The Vikings are the first team to start 3-0 with under 250 total yards each game since the 1957 Cleveland Browns, who had a rookie running back by the name of Jim Brown win NFL MVP that year. Well, there's no Jim Brown on Minnesota's offense so how exactly is a team with the most punts in the NFL (18) off to a 3-0 start? It's the wizardry of defensive coordinator Brian Flores, who is blitzing at earth-shattering rates this year.
Keep in mind, a Flores defense has led the NFL in blitz rate in each of his past four seasons as a head coach of defensive coordinator entering 2026. It was around 50% last year. Now it's skyrocketed to an astronomical 71% this year.
Minnesota blitzed 78% of the time in Week 1 vs. the Packers in a game they outscored Green Bay 22-0 in the fourth quarter. They ramped it up to 81% in Week 2 in an ugly weather game vs. a Bears team coming off a 59-point game. Finally, in Week 3 Flores controlled himself with a measly 57% blitz rate in a pissing match vs. fellow blitz king Todd Bowles.
Those are the three highest blitz rates by any team in a game this season. It all amounts to by far the highest blitz rate in the league this year at 71% with the Buccaneers a very distant second at 46%. This is such a wide gap (as you can see below) that it's the same as the disparity between the second-highest and 30th-highest blitz rates this season.
As you can imagine, nobody comes out of the gates blitzing like this. It's the highest blitz rate through three games in the past 20 years, ahead of the 2023 Vikings with Flores (65%). It's the highest blitz rate by any team in any three-game span since 2007.
It's the signature of a defense that has been the best in the NFL this year. The Vikings lead the NFL in defensive per game, points per drive allowed, sacks, third down defense, red zone defense, among other categories this year. Vikings' defensive dominance this season That much pressure has to have an impact on an offense.
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