Cook, Jefferson make NFL history despite Vikings loss

Running back Dalvin Cook and wide receiver Justin Jefferson both had huge games in the Minnesota Vikings’ disappointing 31-30 loss to the Tennessee Titans at U.S. Bank Stadium on Sunday. However, the two of them combined to give the Vikings a distinction that no team in the NFL had ever achieved before, win or loss.

With the performances of those two players today, the Vikings became the first team in NFL history to have a player with 175 rushing yards and a player with 175 receiving yards in the same game, according to Courtney Cronin of ESPN.

Cook finished Sunday’s game with 182 yards on 22 carries, including a 39-yard touchdown run that helped him to atone for a first quarter fumble that led to a Titans field goal. Jefferson, who had just 70 receiving yards in the season’s first two games combined, finished the game with 175 yards and a touchdown on seven receptions. He had just one catch after halftime, but that catch was a spectacular 71-yard touchdown catch and run that extended the Vikings’ lead to 24-12 in the third quarter.

I understand that there’s no such thing as a “moral victory” or anything like that, but given how thoroughly uncompetitive the Vikings’ first two games of the season were, seeing performances like this from a pair of the Vikings’ two young stars gives us at least a little something to be happy about.