Dalvin Cook Beats Out Kirk Cousins for NFC Offensive Player of the Month
Dalvin Cook is the NFC Offensive Player of the Month for November, the NFL announced on Friday morning. It's the first OPOM award for Cook, who is having a career year in his fourth season.
Cook opened the month by winning consecutive NFC Offensive Player of the Week awards, becoming the first person to do that since Todd Gurley in 2017 and the first Viking since Randy Moss in 1998. They were well-deserved, as he racked up 226 yards from scrimmage and four touchdowns against the Packers and followed it up with 252 yards and two scores against the Lions. Cook almost singlehandedly led the Vikings to a pair of season-saving victories in those two games.
He also went over 100 yards from scrimmage against the Bears and Cowboys, but the Panthers held him to his quietest game since Week 2 last week. In total, Cook put up 832 yards from scrimmage in November as the Vikings went 4-1. That's 226 more yards than the next-closest player, Tennessee's Derrick Henry.
Cook has established himself as arguably the best running back in the NFL with his dual-threat and big-play abilities. He's been dominant in Gary Kubiak's offense, using his vision and agility to shred opposing defenses. Cook also rarely goes down at first contact, leading the NFL in missed tackles forced.
It's also worth commending him for playing through some pain in November. He handled 144 touches during the month, with Henry (117) being the only other player to break 100. Cook has taken a beating this year and has taken some particularly big shots in recent weeks, but he's still producing at a high level.
"Nah, I don’t know what that is," Cook said when asked if he was worried about wearing down with such a big weekly workload. "Wear down. What is that? I’m a running back just like everybody else. I don’t think that’s a question you’d ask Derrick Henry or anybody else. I’m a running back. Ain’t no wear down. I’m ready to tote the ball. It’s football."
While there's no way of knowing who would've won NFC OPOM in November if it wasn't Cook, it's not hard to imagine that his primary competition was actually his own quarterback. Kirk Cousins had a fantastic month of his own, throwing for 1300 yards on a 72.4 completion percentage with 12 touchdowns and just one interception (which bounced off Adam Thielen's chest). He led the NFL with a 124.3 passer rating in the month and led all NFC QBs in yards per attempt.
Cousins was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week for his standout performance against the Panthers, which included a clutch game-winning touchdown drive. Between Cook and Cousins, the Vikings claimed three of the five OPOW awards in November.
That duo helped the Vikings resurrect a 1-5 season by going 4-1 in November. If they can finish 4-1 in the final five games as well, this team might just sneak into the playoffs.
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