Cook Goes Distance on Career Long TD Run, But Vikings Fall Short of Goal

[Viktor]

Throughout the game, penalties played a factor for Minnesota.


Late in the second quarter and after a 61-yard catch-and-run by receiver Chad Beebe, Cousins found Stefon Diggs for a 3-yard touchdown. The score was nullified, however, when Cook was flagged for offensive pass interference.


The Vikings were unable to get back into the end zone on the drive and instead settled for a 31-yard field goal by Dan Bailey.


Following the game, Cook said he was unable to respond to a question about the penalty.


“I don’t know. I can’t tell you. I didn’t even know it was on me, to be real,” Cook said. “I don’t know.”


Diggs shared his perspective on the play:


“On the replay I saw he got pushed initially, and he made contact with the second defender. I ain’t the ref, and I don’t call the flags. I have to look at the rulebook. They didn’t say [anything]. We just have to eat it.”


Pass interference on the offense or defense is reviewable — and addable even if it is not called on the field because of a rule change this year.


NFL Senior Vice President of Officiating Al Riverson said in a pool report that the review was automatically done because it was a scoring play.


“After we looked at the play, we saw clear and obvious visual evidence that No. 33 significantly hinders the opponent while the ball is still in the air,” Riveron said. “Therefore, we negate the score and call offensive pass interference here from New York and penalize them 10 yards.”


Cook later added that it’s imperative to “clean up the little things” this week in practice heading into next Sunday’s home game against Oakland.


“Penalties hurt us a lot today. Just self-inflicted wounds that hurt us today,” Cook said. “When you come into an environment like this, you’ve gotta limit those things. We didn’t limit them as much as we should. That’s the thing – we have to go back and look ourselves in the mirror and say, ‘We have to clean those things up.’ I think this week in practice, we should emphasize that a lot on the offensive side.”