Dalvin Cook: Week of controversy “brought us together more”

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A week of adversity and dysfunction could have ripped the Vikings apart. It didn’t.

Running back Dalvin Cook, who quietly (if that’s possible) had 218 yards from scrimmage in Sunday’s 28-the-hard-way-10 win over the Giants, told PFT that the questions, the scrutiny, and the criticism “brought us together more.”

“Guys rallied around each other,” Cook added. He said it wasn’t any one person who took the lead, but that it was a “total effort” and the entire team “went to work.”

“We all knew it,” he said about the issues that emerged this week. “You can’t run from the noise.”

Nothing changed, Cook said regarding the playcalling or the offensive approach. And he downplayed the notion that players became frustrated with reduced opportunities in the passing game as natural and normal. Regarding Stefon Diggs, for example, Cook chuckled.

“That’s the same Stefon,” Cook said, emphasizing the Diggs has always been that way.

And now the challenge is to continue to move forward, with a 3-2 record and two of the next three games at home.

“Let’s build,” Cook said. “Clean things up and get things together and let’s go.”