Vikings vs Cowboys: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Yes, this is late. With the game not ending until late last night, at least late for us early morning people, I am finally getting around to this.

Sunday nights Vikings/Cowboys game was a very big game for our beloved purple. With the Packers winning, we needed this win. It was also a game that when you looked at the schedule before the season started and you do the whole win/loss thing, there was a good chance you put this game down as a loss.

There's also a good chance you thought they might lose given what just happened the week before in a Patrick Mahomes-less Kansas City game. I know I did. And for thinking that, I got some "how could you" and "I thought you were a fan" speak from some of my co-workers (who will remain nameless).

But then again they're the kind of fans that "root, root, root for the home team" but hardly ever watch the games or have any emotional investment in them. But I digress.

Sunday nights game was awesome and unexpected. There was all the Cousins can't win in prime time, Thielen is out again, were playing against Dak and Zeke and it's in Dallas talk. The Vikings ignored all that, played well and that leads to this week's The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.

THE GOOD:

Dalvin Cook (again): I feel like this is a broken record, playing the same song over and over again. But in this case, it's the best song in the world and I will never get sick of it. His 97 rushing yards with a touchdown and 86 receiving yards is the reason he is not only the best running back this year but a MVP candidate as well. And he's so fast!

Kyle Rudolph: He hasn't been involved in the offense as much as he is used to being but with players like Cook, Thielen and Diggs, it's not surprising. The veteran tight end has embraced his role this season and doing what he can to help. Well tonight he was involved big time, catching two touchdowns with one of those being an amazing catch for the first TD of the game.

Defensive Front Seven: Much like the Cowboys, the defense was focused on stopping the running back. Unlike the Cowboys, they did. Holding Zeke to only 47 rushing yards. They also got good pressure on Dak Prescott.

Kirk Cousins:  While normally a 220 yard, 2 touchdown performance wouldn't make the good list, Cousins does. He was efficient, didn't turn the ball over and exercised the prime time demon...at least for now.

Offensive Line/Play calling: Good protection and good play calling. The screen passes to Cook worked so well again this week.

THE BAD:

The Secondary: It's a little difficult to put them on this list. They had some good series where they stopped drives. Hughes had some issues for sure and was beat quite a few times. The defense was focused on stopping the run and bringing the pressure. But when they did that, the DB's played man to man and that only lasts so long if you can't bring down the quarterback.

THE UGLY: 

This is unusual but I got nothing. There really was nothing that was ugly from that game.