10 rapid thoughts on the Vikings win over the Saints in Week 4

More rapid thoughts from Minnesota’s win over New Orleans

Cine’s rookie season possibly over: Near the end of the first quarter, Vikings receiver Jalen Reagor returned a punt for a nice gain of 23 yards. Unfortunately for Minnesota, rookie safety Lewis Cine suffered a possible season-ending injury on the return.

While attempting to help block on the return team, Cine’s left ankle got caught in the turf and appeared to break or dislocate. The rookie was carted off the field and transported to a local hospital for further evaluation. Cine’s rookie year is likely over, but hopefully he can make a full recovery from what looked like a devastating injury.

Cook probably could have sat out: After leaving last week’s game with a shoulder injury, Vikings running back Dalvin Cook toughed it out on Sunday and suited up for the purple and gold.

Judging by his performance against the Saints though, Minnesota probably could have afforded to allow Cook to rest his shoulder this week as the Vikings running back only rushed for 76 yards on 20 carries (3.8 average). He wasn’t exactly a difference-maker for Minnesota this week.

Joseph gets back on track (kind of): Against the Detroit Lions last weekend, we saw Vikings kicker Greg Joseph miss his first two field-goal attempts of the year. In London on Sunday, Joseph bounced back by making all five of his field-goal tries and one of his two extra-point attempts.

The missed extra point could have been costly, but he made up for that when he converted a go-ahead field-goal attempt from 49 yards away.

Hunter goes sackless again: Heading into the season, many were expecting Danielle Hunter and Za’Darius Smith to emerge as one of the best pass-rushing duos in the NFL. So far, Smith is the only one who appears to be generating consistent pressure each week.

Hunter has had some bright spots, but he hasn’t had a sack since Week 1, and this is at least something to keep an eye on for the next few weeks to see if Minnesota can get him back to bringing down opposing quarterbacks at a more frequent rate.