Dalvin Cook says he could have re-entered Monday’s game if needed

The Minnesota Vikings top running back went down with a chest injury midway through the third quarter on Monday night that knocked him out of the game.

During the team’s first 12 games of the season, Dalvin Cook has proven to be an extremely important part of the Minnesota Vikings and their success this year. Having Cook out on the field just makes the Vikings’ offense so much more dangerous.

Unfortunately, a chest injury forced the talented running back to miss most of the second half of Minnesota’s Week 13 matchup with the Seattle Seahawks on Monday night.

The Vikings were still able to put points up on the board after Cook was knocked out of the game. But his absence certainly made things harder for Minnesota when they were attempting to erase a 17-point deficit in Seattle.

After the Vikings’ loss on Monday, Cook spoke with reporters and said that he’ll be ready to play for the team’s Week 14 matchup against the Detroit Lions next Sunday. The Minnesota running back also said that he could have re-entered the game against the Seahawks, but he was kept out for precautionary reasons.

It sounds like the decision to keep Cook out after his injury was likely made by the coaching staff and not the running back. Even though the Vikings were trailing by just three points shortly after he left the field, the team clearly felt that keeping Cook healthy for the rest of the season was more important than him potentially aggravating his injury even more on Monday.

Is keeping their top running back out of action for most of the second half in Seattle a choice that could come back to haunt Minnesota later in the year? Possibly, but the Vikings would be facing a thousand-times more criticism if Cook’s injury was made even worse by staying out on the field and he was forced to miss some time during the final few weeks of the season.

Losing to the Seahawks on Monday is disappointing, but it sounds like Minnesota should have their top running back ready to return for Week 14 and hopefully for the remainder of the year as well.