Vikings vs. Dolphins: Will Reichard Goes 5-for-5 as Minnesota Grinds to 4-0 in Week 4

Five kicks. Fifteen points. Zero touchdowns. Will Reichard was the Minnesota Vikings' entire scoring offense on Sunday, and somehow that was plenty.

The Vikings beat the Miami Dolphins 15-10 at U.S. Bank Stadium to move to 4-0, riding Reichard's perfect 5-for-5 afternoon, 13 catches from T.J. Hockenson and another suffocating defensive performance. Miami fell to 0-4 for the first time since 2019, which was Brian Flores' first season as the Dolphins' head coach. Flores now directs Minnesota's defense. The irony writes itself.

A Slow Burn in Minneapolis

This was never going to be a shootout. Reichard opened the scoring from 47 yards in the first quarter, added a 50-yarder in the second and closed the half with a 33-yarder as time expired for a 9-0 lead.

Miami's offense, meanwhile, could barely find the 50. Its first half, per the AP: 21 plays, 76 net yards and not one possession that ended on Minnesota's side of the field. Its best moment never counted. Malik Willis found Chris Bell for an apparent 68-yard touchdown early in the second quarter, but Bell had stepped out of bounds while working himself open, and an illegal-touching flag wiped it away.

Dallas Turner then did Dallas Turner things, stripping Willis on a sack that Blake Cashman recovered at midfield (it took a Minnesota challenge to overturn an incomplete-pass ruling). The Vikings, naturally, went three-and-out from there. That was the offense's personality for most of the day: plenty of yards between the 20s, then a field goal or a punt.

The Dolphins finally cracked something after halftime. Ollie Gordon II broke a 53-yarder on third-and-5, the longest run of his career, and Riley Patterson turned it into a 27-yard field goal. After Reichard's 41-yarder pushed the lead to 12-3, Gordon scored from 12 yards out with 11 seconds left in the third quarter. Suddenly it was 12-10.

Minnesota answered with the drive of the day: 15 plays, 60 yards and 8:30 off the clock, ending in Reichard's 29-yarder with 6:41 to play. Miami went three-and-out, and the Vikings never gave the ball back.

Reichard, Hockenson and a Grown-Up Defense

Reichard is operating on a different frequency than most kickers. His day (47, 50, 33, 41 and 29 yards) stretched the NFL's longest active streak to 31 straight made field goals, per the AP, and the Vikings said it now shares second place in team history with a Fuad Reveiz run. When the videoboard showed him at the two-minute warning, the building roared. A few days later, the league made him its NFC Special Teams Player of the Week.

Hockenson was the offense's oxygen. He caught all 13 of his targets for 119 yards, tying his career high in receptions, and the team said it set a Vikings record for catches in a game against Miami. With Justin Jefferson out, Kyler Murray leaned on him like a load-bearing wall.

Murray's line (27 of 37, 247 yards, no turnovers) looks tidy, but a Miami defense that had zero sacks in its first three games got him four times for 34 yards, and he heard some boos as the empty possessions stacked up. He still sounded like a quarterback who thinks the breakthrough is close.

"That door will get kicked down soon," Murray said.

Aaron Jones Sr. did the dirty work with 94 rushing yards on 20 carries plus four catches for 34 yards. Turner finished with two sacks.

For Miami, Gordon ran for 100 yards on just nine carries, and rookie linebacker Jacob Rodriguez made 18 tackles, which the Vikings' site noted was the most by any player in a game this season. Willis finished 9 of 17 for 85 yards.

The Fourth Quarter Was a Keep-Away Clinic

Here is the stat that decided it: Minnesota had the ball for 14 of the 15 fourth-quarter minutes, according to the AP, and piled up eight first downs in that stretch. Miami ran 37 offensive plays all game. You cannot win a game you are watching from the sideline.

The final drive was the clincher. Facing third-and-5 from the Miami 10 with the two-minute warning approaching, Murray hit Hockenson for 8 yards, and the tight end was wide open with a clear path to the end zone. He slid down short of the goal line instead, Miami was out of timeouts, and Murray took three knees.

Coach Kevin O'Connell appreciated the math, if not the scoreboard.

"If we want to score, we should do it earlier," O'Connell said.

Stats That Matter

• 5-for-5: Reichard on field goals, with a long of 50. He accounted for every Minnesota point.
• 0-for-3: Vikings in the red zone. Unbeaten is not the same as flawless.
• 39:11: Minnesota's time of possession, to Miami's 20:49.
• 15-1: The combined record of the four teams the Dolphins have played, per the AP.

Unbeaten, Unpolished and Fine With It

This is Minnesota's second 4-0 start in three years, per the AP, and the Vikings have done it despite two games without a touchdown (this one and a 9-3 win at Chicago). That should worry nobody in the locker room yet, but the red-zone math will not survive a run of playoff-caliber opponents. The line took hits, too: left guard Donovan Jackson (knee) exited in the first quarter, while left tackle Christian Darrisaw (neck) got hurt before halftime, came back out for the third quarter and was then removed as a precaution for a concussion evaluation after another hit. Next up is a trip to New Orleans.

Miami is 0-4 in Jeff Hafley's first season, and the schedule has been brutal. Willis is trying to sell progress.

"You hate the feeling of continuing to get better without actually gaining wins on the win column, but as we see, we're going out there and competing," Willis said.

Cincinnati visits next Sunday.

The Most Unselfish Slide in Football

Hockenson could have had a touchdown. He chose a win instead, the football equivalent of leaving the last slice for the table.

"Once you get the first down, you've got to get down," Hockenson said. "It was tough. I saw that goal line and I wanted it, but it's for the betterment of the team that we ended on offense."

Reichard probably did not mind. He already had the scoring covered.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes as reported by the Associated Press, with additional game notes from the Minnesota Vikings (vikings.com).