EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- Dalvin Cook is used to shouldering a heavy workload. As a featured running back at Florida State, Cook averaged 22 carries a game during his junior season and rushed for 1,765 yards.

In the Minnesota Vikings' season opener, Cook again was the workhorse, carrying the ball 22 times for 127 yards and breaking the rushing record for a Vikings player in his debut, a record previously held by Adrian Peterson for 103 yards.

"It was about what I expected," Cook said of his carries. "Coach KP (Vikings running backs coach Kennedy Polamalu) is a guy of rhythm. He told us that whoever has the rhythm, he was going to let them finish it out."

That echoes what Minnesota coach Mike Zimmer said earlier in the week about going "with the hot hand" in the run game.

That concept played into Cook's favor as the running back ripped off bigger gains as the game wore on. Those included a 32-yard run at the beginning of the fourth quarter to set up a touchdown three plays later and a 33-yard dash to the outside as the game was all about over.

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The Vikings' trio of rushers is more versatile than in past years. Latavius Murray was a goal-line threat in his time with the Oakland Raiders, scoring 10 of his 12 touchdowns last season inside the 5-yard line. Murray is the highest paid running back on the roster after signing a three-year, $15 million contract in the offseason.

Jerick McKinnon, too, has demonstrated his ability as a home run threat with his speed, agility and strength at 205 pounds.

Still, given how well he handled his first NFL action, having Cook rush 22 times a game could become a trend.

"He's a really good player so we want him to touch the ball," Vikings offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur said. "It's hard to say, the flow of the game dictates sometimes how things go. We'd certainly like to get Latavius a little bit more work, if we can. You saw there, we have a role for Jerick as well."

Part of the reason Cook was able to stay in the game so long points to his strengths in pass protection. Most notably on at least one occasion, Cook recognized and immediately reacted to a blitz pick up, an area where the running back expected to make contributions right away.

"It’s something that we work on with the O-Line," Cook said. "We spend a lot of time on protections and just stuff that we feel like we need to work on and that’s something we worked on all week, so I was expecting it."

Added Shurmur: "I told him after the game, ‘You're no longer a rookie, you got your first live action in a regular season game.' You can just tell, there's certain players that it's not too big for them. I think he was out there, he was in the flow of the game, he was comfortable with what he was doing. He had production running the ball and doing all the other things. He was struggling with the lights a little bit. I think which affected him catching it, so we've got to work on that."

Cook admittedly said he has work to do in learning how to better track the ball inside to mitigate the glare from the lights and glass ceiling inside U.S. Bank Stadium.

Shurmur, too, has his work cut out for him in trying to balance the roles of Minnesota's rushers, including in the passing game. A glimpse of that was seen with Cook and McKinnon, who each caught three passes against the Saints.

It's another element that could help this offense continue the early momentum it built into another week.

"They all can catch the ball and they're all good in pass protection," Shurmur said. "So, we put one of them in the game and then it's easy as the playcaller. It becomes restrictive as a playcaller when you put a runner out there that can only do one or two of those three things. We're fortunate here that we have a stable of backs that we trust. Then the flow of the game kind of dictates a little bit."