[linchao]

This season, his responsibilities have reached a new high.That starts at home, where he and his fiancée brought home a baby boy named Major last month. The Sheldon Richardson Jersey extra burden has extended to Minnesota’s backfield, where Murray has started three of the past four games for the injured Dalvin Cook. Last week, Murray rushed for a career-best 155 yards to help the Vikings beat Arizona .“I try not to get caught up in whether I’m the number one or the number two,” he said. “I have to be me, and any opportunities I get I’ve got to do my best.”Murray has long applied this wisdom beyond the game, a sixth-year running back ranking among the league leaders in well-rounded lives if the category existed. During the offseason , he made a second humanitarian trip to Haiti with former Oakland teammate Derek Carr. Then he traveled to Germany and Italy as part of a United Service Organizations tour with a handful of other NFL players to meet with overseas troops. Murray’s fiancée, Shauntay Skanes, is in her 10th year in the Navy.Moving toward a master’s degree in business administration through Syracuse, his hometown university in upstate New York, Murray is already a T-shirt entrepreneur of sorts. He used to be more personally involved with the merchandising, before outsourcing the work to avoid being too consumed by it.While his agent negotiated a deal with the Vikings late into the March night in 2017, Murray passed the time on his first visit to the team’s facility with some online work toward his MBA. He’s about halfway done, with a goal of completion for 2019 after he and Skanes are married. That’s one way he has begun to prepare himself at age 28 for his post-football years.“I’m just hoping that I’m doing something maybe bigger than what I’m doing right now Dan Bailey Color Rush Jersey ,” Murray said. “That’s more than half of my life I’ll have when I’m done playing the game, and to try and limit it to just this right now would be dumb of me.”Returning to Minnesota this season required a pay cut to help the team squeeze several big-ticket contract extensions under the salary cap, but the Vikings have been getting a bargain for the second straight year.In 2017, Murray took over when Cook tore his ACL. This season, Cook has been bothered by a hamstring injury that again kept him from practicing on Thursday. When Murray signed with the Vikings, he was viewed as the replacement for Adrian Peterson. Then the Vikings made Cook their top draft pick and, thus, primary halfback. Murray could have been stung by the arrival of a hotshot rookie, but that wasn’t the case.“He took me in as a little brother, and that’s what I respect most about him,” Cook said. “Most guys could just brush that off, but I highly respect Latavius for that. To this day, the bond has just got stronger.”Fondly remembering the way he was treated by his elders with the Raiders, Murray simply made a point to pay that support forward.“That was the kind of vets I had, guys who weren’t going to act like they were too good or too old or too big to try and teach me the game, hang out with me https://www.minnesotavikingsshop.com/Randy-Moss-Jersey , have fun and do those kinds of things.”Murray has a budding family to play for now, too, but his memory of childhood friend Jonathan Diaz has always been painfully close. Diaz was shot to death in Syracuse in 2016, since when Murray’s motivation to succeed on the field has started with him.Diaz would have been proud of how Murray plowed through the Cardinals last Sunday, stiff-arming a safety on his way to a 21-yard touchdown run that helped the Vikings set the tone for an important victory.“We love blocking for him,” left guard Tom Compton said. “He gives you a lot of options. If you’re a little shaky on anything, he’ll definitely help you out and run a guy over for you.”With a forward lean to his running style that leads to plenty of yards after contact, Murray is a perfect complement to Cook and his more elusive skillset.“He’s a great person. He’s very diligent about his work. He practices hard, but he’s got good feet and acceleration,” coach Mike Zimmer said, adding: “When he gets a chance, very seldom is this guy going backward when he gets hit. A lot of those things I really like.” Nursing a 10-7 halftime lead over the New York Jets, the Minnesota Vikings started the second half by kicking the ball away. Dan Bailey put his foot to the pigskin, and it went into the end zone for a touchback, giving Sam Darnold and company the start at their own 25-yard line.The Jets started off with a 10-yard run from Isaiah Crowell to get an early first down, but a couple of incompletions from Darnold brought the Jets’ drive to an end. Lachlan Edwards came on to punt the ball away again https://www.minnesotavikingsshop.com , and the ball was actually fielded by Brandon Zylstra on a short kick, as he advanced the ball to the Vikings’ 37-yard line.Kirk Cousins got the Vikings a first down early with a pass to Stefon Diggs, but they balanced that out with a holding penalty on Mike Remmers. The Vikings got a pass to Adam Thielen to move it to a 3rd-and-8 from midfield, and the Vikings then converted their first third down of the afternoon, as Cousins hit Thielen for 12 more. Then, Cousins found Brandon Zylstra, the pride of Concordia College, for a big 23-yard gain to the Jets’ 11-yard line. After an incompletion on first down, Latavius Murray finished the drive with a 11-yard run for a touchdown! Dan Bailey connected on the extra point, and the Vikings’ lead was moved to 10 at 17-7.Andre Roberts took Bailey’s kickoff and returned it to the 33-yard line to set up the Jets’ next drive. On the first play, Darnold looked deep for Robby Anderson, and the pass was deflected by Xavier Rhodes into the hands of Harrison Smith! Smith took the ball all the way down to the Jets’ 9-yard line to set up first and goal!A couple of short plays got the Vikings a 4th-and-goal from the 4-yard line, and rather than go for it, the Vikings called on Dan Bailey once again. He connected from 22, and the Vikings’ lead was extended to 20-7.Andre Roberts got a huge return of the ensuing kickoff for the Jets, as he got the ball all the way into Minnesota territory at the 46. The Vikings forced the Jets into another third down situation Minnesota Vikings Customized Jerseys , but Darnold was able to slip away from Sheldon Richardson and get just past the sticks to move the chains. That was the first third down conversion the Vikings had allowed since Week 5 against the Eagles. The Jets could not advance further, as a couple of dropped passes stalled their drive. The Jets called on Jason Myers for a 55-yard field goal attempt, and with the wind at his back he split the uprights to make it 20-10.Myers’ kickoff went for a touchback, and the Vikings started out at their own 25. After a short pass to Diggs gained nice yardage on first down, the Vikings had a pretty ugly play that saw Cousins throw a backwards pass that nobody realized was live at first and resulted in a big loss. After Cousins’ pass on third down fell incomplete, they called on Matt Wile to punt it away, and he did an outstanding job. Andre Roberts let the ball go over his head, and it rolled to a stop at the Jets’ 8-yard line for a 66-yard punt to pin the Jets deep.Crowell had a nice run on first down to start the Jets’ drive, but then a swarm of Vikings descended upon Darnold on second down for a sack. Credit for the sack went to Jayron Kearse, and as we move to the fourth quarter, the Jets have it with a 3rd-and-11 from their own 7-yard line.Fifteen minutes to go from East Rutherford, folks, and the Vikings have a 20-10 lead over the Jets. Can they hold on for their third straight win and their first ever road victory over the Jets?