Vikings rest up before five-game finish will decide their season

The Vikings will be one of the last four teams in the NFL to take their bye in Week 12, enjoying a chance to rest on Sunday before a five-game flurry stuffed with three prime-time matchups and two West Coast road trips.

When players departed the team facility to begin their long-awaited break on Monday, they could do so with an extra sense of relief they had avoided a defeat that would have soured the whole thing.

“It wouldn’t have been that good going in with a loss, but this definitely put the icing on it,” running back Dalvin Cook said Sunday. “We have got everything in front of us that we want to do. We’ve got a good stretch coming up with some good teams, and that is the type of football…