Darren Hails rounds up the Vikings week from Thursday, 1 October to Wednesday, 7 October 2026. Minnesota is still unbeaten after beating Miami 15–10, T. J. Hockenson finally became Kyler Murray’s dependable answer, Will Reichard scored every point and the left side of the offensive line took another fairly horrible hit.
The Vikings are 4–0. They beat the Dolphins without scoring a touchdown, their kicker supplied all 15 points and the offense was booed at home.
I am enjoying this season, honest guv’nor.
The odd thing is that Sunday’s 15–10 win managed to be both another reason to trust this team and another reason to wonder how long it can keep living like this. Brian Flores’ defense controlled most of the afternoon, Matt Daniels’ special teams did its job again and Minnesota found the plays it needed late. Those are proper strengths now, not things we’re still waiting to see.
The offense also gave us its best sustained passing spell of the season. Kyler Murray and T.J. Hockenson took over the final drive, moved the chains and closed the game without giving Miami another possession.
Then Donovan Jackson tore his meniscus and the Vikings began Saints week with Christian Darrisaw still in the concussion protocol. Just as one part of the offense started to look more comfortable, the structure around it became less certain.
Four wins are safely in the bank. I don’t want to spend every week apologising for them. I also don’t think being unbeaten means we have to pretend five field goals and no touchdowns is the finished version of this team.
Five field goals count, but we can’t live like this
There are no style points in the standings, which is fortunate because I don’t think the Miami game earned many.
Will Reichard made field goals from 47, 50, 33, 41 and 29 yards. Murray completed 27 of 37 passes for 247 yards, Aaron Jones carried 20 times for 94 yards and the Vikings held the ball for the final 5:41. Minnesota didn’t turn the ball over and did enough to beat a team it was expected to beat.
That’s the sensible view. The less comfortable one is that the offense allowed four sacks, failed to reach the end zone and needed its defense and kicker to protect a one-score lead against an 0–3 team.
Murray was better than he had been in Tampa. He looked more certain on the final possession, used the middle of the field and finished without an interception or a reckless moment that handed Miami the game. Progress doesn’t have to arrive as four touchdown passes and a dramatic statement.
Even so, the Vikings have scored one offensive touchdown across Murray’s two full starts. The defense and special teams have given Kevin O’Connell time to work through the problems, but that time isn’t unlimited. At some point, Minnesota will play a team that turns one of those field goals into seven points and makes the current formula much harder to survive.
I don’t think the answer is a weekly debate about Carson Wentz. Murray needs these snaps and the Vikings need to find out what the offense looks like once he’s properly comfortable. The fair criticism isn’t that he should already be replaced. It is that the unit around him still spends too much of each game making ordinary football look difficult.
Hockenson finally became Murray’s answer
For three weeks, we kept asking who would give Murray an easy completion when the offense lost its rhythm. Against Miami, Hockenson supplied a fairly emphatic answer.
He caught all 13 of his targets for 119 yards, tying his career high for receptions and setting a Vikings record for catches against the Dolphins. Eight of those receptions moved the chains. His 22-yard catch on the final drive was his longest reception of the day, and his last one ended the contest.
Hockenson caught the ball at the Miami 2-yard line with the Dolphins out of timeouts and slid rather than scoring. A touchdown would have looked nicer in the box score, but the slide allowed Minnesota to kneel out the game without asking the defense to make one more stop. It was the right decision, even if denying a touchdown to an offense that hadn’t scored one all afternoon felt almost unnecessarily cruel.
The bigger point was the connection with Murray. Hockenson worked the short and intermediate areas, gave the quarterback a clear target and kept turning manageable throws into first downs. Ten of his catches and 96 of his yards came with Miami linebackers Jordyn Brooks or Jacob Rodriguez in primary coverage. The Vikings found the match-up and kept using it.
That doesn’t solve everything. Hockenson also had a difficult afternoon when asked to help in pass protection, and future opponents won’t politely offer the same coverage all game. But Minnesota now has evidence that Murray can settle through Hockenson rather than waiting for a deep shot or asking Justin Jefferson to rescue every possession.
Jefferson missed the game with his ankle injury, so this wasn’t how O’Connell would choose to build the passing offense every week. It did, however, give him something worth keeping when Jefferson returns. A healthy Jefferson outside and a confident Hockenson working inside should make the field feel rather less crowded for Murray.
Losing Donovan Jackson changes the whole left side
The win came with a much bigger cost than anybody realised on Sunday.
Donovan Jackson tore his meniscus and will require surgery. O’Connell said the injury will likely end his regular season, although he left open the possibility of a postseason return. The Vikings placed him on injured reserve on Tuesday.
Jackson had become one of the easier parts of the offense to trust. He was still young and still improving, but the rebuilt line needed exactly that sort of second-year step. Now Joe Huber is the first replacement at left guard after playing 71 snaps against Miami.
Huber did some useful work after being thrown into the game, but he’s still an undrafted second-year player taking over beside a left tackle who may not be available this week. Darrisaw didn’t practise on Wednesday while remaining in the concussion protocol. Brian O’Neill was limited by a knee issue, although O’Connell described that as soreness rather than a major new concern.
It leaves Murray with a fairly obvious problem. He’s already taking too long on some plays while learning the offense, and now the line protecting him could have replacements at both left guard and left tackle. New Orleans doesn’t need a particularly imaginative plan. Test that side early, make Murray speed up and see whether the Vikings can keep the pocket calm.
Michael Jurgens has started his return window from injured reserve and practised fully on Wednesday, which at least gives Minnesota another interior option if he’s activated. Ben Yurosek also began practising, and his return could help replace some of the heavier tight end work lost when Josh Oliver went onto injured reserve.
None of that replaces Jackson. The Vikings spent the offseason trying to give their quarterback a stable line and a dependable run game. Four weeks in, injuries have already removed Jackson, Oliver and Jordan Mason from the current plan. Aaron Jones has handled the extra work well, but asking a 31-year-old back for another 20 carries every week while the blocking changes around him isn’t much of a long-term answer either.
Dallas Turner is making the pressure count
The defense gave up one enormous Ollie Gordon run and very little else.
Miami finished with 198 total yards. Malik Willis completed nine passes for 85 yards and spent much of the afternoon dealing with pressure. Flores blitzed on 16 of his 20 dropbacks, according to PFF’s charting, while Dallas Turner produced two sacks from only 14 pass-rush snaps.
Turner’s forced fumble was finished by Andrew Van Ginkel’s pressure and Blake Cashman’s recovery. The play was initially ruled incomplete before O’Connell challenged it successfully. It was a good example of how this defense has worked through four games: the pressure comes from one direction, somebody else arrives to finish it and another player collects the result.
Turner now looks much closer to the player Minnesota thought it was drafting. The useful change isn’t only the sack total. He’s winning quickly enough for Flores to send him in smaller doses, move the rest of the front around and keep the offense guessing about where the next problem is coming from.
There’s still a warning inside the performance. Gordon rushed for 100 yards on nine carries, including a 53-yard burst that took Miami to the Minnesota 11. That drive ended in a field goal, and Gordon later scored Miami’s only touchdown on a separate 12-yard run. Remove the 53-yarder and the numbers look far tidier, but unfortunately the rules don’t allow Flores to remove it. Minnesota missed too many tackles, and those two Gordon runs accounted for the biggest damage in Miami’s only two scoring drives.
The defense was still the main reason Miami ran only 37 offensive plays and scored 10 points. I just don’t want another strong afternoon to turn every mistake into something we wave away because the final score worked out.
Special teams has won a month’s worth of awards
Will Reichard was named NFC Special Teams Player of the Week on Wednesday after making all five attempts against Miami.
That gives the Vikings three consecutive winners from the same unit: Isaiah Rodgers after his blocked field goal in Chicago, Myles Price after his punt return touchdown in Tampa and Reichard after scoring every point on Sunday. Minnesota is the first team since the 2011 San Francisco 49ers to win three straight NFC Special Teams Player of the Week awards.
Reichard has made all 12 of his field goal attempts this season and 31 in a row dating back to last year, tying Fuad Reveiz for the second-longest streak in franchise history. His kickoffs have become part of the field position plan as well, so this isn’t simply five clean swings of the leg and a trophy.
Brett Thorson practised fully on Wednesday and is expected to return against New Orleans after missing two games with his hamstring injury. Johnny Hekker has now been released from the practice squad after filling in as both punter and holder. That little spell could have become messy. Instead, the operation kept working and Hekker leaves having done exactly what Minnesota brought him back to do.
I said last week that special teams had earned more than a footnote. Apparently it took that as a challenge.
Beckham is insurance, not a time machine
The Vikings signed Odell Beckham Jr. and Jeshaun Jones to the practice squad on Wednesday.
Beckham is the name that makes the notification look dramatic, obviously. He knows O’Connell and Wes Phillips from the Rams, is close with Justin Jefferson and brings more experience than the usual practice squad receiver. At 33, after a very brief Giants return, he’s also not the player from the one-handed catch montages that will now be doing the rounds again.
This is a cheap look at a familiar veteran while the receiver group is dealing with injuries. Jefferson returned to limited practice on Wednesday, but Jordan Addison didn’t take part because of a hamstring problem. Jauan Jennings has barely been involved in the passing game so far. Adding another option makes sense.
It doesn’t mean Beckham is about to walk into New Orleans, become the missing part of the offense and make every timing problem disappear. He’s on the practice squad because the Vikings want time to see what he can still offer. If he earns an elevation and contributes later, lovely; until then, this is insurance with a very famous name.
New Orleans is the last test before the bye
The Vikings visit the 1–3 Saints at 6pm on Sunday in the UK and Ireland, before going into an early bye week.
It looks like another game Minnesota should win. We said the same about Miami and spent most of Sunday watching Reichard jog onto the field, so I won’t assume it becomes comfortable simply because New Orleans has just lost 45–24 to Atlanta.
The questions are fairly clear: Can the patched left side keep Murray upright? Can the offense turn the late Hockenson rhythm into more than one drive? Does Jefferson return, and if he does, can Minnesota use him without going straight back to waiting for him to fix everything? Can the defense pressure Tyler Shough without giving Alvin Kamara the sort of gap Gordon found last week?
This start has given the Vikings room to work through those questions without panic. Four wins are a brilliant return from four games, especially when the team has already used two quarterbacks, lost several important players and still hasn’t produced its best offensive performance.
What I want before the bye isn’t a perfect afternoon. I’d just like the offense to join the other two units in winning its share of the game. Hockenson gave it one answer against Miami. Now O’Connell and Murray have to show they can build something around it, even with the left side of the line changing underneath them.