Sunday's win over the New Orleans Saints improved the Minnesota Vikings' record to 5-0 this season, and yes, Kyler Murray had his best performance in a purple and gold uniform so far in the matchup, but, once again, a Vikings victory would not have been possible if not for their defense.
Minnesota's defense has been performing at an elite level ever since it came out for the second half of the Week 1 win against the Green Bay Packers.
Since then, the Vikings' defense has allowed opposing offenses to score a grand total of three touchdowns.
Brian Flores has his guys looking unstoppable, and if Minnesota is going to go on any sort of run this season, expect the defense to be the unit leading the way.
Vikings embarrass Tyler Shough in Week 5 win over Saints
Entering Sunday, Saints quarterback Tyler Shough ranked fourth in the NFL in passing yards with 1,203 yards through the air in his first four games this season.
Some believed that containing Shough this weekend seemed like it was going to be a tall task for the Vikings, but Flores and defense did what they do best in the game and made the New Orleans quarterback lose his mind.
Minnesota blitzed Shough on 85.2 percent of his dropbacks on Sunday, according to data from PFF, and it resulted in the Saints' second-year signal-caller completing 64 percent of his passes for just 96 yards, no touchdowns, and two interceptions to generate an abysmal 38.1 passer rating.
Shough was only sacked once in the contest (by Andrew Van Ginkel), but he still had Vikings defenders in his face all afternoon long, as Minnesota finished the game with 17 total pressures.
Vikings linebacker Eric Wilson led the defense with five pressures, and Dallas Turner chipped in with four during the matchup, giving him an impressive 32 pressures so far this season.
Vikings might have a generational defense on their hands
While the concerns of many Minnesota fans have been on the offense this year, the defense is on track to be one of the best in franchise history.
Currently, the Vikings are allowing just 12.8 points per game, which would be the fewest they've allowed in a season since 1976, when the vaunted "Purple People Eaters" defense allowed just 12.6 points per matchup.
For those wondering, Minnesota's best defense in recent memory, the 2017 unit led by former Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer, allowed 15.8 points per game.
Basically, Minnesota's defense is performing at a level that the fanbase hasn't seen from that side of the ball in 50 years.
There are still a lot of games left on the Vikings' schedule, but if the defense can continue to be elite and the offense can play as it did in New Orleans on Sunday, dreams of the franchise capturing its first-ever Vince Lombardi trophy might actually become a reality.
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