EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsMINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Vikings are 4-0, one of three teams in the NFL without a loss, and they've gone about it in a way the league hasn't seen for more than 100 years.Sunday's 15-10 victory over the Miami Dolphins was the Vikings' second game this season without a touchdown. The other was a 9-3 victory in Week 2 at the Chicago Bears.The last time an NFL team started its season 4-0 despite having multiple games without a touchdown was in 1923. The only other time it has ever happened was in 1922, in both cases by the Chicago Cardinals.No team would realistically expect to be undefeated over such a stretch, but the explanation for the Vikings' success is clear. Their defense has limited opponents to an NFL-best 12.8 points per game this season, and over the past three weeks, their special teams have accounted for six times as many points (42) as their offense (seven).That formula hardly seems sustainable, but under coach Kevin O'Connell, the Vikings have demonstrated a knack for stacking wins in unusual and sometimes unprecedented ways."We've got to own our role in our own aspect of not moving the football more consistently," O'Connell said, "and then go from there. But excited to get back to work at it. Excited to be 4-0 as a team."In 2022 the Vikings set an NFL record by going 11-0 in one-score games and became the first team ever to win 13 or more games despite having a negative point differential. They have now put together an NFL-best nine-game regular-season winning streak, dating back to Week 14 of the 2025 season, despite averaging 272.8 yards per game, fourth lowest in the NFL over that period.This season's team has had a level of personnel shuffle that merits appropriate context. New quarterback Kyler Murray suffered a concussion on the 11th play of the season, and receiver Justin Jefferson sprained his left ankle seven plays into Murray's return in Week 3. In other words, they have played only 18 snaps together this season.Sunday, they played almost half of the game without left tackle Christian Darrisaw (neck/concussion exam) and left guard Donovan Jackson (knee). In addition, the offense still appears to be adjusting to Murray, who took roughly half of the team's offensive snaps in spring practices and the first portion of training camp while competing for the job with J.J. McCarthy, who was traded to the New York Giants on Sept. 28.Right tackle Brian O'Neill said last week that linemen wouldn't have "internal clocks" any longer because of the way Murray can extend plays out of the pocket. The Dolphins sacked Murray three times in the first half Sunday (marking Miami's first three sacks of the season), and by halftime the crowd at U.S. Bank Stadium was booing the offense with vigor. All told, the Vikings committed five pre-snap penalties on offense, including two false starts, and O'Connell noted there "were some cadence things going on that we have to continue to figure out what the root of that is."Murray shouldered the blame for those mistakes, which both he and O'Connell called "unacceptable."Said Murray: "Obviously all 11 guys have got to be on the same page, but it starts with me. So we'll be better at that."An optimist could find reasons to be encouraged by Sunday's fourth quarter, during which Murray completed 12 of 13 passes for 113 yards. He found receiver Jordan Addison on a 27-yard deep crossing route and repeatedly fed tight end T.J. Hockenson, who tied his career high with 13 receptions. That helped the Vikings kill the final 5:41 of the clock while holding a one-score lead.To be fair to history, it should be noted that Hockenson smartly decided to slide at the 2-yard line instead of scoring a touchdown on the Vikings' final pass of the game. But O'Connell said: "I told our guys if we want to score, we should do it earlier."As they work through their offensive issues, it is reasonable to expect the rest of the team to continue producing at high levels. Their defense limited the Dolphins to one snap on their side of midfield in the first half, and emerging pass rusher Dallas Turner recorded two more sacks to raise his season total to 5.5.Kicker Will Reichard, meanwhile, converted all five of his field goal attempts to raise his season total to 12-for-12. In a darkly humorous moment near the end of the game, the crowd at U.S. Bank Stadium gave him a standing ovation when the big screen showed video of him on the sideline. "A stone-cold killer," safety Harrison Smith called him.The crowd let out its frustration frequently, even when O'Connell called kneel-downs from the 2-yard line rather than try to score to end the game."We want to score points too," Hockenson said, "and it is what it is. We love our fans here. We love playing in front of them. We're frustrated too sometimes, but we're getting it rolling and that is what it is. I understand it, and we're moving forward."Will it be any better in Week 5, when the Vikings go on the road Sunday to face the New Orleans Saints (1 p.m. ET, Fox)? It's not yet clear whether Jefferson will be ready, and the Vikings might also play without Darrisaw and/or Jackson. But with arguably the NFL's best defense, and a perfect kicker, who needs touchdowns anyway?
