The Vikings are 4-0, and somehow their most reliable offensive weapon is a kicker who looks mildly inconvenienced every time he wins them another game.

Will Reichard made five field goals Sunday as Minnesota beat Miami 15-10 without scoring a touchdown. It wasn’t flashy. It was five clean kicks, another suffocating performance from Brian Flores’ defense, and just enough from the offense to keep the whole thing from falling apart.

That’s basically been the Vikings’ season so far. They beat Chicago 9-3 in Week 2 without getting the ball in the end zone, and they’ve scored just one offensive touchdown over their last three games while winning all three. According to NFL Research, they’re the first team in more than a century to start 4-0 without scoring a touchdown in two of those wins.

It’s funny, but it also tells you almost everything you need to know about this team.

Minnesota's built an unusually high floor because its defense and special teams keep carrying them across the finish line. The bigger question is how long those two units can keep doing all the heavy lifting before the offense has to finish a drive of their own.

Brian Flores Is A Wizard

The easiest explanation for Minnesota’s start is pretty simple: Brian Flores has this defense playing like they know the offense can’t afford to waste a possession.

The Vikings have allowed four touchdowns in four games. Opponents are 12-of-53 on third down, have taken 16 sacks, and have turned the ball over seven times.

That’s what makes this defense so good. It isn’t just keeping teams from moving the ball. Green Bay gained 419 yards in Week 1. Flores’ defense is wrecking the situations that turn those yards into points. The Packers went 0-for-2 on fourth down and turned it over twice. Chicago got it down to the Minnesota 20 three times and came away with zero points. Tampa Bay gave up six sacks and two takeaways. Miami managed 198 yards, eight first downs, and 20:49 of possession.

Flores isn’t just calling a bunch of blitzes and hoping someone gets home. He’s changing the picture every week. Minnesota blitzed Jordan Love on 78.3% of his dropbacks, went after Chicago at a 72.1% rate, and backed off to 54.3% against Tampa Bay while still coming up with a season-high six sacks. The Vikings can crowd the line with six rushers and make quarterbacks question whether all of them are actually coming or not.

The pressure starts before the ball is snapped. That’s the fun part.

Dallas Turner has become the perfect closer. He has 5.5 sacks and two forced fumbles through four games. And the rest of the grop is really just a bunch of versatile pieces that really allow Flores to dial up some of the crazy looks that he has.

Special Teams Are Doing More Than Cleaning Up

Reichard’s scored 42 of Minnesota’s 86 points.

He’s 12-for-12 on field goals, including 3-for-3 from 50-plus yards, and he’s made 31 straight dating back to last October. That’s the longest active streak in the league and just four shy of Gary Anderson’s franchise record.

Blake Cashman talked about it after the Miami game:

Every time he trots out there, I know we’re getting three points.

The Vikings have started building an entire way of playing around that kind of certainty. Get across midfield, and Reichard can turn the drive into points. Pin the opponent deep afterward, then let Flores make the quarterback solve problems they can't handle before the pass rush gets there.

Myles Price keeps making that process even shorter.

Price is averaging 30.2 yards on kick returns and 20.1 on punt returns. He set a franchise record with 238 total return yards against Tampa Bay, including an 86-yard punt-return touchdown. Against Miami, he opened the game with a 47-yard kick return and eventually ended up bringing a punt back 36 yards to the Dolphins’ 38. But even then, the offense gained just nine yards and took a 3-0 lead.

That’s field position turning into offense without the offense having to do much of the work.

The Offense Has At Least Avoided Lighting The House On Fire

It’s a low bar. But Minnesota keeps clearing it.

The offense only has two turnovers and hasn’t lost a fumble. That matters when Brian Flores and the special teams unit are finding little edges wherever they can. Kevin O’Connell needs the offense to avoid giving away short fields and, every now and then, keep the defense on the sideline.

Aaron Jones has made that possible. He has 365 yards from scrimmage on 81 touches. He ran for 105 yards in Chicago, then added 128 total yards against Miami. The runs have been pretty steady, which is a nice luxury for an offense still trying to get Kyler Murray comfortable.

T.J. Hockenson finally gave the passing game a boost Sunday. He caught all 13 of his targets for 119 yards, repeatedly finding the space Miami left open by keeping two safeties deep. His last catch should’ve been a touchdown. Instead, he slid at the 2 because Miami had no timeouts left and Minnesota could just kneel out the rest of the clock.

Technically, that choice helped create the absurd “no touchdowns” statistic. It also showed that the offense cares more about winning than they do being flashy.

The Vikings held the ball for the final 5:41 and nearly 40 minutes overall. Murray completed 27 of 37 passes without a turnover and looked more comfortable as the game went on. Jones and Hockenson can at least give Minnesota a functional bridge until Justin Jefferson works his way back from the ankle injury.

There needs to be one.

Minnesota's averaging 4.2 yards per play, worst in the league. Murray has one touchdown pass, two interceptions, and a 73.3 passer rating. Against Miami, eight offensive penalties kept pushing the Vikings behind the sticks. They converted six of seven third-and-short opportunities and went 0-for-7 on third-and-long.

That’s not a minor cleanup.

The Record Is Real. So Is The Warning.

There are two useful historical comparisons here, and they point in completely different directions.

Minnesota’s six offensive touchdowns are tied for the fewest by a 4-0 team this century. One of the other teams was the 2003 Carolina Panthers, who started 5-0 and made it to the Super Bowl. The other was the 2016 Vikings, who also started 5-0 before losing eight of their last 11 games and missing the playoffs.

So, yeah. That’s pretty much the range of outcomes we’re looking at.

The encouraging part is that this defense doesn’t feel like a fluke. The pressure, the third-down execution, and the red-zone toughness are all things a team can keep doing. That’s a lot more repeatable than recovering every loose ball that happens to bounce your way. Reichard’s range is real. Price can change a game on returns. Jones and Hockenson are real answers, even if they’re just giving Minnesota a solid floor instead of an explosive ceiling right now.

The warning is that Minnesota’s first four opponents are a combined 5-11. Miami and Tampa Bay are both 0-4. After New Orleans and the bye, the schedule gets a lot less forgiving, with Detroit, Buffalo, Green Bay, and San Francisco waiting for them.

At some point, one of those teams is going to turn a short field into seven points. One of them is going to protect well enough to punish a pressure look. One of them is going to make Reichard trade field goals for touchdowns, and that’s not a problem he can solve.

The Vikings don’t need to apologize for any of this. Winning ugly still counts, and surviving your offense’s worst month is usually a pretty good sign.

The defense and special teams have bought O’Connell time to turn this into a complete team. Now the offense has to do something with it.

The Vikings travel to New Orleans to take on the Saints at 1 p.m. ET on FOX and FOX One.

All stats courtesy of Fantasy Points Data.

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