Out of the three undefeated teams remaining in the NFL a month into the season, the unlikeliest of the group is the one that can’t score touchdowns.
Since it erupted for 39 points in a season-opening win, the Minnesota Vikings’ offense has scored just one offensive touchdown in its last three games. It has gone 18 consecutive possessions without reaching the end zone. No other team in the NFL has thrown for fewer yards through four games, and only six have averaged fewer yards per rush.
Offensive numbers like that might normally doom a team. The Vikings have found a workaround, however, en route to starting 4-0: Who needs touchdowns when your defense doesn’t allow them?
Using the most blitz-happy scheme in the NFL, the Vikings have allowed just four touchdowns all season — including just two in their last 40 drives — and given up a league-low 12.8 points per game. At that rate, only a few field goals from the NFL’s most consistent kicker are all that has been needed to stay unbeaten.
“We’re very excited about being a 4-0 team,” coach Kevin O’Connell said Monday. “But at the same time, we know there’s so much work to be done.”
Quarterback Kyler Murray said after Sunday’s 15-10 win over the Miami Dolphins: “Again, the defense was holding it down for us. They went out there and did it again.”
Since Flores became Minnesota’s defensive coordinator in 2023, the unit has carved out an ultra-aggressive reputation. The Vikings have blitzed on 57% of opponents’ dropbacks this season — nearly double the rate of the second-best team (Chicago, at 33%). The Vikings also lead in pressure rate, they are tied for the league lead in hurries, and they are one off the league leaders in quarterback knockdowns.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles, a defensive play-caller himself, has called Minnesota’s scheme “very good controlled chaos.” Preparing for the Vikings in Week 2, Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams said his coach, Ben Johnson, likened the matchup to “mental war.”
“I tell our guys all the time, if we’re going to go down, we’re going to go down a certain way,” Flores said before Week 3. “We’re going to go down blitzing people.”
That pressure has flummoxed Minnesota’s opponents, which has given cover to its offense. The Vikings join the Chicago Cardinals of 1922 and 1923 as the only teams to start 4-0 while failing to score an offensive touchdown in two of their games, per ESPN.
Against the Dolphins on Sunday, the Vikings were called for eight penalties on offense and also lost left tackle Christian Darrisaw and left guard Donovan Jackson to injuries. (Jackson’s injury is season-ending, the team said Monday.) Superstar receiver Justin Jefferson watched from the sideline in street clothes, nursing an ankle injury. The team’s most valuable offensive weapon has been kicker Will Reichard, who has made 31 consecutive field goals, the league’s longest active streak.
“We do need to score more points and finish some of those drives with touchdowns,” O’Connell said.
During the offseason, the team signed Murray, a former No. 1 overall draft pick, as a reclamation project, hoping O’Connell could turn around his career just as he’d done Sam Darnold’s two years earlier.
Murray, so far, has turned in a season that looks more rough than a revival. Of the 35 passers who have started at least two games this season, Murray ranks 30th in passer rating and is tied for last with just one passing touchdown. He appears to still be working out chemistry with his offensive line. On Sunday, he took the blame for miscommunication that sparked five pre-snap penalties. He also has been sacked 11 times, two off the league’s most.
“Obviously all 11 guys have got to be on the same page, but it starts with me,” Murray said. “So we’ll be better at that.”
The best thing that can be said about the offense is that although it might not be scoring, it also isn’t sloppy, having turned the ball over just twice in four games. The defense has seven takeaways, meanwhile, producing an overall turnover margin tied for the league’s second-best. The Vikings have won games by holding to an NFL truism — they’ve won the possession battle. They held the ball for all but one minute of Sunday’s fourth quarter.
The win over Miami included a caveat. Late in the fourth quarter, tight end T.J. Hockenson caught a pass only a few yards from the end zone but chose to go to the ground rather than go for a score to extend the lead. The move kept the clock running, allowing the Vikings to effectively ice the win.
“It was tough,” Hockenson said. “I saw that goal line and I wanted it, but it’s for the betterment of the team that we ended on offense.”
Even if Hockenson had scored, though, it wouldn’t have healed all that ails one of the NFL’s most pitiful offenses to this point.
“I told our guys, ‘If we want to score, we should do it earlier,’” O’Connell said.
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