It’s hard to say the Minnesota Vikings have the best coaching staff in the NFL. After all, Andy Reid hasn’t retired yet.
But they are not far away.
The Vikings are 3-0 this season, and what they’re doing is remarkable. They were expected to finish last in the NFC North, and they used the 10th overall pick in the draft on quarterback JJ McCarthy, who won’t play a single snap this season. Without any contributions from their top-10 pick, the Vikings have won three straight with a pair of high-quality wins. They beat the San Francisco 49ers in Week 2 and then earned a 34-7 win over the Houston Texans on Sunday. Both teams are likely to be division champions and Super Bowl contenders by the end of the season.
We’ll see where the Vikings’ path takes them this season, and it will also be interesting to see what happens with Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores.
Flores’ defense is a huge factor in the Vikings’ start. The 49ers scored seven points in three quarters at Minnesota last week. The Texans were shut out in the first half. Houston finally got a score with 3:56 left in the third quarter, after Minnesota had taken a 21-0 lead. The Vikings probably don’t have a top-five talent on defense, but they’re playing like a top-five unit. That’s coaching.
If Flores were any other defensive coordinator, producing results like these, he would be a leading candidate for a head coaching job next offseason. But we know it’s a little more complicated than that. Flores had a rough time with the Miami Dolphins, including renewed criticism this year for his handling of Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Flores’ racial discrimination lawsuit against the league will be in the news as teams mull whether to give him an interview. It would be hard to deny Flores the opportunity, based on his work with the Vikings defense. We’ll see what happens, but his success in Minnesota is impossible to deny.
The Texans struggled to generate a running game or explosive plays in the passing game. The latter is not usually a problem for CJ Stroud, who had one of his worst games as a pro. Minnesota plays fast and physical, with constant pressure and disciplined coverage. They confused Stroud and made him look indecisive, which has been difficult to do.
Flores’ defense is doing its job, and head coach Kevin O’Connell is getting the most out of his offense. Sam Darnold is playing better than he’s ever played consistently in the NFL. It helps to have Justin Jefferson to throw to. But he doesn’t have Jordan Addison or TJ Hockenson, who have both been out with injuries, and that hasn’t mattered. Darnold briefly went out Sunday after injuring his knee, and when he returned to the game shortly afterward he received a standing ovation. He’s earned it after his performance in the first three games.
The Vikings lead the NFC North at a very early stage of the season and have proven for two weeks in a row that they can beat really good teams. Coaching is important in the NFL.
Here are the rest of the winners and losers from Week 3 of the NFL season:
WINNERS
Dallas Goedert: After a crushing loss on Monday night to the Atlanta Falcons, the Philadelphia Eagles were 1-2 if they lost in Week 3 to a streaking New Orleans Saints team. And they came into the game without AJ Brown for the second straight game.
Dallas Goedert was the surprise hero for the Eagles. Goedert had 10 receptions for 170 yards, both career highs, including a massive 61-yard gain on third-and-16 in the final two minutes to set up Saquon Barkley’s go-ahead touchdown. The Eagles got an interception to seal the 15-12 victory.
Barkley scored two touchdowns, Jalen Hurts had 311 yards passing, the Eagles’ defense cooled down a red-hot Saints offense, but Goedert was the star of the win. While the loss to the Falcons still stings, being 2-1 isn’t all that bad.
Matt LaFleur, again: The Tennessee Titans waived Malik Willis less than a month ago. They traded him to the Green Bay Packers for a seventh-round pick on Aug. 27. And no one batted an eye at the move; Willis hadn’t played well at all in his regular-season appearances.
That’s what made Sunday so sweet for Willis and impressive for LaFleur. The Packers won their second straight game with Willis replacing Jordan Love and helping beat his former team 30-14. While Willis was playing a calm, controlled game, Titans quarterback Will Levis was taking his team out of yet another game, practically handing Jaire Alexander an interception for a touchdown in the first half. Willis completed 13 of 19 passes for 202 yards and continues to look much better than he did with the Titans.
It looks like Love will be back soon, perhaps next week, and it’s notable that Green Bay has gone 2-0 without him. There are some coaches who are having a great start to the season, and LaFleur is definitely on the shortlist for NFL Coach of the Year.
Bo Nix and Sean Payton: Payton was winless in September as Denver Broncos coach, going 0-5 in his first two seasons with the team. Nix had a brutal first two games as an NFL quarterback.
Both redeemed themselves on Sunday. The Broncos’ defense played very well, Nix looked much more comfortable and Denver pulled out a big 26-7 win over a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team that looked very good during a 2-0 start to the season.
Baker Mayfield got off to a hot start, but Denver made him nervous throughout the game. Denver gave up almost none of the big plays Tampa Bay had been getting in the first two games. Nix looked the more confident quarterback of the two, carrying the ball farther down the field than he had in his first two starts and rarely making mistakes. He completed 25 of 36 passes for 216 yards and was accurate throughout the game. It was a nice step forward for the Broncos and their rookie quarterback, and Payton can know he won’t be going 0-0 again in September.
LOSERS
Anthony Richardson and Caleb Williams: By the end of the third quarter of the Chicago Bears-Indianapolis Colts game, the combined passer rating of the two young quarterbacks was below 100.
Both quarterbacks are prospects and high draft picks, but they’ve gotten off to a slow start this season. Richardson completed just 10 passes and threw two awful interceptions to continue his poor start to the season, and while Williams had a big 363-yard rush, he also threw two interceptions. Richardson’s Colts were good enough to overcome Richardson’s bad day and win 21-16.
Williams’ third turnover all but ended the Bears’ chances of a comeback. Fellow first-round rookie Laiatu Latu stripped him of the ball in the fourth quarter in Bears territory. Both quarterbacks have the talent to become very good quarterbacks, but the going was tough for them on Sunday and earlier this season. At least Richardson came out on top.
Justin Herbert: Herbert said he suffered a sprained ankle at the top of Week 2, and that should have set off some alarm bells. It’s a tough injury to overcome and it’s nearly impossible for it not to affect performance.
Herbert left Sunday’s game early due to what appeared to be an aggravation of his sprained ankle. He was replaced by Taylor Heinicke, who did little to help the Pittsburgh Steelers pull away and cruise to a 20-10 victory.
The Chargers are 2-1 on the season, but they should have some concerns. Herbert won’t be healthy for a while and if the Chargers continue to play him, he’ll be at risk of falling behind. It won’t be an easy situation for coach Jim Harbaugh to handle.
Deshaun Watson and the Browns: The Cleveland Browns got off to a great start on Sunday. They recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff and Watson connected with Amari Cooper on the first play to take a 7-0 lead. And that was it.
The Browns finished the first half with 41 yards of offense, 24 of which came on the first play. They still had a chance to win in the final minutes after a missed field goal by New York, and Watson could have been the hero. But the Browns had four missed attempts and Watson threw one completion on the final three attempts, and the New York Giants earned a surprising 21-15 victory.
The Browns should be better than 1-2, and losing at home to the Giants is tough to swallow. Watson wasn’t awful Sunday, but he wasn’t great either. And when he did get a chance to redeem himself, the Browns didn’t move the ball at all.
