Vikings Make 4-0 History ~ Not Since 1923.....
I wrote last month about Kevin O'Connell's clear aptitude for winning in the regular season, sometimes in unique or nearly unprecedented ways. He and the Vikings are at it again with a 4-0 start despite failing to score a touchdown in 2 of those games.https://t.co/EI8UbJCjCo
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) October 5, 2026
Vikings make history at 4-0 -- without a scoring offense
MINNEAPOLIS -- 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? 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?
LIVE WELL ~ LOVE MUCH ~ LAUGH OFTEN
Total points this season-
— Jason Harmon (@JasonHarmonNFL) October 5, 2026
Vikings offense: 36
Will Reichard: 42
📸: Alli Rusco pic.twitter.com/LwSYmjSdxN
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Three NFL teams remain undefeated.
— Alec Lewis (@alec_lewis) October 5, 2026
The Chiefs and 49ers are offensive behemoths. The Vikings are currently anything but.
Sunday’s Dolphins win captured the idiosyncrasies of this 4-0 start yet again. It also offered some glimmers of hope:https://t.co/AToskJls9J
LIVE WELL ~ LOVE MUCH ~ LAUGH OFTEN
How the Vikings’ victory vs. Dolphins captures the absurdity of team’s 4-0 start
MINNEAPOLIS — They tend to do this. When a Minnesota Vikings player shines in a home game at U.S. Bank Stadium, the camera operator shows them on the video board for a curtain call. On Sunday, they found kicker Will Reichard and put him in the spotlight. He didn’t even notice.
“Too locked in,” Reichard said without any hint of sarcasm.
The crowd’s eruption couldn’t snap him out of his concentration. He stared emotionless from a spot on the sidelines, perhaps conjuring the headspace for a game winner.
Fortunately, that wasn’t necessary. The Vikings did not need heroics to beat the inferior Miami Dolphins. But the 15-10 final score paints an accurate picture of the afternoon’s peculiarity — as does the camera operator’s decision to focus on Reichard of all Vikings players.
The kicker mattered vitally to Sunday’s outcome. Reichard made all five of his field goal attempts. On an even deeper level, he occupies a central role in the story of a season that will become more of a fixture in the national discussion.
After four games, the Vikings are one of only three remaining undefeated teams alongside the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs, adding an idiosyncratic profile to a mix featuring two offensive behemoths. Unlike San Francisco and Kansas City, you cannot explain Minnesota’s start by praising a hyper-efficient quarterback or gushing over a field-tilting running back. For the Vikings, it takes dissecting a third-year kicker’s special teams unit and Brian Flores’ suffocating defense.
“Again, the defense was holding it down for us,” quarterback Kyler Murray said. “They went out there and did it again.”
Reichard hasn’t missed since last October. His 31-straight streak is the longest of any active NFL kicker. Meanwhile, the Vikings’ defensive performance through four weeks ranks among the best defenses since the turn of the century, according to many of the most respected advanced metrics.
Toss in the explosive output of second-year returner Myles Price — and even exceptional special teams play from youngsters like Zemaiah Vaughn, who blasted Dolphins returner Malik Washington on Sunday — and this absurd beginning to the 2026 season makes more sense.
Sustainability and potential hinge on offensive growth, something both head coach Kevin O’Connell and Murray acknowledge.
Tight end T.J. Hockenson’s decision to go down to ice the game in the fourth quarter serves as critical context to this nugget, but the Vikings’ six total offensive touchdowns are tied for the fewest scored by any team during a 4-0 start this century, according to TruMedia, matching both the 2003 Carolina Panthers and 2016 Vikings.
“We’ve got to keep working at it (offensively),” O’Connell said. “And we can’t accept any aspect of this that wasn’t a really good play by the defense. We’ve got to own our role in our own aspect of not moving the football more consistently and go from there.”
Before Reichard unknowingly earned a chorus of cheers, a disturbed crowd booed intermittently. Dolphins sacks generated groans. Penalties produced a collective grumble. The cauldron of stress, built over multiple games, showed in sideline gesticulations from offensive coaches.
The Vikings were without superstar receiver Justin Jefferson, who missed Sunday’s game with an ankle injury. They also lost two starting offensive linemen in the game: left tackle Christian Darrisaw and left guard Donovan Jackson. But those absences don’t excuse an offensive day that didn’t lift the team’s league-worst average in yards per play.
On his first snap, Murray progressed too quickly off of Hockenson and took a sack. Back-to-back pre-snap infractions doomed the second drive. Most of the first half felt like an answer in example form to someone asking: What does it mean to take one step forward and two steps back?
An illegal formation followed a perfectly placed comeback route to receiver Jordan Addison. A false start followed a 15-yard third-down conversion to running back Aaron Jones.
In total, the Vikings committed eight offensive penalties. The only time they have had more in a game under O’Connell was in Week 10 last season versus the Baltimore Ravens. Pre-snap complications affected third-down distance, and Minnesota’s effectiveness on third downs changed drastically depending on that distance. The Vikings converted 6-of-7 third-and-short opportunities. They finished 0-for-7 in third-and-long instances.
“To be honest with you, the only thing that hurt us was ourselves in certain situations,” Hockenson said. “When we are able to play our game, we’re moving the ball. Then you get behind the sticks, and you’re fighting to get back on track.”
O’Connell mentioned cadence miscommunications as one issue. Using a new personnel grouping may have been another factor. For the first time, the Vikings also toyed with jumbo sets, utilizing rookie tackle Caleb Tiernan as an extra offensive lineman.
Murray owned the disjointedness in his postgame presser, opting not to paper over the problems.
“I’ve been a part of this a long time now,” Murray said. “That door will get kicked down soon. There’s no loss of confidence in that room. We’ve got to be better and cleaner. And we will be.”
It would be more difficult to believe these words if glimmers didn’t surface in the fourth quarter. Murray checked the ball down in rhythm to Jones. He hung in the pocket and manipulated Dolphins linebacker Jordyn Brooks with his eyes, finding Addison for an intermediate gain.
Most notably, Murray established a rapport with Hockenson, who caught all 13 of his targets for 119 yards. This connection feasted against split-safety coverage. Because Miami worked so hard to keep two safeties deep, Hockenson chiseled away in the middle of the field.
In many ways, this was part of the Vikings’ initial vision. Jefferson and Addison’s gravity would create interior space for an improved run game, Murray’s own legs and Hockenson. Scalpel the interior, and defenses would then have to choose where to allocate bodies.
Murray’s fourth-quarter accuracy brought some of this strategy to life. High-leverage completions, stacked atop Reichard’s precision and the defense’s ability to limit Dolphins quarterback Malik Willis to just 85 yards on 9-of-17 passing, provided a sensible roadmap for more success.
“I did think Kyler got better as the game went on,” O’Connell said. “He was more comfortable. There were some big-time throws there to keep the ball away (from the Dolphins) and drive it both times for yards.”
These flashes supply oxygen to an offense that knows its current formula cannot sustain. More than anything else, they offer hope that this early-season record won’t be remembered as an aberration, but instead as fuel for the team’s further ascent.
LIVE WELL ~ LOVE MUCH ~ LAUGH OFTEN
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