After a couple of magical games to start the season, the Vikings came back down to earth on Sunday in Tampa, Fla. — which is perfectly fine because this is where NFL games are won and lost, and the Vikings are 3-0.
After storming back to beat Green Bay with a frenetic fourth-quarter rally in Week 1, and silencing Caleb Williams and the Bears with a defensive performance nothing short of spectacular in a Week 2 victory in Chicago, the Vikings were reminded that most NFL victories aren’t magic.
They’re a grind.
Minnesota’s 23-16 victory over the winless Buccaneers on Sunday was nothing if not a grind, nearly bereft of big plays from an offense playing its first full game with new quarterback Kyler Murray and mostly without star receiver Justin Jefferson. Nearly all of the Vikings’ scoring highlights were produced by the special teams.
On Sunday, that was good enough, and in today’s NFL, good enough usually wins games. Teams that can consistently survive a slog like this one tend to be the ones still playing deep into January. And with a defense like this one, the Vikings can win a lot of slogs.
They might have to.
After suffering a concussion on the second series in Week 1, Murray played his first full game in purple and didn’t look great. He found Jordan Addison for a couple of long gains, including a 41-yard touchdown pass to give the Vikings a 17-10 lead they took into halftime.
Murray sent a dart to Jefferson for a first down on the first play from scrimmage, then spent most of his time dodging defenders and throwing the ball into the dirt or out of bounds, which might be smart but isn’t fun to watch. He also threw an interception, and on an early scramble took a late slide like the one that ended in a concussion against Green Bay.
That probably has to stop.
With one game and a win under his belt, Murray should get better the more comfortable he gets in, what is still, a new offense, and he’ll have to for the Vikings to realize their goals. Getting Jefferson (ankle) and running back Jordan Mason (thumb) back will help. In the meantime, the defense might be good enough to carry the Vikings until the offense finds a groove.
Plus, there’s always Will Reichard.
Say what you will about Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, but he got the NFL’s best place-kicker with a sixth-round pick in the 2024 draft. Reichard is a perfect 7 for 7 this season and hit a season-best 56-yarder on Sunday.
He scored all the Vikings’ points in a Week 2, 9-3 victory at Chicago, and has made 40 of his past 42 attempts. We probably don’t write enough about this guy, but that might be the way he likes it. Kickers tend to thrive from the shadows, even kickers from the University of Alabama.
Field goals, of course, no matter how long, don’t make for great video unless they split the uprights as time expires. But that’s unfair.
Reichard’s 56-yarder with just more than 3 minutes remaining on Sunday was, for all intents and purposes, a pressure-packed, game-winner, extending a 17-16 lead to 20-16 to put the game just out of reach of a Bucs offense that was bullied and harassed by a Brian Flores defense that, by game’s end, was just plain mean.
By the end, it was hard not to feel for Baker Mayfield, who was running for his life for most of the game, yet kept the Buccaneers in it to the end. Sacked six times, he left with what appeared to be a broken thumb on his throwing hand courtesy of, and incidentally, Vikings linebacker Blake Cashman.
It was an ugly way to leave an ugly game.
But they can’t all be magical. This Vikings’ season was gonna fall from the ether at some point; that it did so in a road victory is a good omen. It might not have been magic on Sunday, but it was enough to improve to 3-0, and that’s what counts.