By Matthew Coller
Here’s something to keep in mind over the next two weeks: You want your team to be in the middle of conversations amongst the NFL about whether you are “real contenders” or not. Lemme tell ya who they aren’t putting in that A1 debate topic: The Titans.
So Minnesota Vikings fans can prepare themselves for their squad’s offensive statistics to be quoted over and over and for TV loudmouths and big-brain X’s and O’s writers to be answering that question as the Vikings sit atop the NFL mountain through the first month-and-a-half of the season.
When it comes to whether the Vikings can win the Super Bowl or not, that question seems premature. Can we talk about it in December? What we can say in terms of their validity as contenders is that we know it takes certain things to get there.
Usually you have to have a good offense. They took steps toward that against the New Orleans Saints in their 23-13 victory in which the Vikings held the ball for nearly 40 minutes and gained 364 yards — their highest total in a victory since Week 17, 2024.
Usually you have to have an elite defense. On Sunday, the Vikings gave up 3.3 yards per play, held Saints QB Tyler Shough to under 100 yards passing and picked off two passes. That’s the second straight week that they held the opposing QB under 100 yards and they rank No. 1 in the NFL in Expected Points Added.
Usually you need good special teams. On Sunday, Will Reichard was flawless, hitting two big 50-plus yard kicks and Myles Price had a 43-yard punt return.
On the other side of the coin, normally Super Bowl teams don’t make drive-killing mistakes. The Vikings did that three different times in the red zone against the Saints, with an illegal formation and two fumbles. Usually they aren’t just having good days offensively against opponents who are struggling either. Normally they also put together more than 1.5 performances on offense that look like the offense is in command over five games.
But if we’re going to make every game a referendum on whether a team is “for real” or not, one thing to take away from the Vikings’ victory over the Saints at the Superdome is their ability to battle through some very difficult circumstances. That can carry over week after week.
The Vikings entered the game with their starting left tackle, left guard, RB1, WR2 and TE2 injured and all of them are good players. Christian Darrisaw is a top-notch left tackle, Donovan Jackson is a rising star, Jordan Mason averaged 4.8 YPC last year, Jordan Addison has two seasons over 850 yards to his name and Josh Oliver is the best run blocking TE in the NFL (and a low-key good pass catcher).
And then they lost tight end TJ Hockenson to a concussion three plays into the game. Last week, Hockenson became Kyler Murray’s favorite target by picking up 13 receptions.
No matter how many miscues or many players were out of the lineup, Murray and the offense battled their way to enough production to win the game.
There was no drive where that was more on display than after Price fumbled, allowing the Saints to tie the game at 13-13 with 2:34 remaining in the third quarter.
They followed up that mistake with a Murray 32-yard throw to Jeshaun Jones, who was elevated from the practice squad and has spent the last two seasons grinding away on the PS hoping to get an opportunity to see the field.
On that play, Murray had good pocket presence but also received strong blocking from the whole O-line. Backups Ryan Van Demark and Joe Huber held strong. Huber is playing his third game and Van Demark is a career backup.
The next play was a 19-yard run by Aaron Jones. Sometimes there’s no other way to describe someone than with every possible sports cliche. Jones showed his heart, toughness, grittiness, drive, desire, never-give-up attitude and on and on. He’s been battling a knee injury while taking all the snaps as Mason has been out with a thumb injury. With his physical state, ripping off a 19-yard run where he’s bouncing off guys and spinning seems impossible, but he did it.
On third-and-1, Bartholomew made a big play, catching a 2-yard pass from Murray to set up first-and-10 at the goal line. He went from TE3 to TE1 in an eye blink — and this is essentially his rookie year after missing all of last season.
Then Jones finished it off by blasting a Saints safety at the 3-yard line and barrelling into the end zone.
They didn’t know it yet but that score put the game away. The defense didn’t allow the Saints to come anywhere close to the end zone after that.
Most times the resilience of a team starts with its quarterback and that was the case on Sunday. Despite being down two key weapons and two offensive linemen, Murray was in total command. He was accurate throwing the ball, including on a brilliant touchdown pass to Justin Jefferson. He made plays with his legs, including a scramble to set up a late field goal after a botched trick play set the Vikings back out of range (maybe). He had zero turnover-worthy plays and wasn’t rattled by the noise or the mistakes by his teammates that cost them getting in the end zone.
Murray just kept battling. He was on point on numerous third downs, converting 9-of-18 on the day to keep drives rolling and the defense off the field.
Sunday’s game was a vision of Murray as the team’s field general that came to life.
And in order to have resilience, you need to have a super power. That super power is the connectivity and scheme of the Vikings’ defense. They slammed the door shut on the Saints’ run game, giving up 3.3 YPA. They shook Shough to his core as he checked down and scrambled like he was being chased by goblins and werewolves. It looked like there were 15 Vikings players on the field against the Saints.
This is who the Vikings have been so far through the first five games, just in a lot of different ways. Carson Wentz came off the bench and played well enough to win in the first week. They played in a rain storm in Chicago and won with defense and a blocked kick. Murray struggled in Tampa Bay and the defense picked him up. Jefferson was out for two games and they found a way.
What does that mean for the bigger picture? Only that we know it exists and they’re likely to need a lot more of it. Even if everyone gets back to full health, the schedule offers adversity in a bottle with the Lions’ incredible offense, MVP Josh Allen, a trip to Mexico City vs. the 5-0 49ers and a trip to Lambeau still to come (the Packers crushed Chicago on Sunday).
Outside of that, all we can say is that it’s been an exceptional display of a team finding ways to win.
It also has to continue to get better with Murray under center. Mistakes must decrease significantly. Murray must be consistent into the second half of the season, which has been a struggle in his career.
It’s only been five games but it has felt like a full season’s worth of games. When they come out of the bye week, we’ll start to get the answer to the big question. For now, they couldn’t be in any better spot than at the top of the NFC.
7 and 5 over the next twelve games is very doable. With a 12 and 5 record at the end of the year they should be a playoff team. Definitely better than pre-season forecast of 9 and 8.
Definitely way closer to how it should look on offense. The penalties need to get figured out, but I’ll give them some grace for missing so many key players and probably running a lot more shotgun than KOC envisioned during camp. I do worry a little bit that the Saints played into their hands by letting them hit the short stuff. Obviously, it paid off a few times with the turnovers on the long drives, but I think teams will have more success by taking away the short game and making Kyler throw it deeper on a consistent basis. Was cool to see Jeshaun Jones get emotional after finally getting a catch, and a nice one at that, after so many years battling on the practice squad. Aaron Jones deserves a Purple Heart after this last month.