The Vikings are 4-0, and in two of those wins they did not score an offensive touchdown. The last team to open a season that way was the 1934 Detroit Lions, a 92-year oddity Minnesota reached with a 15-10 win over the Miami Dolphins on October 4 in which kicker Will Reichard supplied every point.
Reichard hit from 47, 50, 33, 41 and 29 yards against Miami, accounting for all 15 points as the offence failed to find the end zone. Two weeks earlier he had been Minnesota’s only scorer in a 9-3 Week 2 win at the Chicago Bears, making all three field goals in a defensive slog at Soldier Field.
Three teams in all remain unbeaten after four weeks: the San Francisco 49ers, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Vikings. Only San Francisco has gotten there with the kind of offence a conventional contender runs.
The 49ers’ explosive four weeks
Kyle Shanahan’s team has looked the most straightforwardly dangerous. San Francisco opened in Melbourne with a 27-7 win over the Los Angeles Rams, then beat the Dolphins 35-13, the Arizona Cardinals 36-30 and the Denver Broncos 24-14.
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Brock Purdy, Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel and George Kittle are all producing. The 49ers visit the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday night in a divisional game at Lumen Field, with Seattle holding a 3-1 record of its own.
The Chiefs’ 4-0 has a catch
Kansas City’s record is clean, but its road to it has not been. Patrick Mahomes needed a late push to survive 30-27 against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 4, with wide receiver Tyquan Thornton catching two short touchdowns and Rashee Rice leaving injured.
Running back Kenneth Walker III, acquired in the off-season, has been the engine. Walker leads the NFL with 537 rushing yards and the Chiefs with six total touchdowns. Kansas City is on bye in Week 5 and will not add to the unbeaten run, or lose it, until Week 6.
Minnesota’s defence is carrying a stalled offence
The Vikings have an elite defence, a special-teams unit built around Reichard, and a passing game that has yet to click. Head coach Kevin O’Connell has defended his starting quarterback, Kyler Murray, who completed 27 of 37 passes for 247 yards and no touchdowns against Miami.
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“There’s a lot of things beyond Kyler that we need to improve, including myself,” O’Connell said after the Dolphins win.
Tight end T.J. Hockenson caught 13 passes for 119 yards against Miami and, with the game decided, slid down at the two-yard line rather than score, allowing the Vikings to kneel out the clock. O’Connell called it the ultimate selfless play.
Minnesota faces the New Orleans Saints at the Caesars Superdome on Sunday, with receiver Justin Jefferson listed as questionable because of an ankle problem.
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