The undefeated NFL team that can’t score touchdowns
NBC News · LC · trust 40/100
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.”
Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray on Sunday. David Berding / Getty 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.”
FOR SUBSCRIBERS The FDA may soon approve its first psychedelic drug. But how to regulate it? FOR SUBSCRIBERS Their town was ‘Almost Heaven.’ Residents say a proposed Buc-ee’s tore it apart. FOR SUBSCRIBERS The Data Dive: Steve Kornacki on how Kansas became a surprise midterm battleground FOR SUBSCRIBERS Baltic nations brace for Russian attacks as border threats escalate FOR SUBSCRIBERS Latino voters feel buyer’s remorse in battleground Texas FOR SUBSCRIBERS Texts show worried Cornell fraternity brothers coordinating responses as accusations came to light FOR SUBSCRIBERS Tips came in just minutes after Cornell alerted students to an alleged sex assault at a frat house FOR SUBSCRIBERS What’s on the Supreme Court’s docket this term? FOR SUBSCRIBERS Ford CEO: ‘It’s our responsibility’ to make sure affordable cars are sold in the U.S. FOR SUBSCRIBERS DOJ moves to revoke U.S. citizenship for 40 foreign-born Americans FOR SUBSCRIBERS The U.S., Denmark and Greenland reached a security deal. Here’s what to know. FOR SUBSCRIBERS Family of Epstein victim appears in campaign attack ad in Colorado FOR SUBSCRIBERS ‘Things the average pilot avoids’: Why NASA has been sending planes into ‘fire clouds’ FOR SUBSCRIBERS Susan Collins and Troy Jackson brace for debate gantlet in close, pivotal Maine Senate race FOR SUBSCRIBERS Is ‘bad’ cholesterol actually good? Cardiologists set the record straight For Subscribers FOR SUBSCRIBERS The FDA may soon approve its first psychedelic drug. But how to regulate it? FOR SUBSCRIBERS Their town was ‘Almost Heaven.’ Residents say a proposed Buc-ee’s tore it apart. FOR SUBSCRIBERS The Data Dive: Steve Kornacki on how Kansas became a surprise midterm battleground FOR SUBSCRIBERS Baltic nations brace for Russian attacks as border threats escalate FOR SUBSCRIBERS Latino voters feel buyer’s remorse in battleground Texas FOR SUBSCRIBERS Texts show worried Cornell fraternity brothers coordinating responses as accusations came to light FOR SUBSCRIBERS Tips came in just minutes after Cornell alerted students to an alleged sex assault at a frat house FOR SUBSCRIBERS What’s on the Supreme Court’s docket this term? FOR SUBSCRIBERS Ford CEO: ‘It’s our responsibility’ to make sure affordable cars are sold in the U.S. FOR SUBSCRIBERS DOJ moves to revoke U.S. citizenship for 40 foreign-born Americans FOR SUBSCRIBERS The U.S., Denmark and Greenland reached a security deal. Here’s what to know. FOR SUBSCRIBERS Family of Epstein victim appears in campaign attack ad in Colorado FOR SUBSCRIBERS ‘Things the average pilot avoids’: Why NASA has been sending planes into ‘fire clouds’ FOR SUBSCRIBERS Susan Collins and Troy Jackson brace for debate gantlet in close, pivotal Maine Senate race FOR SUBSCRIBERS Is ‘bad’ cholesterol actually good? Cardiologists set the record straight “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…
Read the original at NBC News →
Open in TruthVane →