MIAMI GARDENS, FLA. – The Vikings spent all week worrying about the heat, but early in the fourth quarter in the air fryer known as Hard Rock Stadium, Dalvin Cook seemed to have barely broken a sweat.
Playing in his hometown for the first time as an NFL running back, he had carried nine times, for only 17 yards. The Vikings offense had produced only 16 points, squandering excellent field position and making only a few big plays.
Now Cook was taking a handoff late in the fourth quarter, with the Vikings holding a six-point lead, and a few steps later he was behind the defense and running for a 53-yard touchdown.
That play gave the Vikings a two-score lead in a game they won 24-16.
The star back who preceded Cook in the Vikings offense, Adrian Peterson, called days like this "famine, famine, feast."
"That's what he used to say?" Cook said in the locker room after the game. "I don't really have a saying, but I tell myself to be patient. I look up at the scoreboard and say that if we're winning, we're good. Everything has to come back to the backfield."
Cook grew up in Miami and is now 5-0 lifetime at the field now known as Hard Rock Stadium. He said he first played a game there when he was 10, and he estimated having 60 family members and friends in the stands.
After he scored, he launched the ball into the stands. Odds are, someone he knows caught it.
Between his friends and the many Vikings fans in the stands, "it felt like a home game," Cook said.
The Dolphins held Cook to 24 yards on 12 of his carries. He gained 53 on the other. Asked what popped him loose on the decisive run, Cook shrugged.
"A lot of people would probably be lying if they told you they knew what happened on a play like that," Cook said. "My O-line opened it up and C.J. came through to clean everything else up."
C.J. is fullback C.J. Ham. He lined up behind the left tackle, which is where Cook ran. As on so many other running plays on Sunday, the Dolphins surrounded Cook. This time, though, he easily burst through them.
For anyone accustomed to Cook's workload and production under former coach Mike Zimmer, this season might be considered a statistical disappointment.
He hasn't rushed for 100 yards in a game. He has caught only 12 passes for 80 yards in six games.
This, though, is what should have been expected in new coach Kevin O'Connell's offense, which wants to use the run to balance the offense and probe for weaknesses rather than to simply bludgeon defenses.
Since rushing just six times for 17 yards in the Week 2 loss at Philadelphia, Cook has rushed for 96, 76, 94 and 77 yards, scoring four touchdowns.
"The defense is still giving us a chance to go out and compete," Cook said. "Salute to the defense for giving us a chance to go and win the game."
