It’s not a stretch to say not many — maybe no one — saw a 3-0 start to the season coming for the Minnesota Vikings. Many could have predicted an opening-week victory over the New York Giants. But if you had told someone that the Vikings would go on to defeat the San Francisco 49ers and Houston Texans back-to-back, they likely would have laughed at you.
The Vikings’ hot start to the season has a lot to do with another unexpected aspect of the season: high-quality play from quarterback Sam Darnold. Darnold has come in and taken to head coach Kevin O’Connell’s offense quickly and, in turn, has experienced some of the most success he’s seen in his career.
How well the defense is performing shouldn’t be surprising to anyone. Defensive coordinator Brian Flores has worked wonders with this team’s defense and has them becoming the bane of offensive coordinator’s existence. While their performance may not be surprising, just how good they’re playing shouldn’t be taken for granted.
That defensive performance has the Vikings breaking into the top 5 of the latest power rankings from Sports Illustrated’s NFL analyst Conor Orr. Orr has a glowing review of Flores and what he’s doing with the 2024 Minnesota Vikings defense, saying:
What has been masterful about Brian Flores’s defensive performances to me is that, like some of the other Bill Belichick disciples who have left New England only to commit the same sins—loading up on former Patriots, paying them big money and trying to run the same defense—Flores has loaded up on former Dolphins and Patriots. However, he has taken those players and plugged them into a whirlwind defensively that is zigging while the rest of the NFL is sitting in Cover 2 and praying for no big plays (sorry gang, Andy Dalton is back and that’s not gonna happen). While it’s harder to maintain a great offense than a great defense, and at some point the referees and the league will step in to goose scoring, we need to take note of how wonderful and maddening this defense has been over the course of three games.
Two former Dolphins — edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel and linebacker Kamu Grugier-Hill — were instrumental in the Vikings’ upset victory over the Texans on Saturday. Van Ginkel, the Vikings’ leading tackler on the day, was all over the field for the Vikings’ defense, making tackles at every level, including getting one sack on Texans’ quarterback C.J. Stroud.
Grugier-Hill stepped in on short notice to fill in for an injured Ivan Pace, Jr. and made several key plays for the defense. In the first quarter, Grugier-Hill came down with a huge interception after defensive tackle Harrison Phillips tipped the Stroud pass, ending Stroud’s NFL-leading consecutive passes without an interception streak.
It was a dominating performance all around, and that has been the case all season long for the Vikings, as it was to close out the season in 2023. The Vikings defense kept Minnesota in a number of games that they probably had no right being in, and kept the team in the playoff race for far longer than they should have been given the injuries and offensive struggles they experienced.
Now that the offense has at least somewhat caught up to the defense, the Vikings could be a dangerous team from now on.
