the middle of November. Minnesota has Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen, while the Lions’ secondary has been a revolving door for most of the year.
Cousins is in the midst of one of his best seasons as a starter. Minnesota needs to put more trust in him with Cook out. The Vikings have a dynamic passing game, one that they should be able to lean on in these circumstances.
It’s not a knock against Mattison. The easy suggestion is to lay low, play it slow, and feed him 25 times against the Lions — again. But that plan barely worked the first time around. If the Vikings want to be taken seriously in the NFC, now is the time to show the rest of the league that they fully trust Cousins. There’s no better opponent to face when you’re trying to rally your roster.
Detroit has had their chances to win games this year, but these are two different teams than the first time they met. While Jared Goff has had the reigns pulled tighter as Campbell becomes more infatuated with running the ball on third down, the Vikings have finally started to get the ball to Jefferson and Thielen consistently.
While the Vikings are only a seven-point favorite, there’s still a sense that a lot would have to go south for Minnesota to lose this game. Therefore, it may make it more tempting to go with a conservative approach. But if Kubiak and Zimmer don’t trust Cousins now, how can they be expected to in the playoffs when it will be a necessity? This Sunday should be the litmus test.
The Lions are bad against the run and bad defending the pass. In other words, Minnesota should be able to pick and choose how they want to attack Detroit’s defense. The Lions haven’t been quite as awful as that may sound, but they are a winless team that’s had one lapse after another facing a Vikings offense that has been rolling lately.
Minnesota can go to Detroit on Sunday and have Cousins hand it to Mattison 100 times, and they’d probably win. That won’t help this team grow, however. It won’t have them posing a threat come the postseason. Continuing to build confidence in the passing game while keeping Jefferson and Thielen satisfied is the path to explore with Cook out. It just so happens that the schedule is set up perfectly to do so.
Cousins has been brilliant for the Vikings this year. With Dalvin Cook out for at least a couple of games, it’s time for Minnesota to go all-in on the passing game.
