Dalvin Cook took the first-down handoff for Minnesota, sized up t

EAGAN Replica Armon Watts Jersey , Minn. (AP) —he blocking at the line and veered hard to his left.Miami cornerback Bobby McCain had the angle on him, but Cook won the race to the edge and accelerated up the sideline to reach the end zone untouched for the Vikings on their merry way to a 41-17 victory over the Dolphins .That 13-yard touchdown run during a 21-point first quarter was a fitting snapshot of a performance by the offense that was as smooth as it’s been all season. That play was called to the same side of the field six days earlier in a 21-7 loss at Seattle, when the Vikings were as flat as they’ve been all year in trying to move the ball.Against the Seahawks, naturally, the unblocked cornerback tackled Cook for a short gain. Quarterback Kirk Cousins promised Cook on the sideline that night the next time he had the opportunity he’d beat the defender to the perimeter and turn it into a big play.Sure enough, that’s what transpired against the Dolphins, when Cousins looked at Cook in the huddle and said simply, “Make him miss.”The margin between winning and losing in the NFL can be so slim that sometimes for no significant reason a play can be thwarted one week and thrive the next. Cousins has been vocal since the change about his insistence that the struggles were not a product of bad play calls but rather the fault of the players.“We’ve got to make the coaches right,” Cousins said.Still, there was a clear boost the Vikings gained from a fresh start under interim offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski after the firing of John DeFilippo . The shift in venue to another capacity crowd at U.S. Bank Stadium was the biggest help, and facing a Dolphins defense with many deficiencies instead of the Seahawks was a welcomed alternative.With Stefanski calling the plays on Sunday for the first time, there was a concerted effort to follow a streamlined, simplified game plan after the Vikings were held under 285 total yards in Seattle for the fourth time in a five-game stretch. They called 40 runs to 23 passes Stitched Armon Watts Jersey , by far their biggest favor of the ground game of the season.Coach Mike Zimmer, who’d been critical of DeFilippo last month for what he termed “too much volume” in the playbook from week to week, saw some negative effect that had on Cousins. He told his quarterback last week to remember what playing in the backyard in seventh grade felt like.“You don’t run plays. You just play the game,” Zimmer said. “I think that’s what he needs to do, just play the game and let it unfold.”Stefanski simply used more players, too. Fullback C.J. Ham had 18 snaps, and backup tight ends David Morgan and Tyler Conklin had 23 snaps apiece. Ham and Morgan, who returned from a four-game absence because of a knee injury, had the key blocks to give Cook his chance to beat the cornerback one-on-one on his first touchdown.The offensive linemen, too, were at their best in a season that has been a struggle at times for the Vikings up front. Zimmer made the players report for meetings on Monday instead of the typical day off after a late-in-the-year victory, citing a desire to give the offensive linemen an opportunity to enjoy reviewing their performance.“What we are able of accomplishing when we do the right things,” Zimmer said.The bigger-picture reason, of course Armon Watts Minnesota Vikings Jerseys , to stay at work is the NFC wild-card race. Philadelphia and Washington both won to stay on the heels of the Vikings (7-6-1), who could clinch their spot as soon as next weekend, but could also find themselves eliminated if they don’t win their final two games. Keeping that rushing attack going will go a long way toward avoiding that fate.“These guys believe in me 100 percent, and I believe in them 100 percent,” Cook said of his blockers. “So when you’ve got a group like that, it’s a number of positive outcomes. We know what we can do.” General manager Rick Spielman made his first trade of the 2019 NFL draft Friday night and made three consecutive trades minutes later, moving down four times in the third round.In the end, the Minnesota Vikings used the final pick of the third round (No. 102 overall) to select former Boise State running back Alexander Mattison, while picking up a flurry of Day 3 selections in the process.More Vikings NFL Draft coverageHow NFL draft affected Vikings’ 2019 opponentsMinnesota Vikings 2019 NFL Draft gradesMinnesota Vikings 2019 NFL draft capsulesVikings take fliers on CB Boyd, WR Mitchell, WR Johnson, LS Cutting in seventh roundVikings use sixth round to draft DT Watts, S Epps, OT UdohVikings draft USC linebacker Cameron Smith in fifth roundVikings trade up in fourth round Minnesota Vikings Jerseys Stitched , draft guard Dru SamiaVikings trade down four times, use third-round pick to select RB MattisonPotential Vikings Day 2 picks in 2019 NFL draftVikings select C Garrett Bradbury with 18th overall pick in 2019 NFL draftFrom 2016-18, Mattison rushed 581 times for 2,829 yards and 33 touchdowns. He became the first Boise State player to win the Mountain West rushing title last season with 1,415 yards, posting 100+ yards in six of 13 games, and ranked seventh in the nation with 17 touchdowns. Mattison averaged 4.9 yards per carry in his collegiate career.At 5-foot-11 and 211 pounds, Mattison can also catch the ball out of the backfield. He tallied 60 receptions for 511 yards and one score in college.Mattison joins Vikings running backs Dalvin Cook, Mike Boone, Roc Thomas and Ameer Abdullah on the roster.Spielman originally traded the Vikings’ third-round pick (No. 81 overall) for Detroit’s third-rounder (No. 88) and a sixth-rounder (No. 204).He then packaged that third-round pick (No. 88) and a sixth-rounder (No. 209) for Seattle’s slot at No. 92 overall and a fifth-round pick (No. 159).Hungry for another trade, Spielman traded out of No. 92 and move down a spot to 93rd, picking up a seventh-round pick (No. 217) from the New York Jets. And to finish off the night, he sent the No. 93 pick to Baltimore in exchange for No. 102, used to draft Mattison Armon Watts Jersey nfl draft , as well as two sixth-round selections (No. 191, No. 193).Through three rounds of the NFL draft, the Vikings have selected three players — center Garrett Bradbury (18th overall) tight end Irv Smith Jr. (second round) and Mattison.Barring more trades, the Vikings own nine picks heading into Day 3: a fourth-rounder (No. 120), a fifth-rounder (No. 159), four sixth-round picks (No. 190, No. 191, No. 193, No. 204) and three in the seventh (No. 217, No. 247, No. 250).Day 3 of the NFL draft begins Saturday at 11 a.m.