Stifling Defense Quickly Becoming Calling Card of Undefeated Minnesota Vikings

The Minnesota Vikings won’t have offensive pillars Adrian Peterson, Teddy Bridgewater and Ryan Kalil in their lineup for a very long time. And yet the the Vikes are now 4-0.

The Vikings don’t have a bona fide franchise quarterback, and with Peterson injured their running game ranks dead last in the NFL. And yet the Vikes now have three consecutive wins over playoff-caliber opponents.

This isn’t a mirage. It isn’t an aberration. The Vikings again showed the football world on Monday night that they’re for real, registering a fourth consecutive tough victory to start the 2016 season.

It was one thing when they beat the Tennessee Titans on the road Week 1 despite having lost Bridgewater, and despite a poor performance from Peterson, and despite the fact Bridgewater’s replacement, Sam Bradford, wasn’t yet ready to start. Still, they held Titans quarterback and 2015 No. 2 overall pick Marcus Mariota in check all day, surrendering just 16 points.

But then they held the mighty Green Bay Packers and quarterback Aaron Rodgers—you know, the highest-rated passer in NFL history—to just 14 points in a Week 2 victory at home.

And then they held league’s highest-scoring team from last season, the Carolina Panthers, and reigning MVP quarterback Cam Newton to just to just 10 points in a Week 3 road win.

We should have known right then and there that this Minnesota team was special. After all, the Panthers had won 14 straight home games dating back to 2014, and they’d scored at least 17 points (but usually a lot more than that) in each of those games.

Monday night in Minneapolis, the Vikings made it official. They’ll be a force in 2016 regardless of those losses on offense. Because teams that aren’t forces don’t hold opponents like the Titans, Packers, Panthers and New York Giants to 16 or fewer points in consecutive weeks.

The faces of former Super Bowl caliber QB’s after being run through the Mike Zimmer wood chipper. pic.twitter.com/sBYM2CA5Vw

— xtina (@xtina1229) October 4, 2016

The Giants ranked sixth in scoring and eighth in total offense last season, and they had the league’s sixth-ranked offense entering Week 4. And yet against Minnesota’s deep, balanced and fierce defense, they managed just 10 points.

The Giants and their two-time Super Bowl MVP quarterback converted just two of 12 third downs, turned the ball over twice and had possession for only 24 minutes and 28 seconds.

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