Vikings Keep Historic Streak Alive
On Sunday, New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart never threatened the Vikings’ defense. Brian Flores‘ unit once again haunted a young signal-caller, as those tend to struggle with the pressure he’s dialing up.
His unit held Dart to a ridiculous stat line, completing only seven of 13 passes for 33 yards and one interception. Needless to say, he didn’t find the endzone. In fact, no quarterback has found the endzone through the air against the Vikings in over a month.
The last passing touchdown the unit allowed came out of Lamar Jackson’s hands on November 9th. In the following six games, opposing quarterbacks posted six gooseggs.
As expected, that number is outstanding, and those streaks don’t happen often. It tied Minnesota’s longest streak in franchise history. The 1969 Vikings, with the young Purple People Eaters, also held passers to zero passing touchdowns in six consecutive games. Flores’ squad is just the 8th since 1961 to have a streak of that length, and as the league has become more pass-heavy, it’s the first of its kind this century.
With those parameters — consecutive games with zero passing touchdowns allowed in a single season — only the 1972 Packers, the 1976 Steelers, and the 1988 Browns reached seven consecutive games.
The record, including the playoffs, however, belongs to the 1997 Packers. In the final five regular-season games and three playoff games, they shut down the end zone through the air. Of course, they still lost the Super Bowl against the Denver Broncos, because Terrell Davis and John Elway just rushed for four touchdowns en route to a 31-24 victory.
You might wonder about the record if we include years before 1961. The Chicago Staleys had 27 consecutive games without allowing a passing touchdown between 1921 and 1923. The passing offense back in the day was not nearly as prominent as it is now. Elmet Oliphant led the league with seven passing touchdowns in 1921.
Flores has a unique scheme. He sends blitz after blitz after blitz with zone coverages behind the slew of rushers, and quarterbacks have to get the ball out as quickly as possible. New York’s offense was completely stymied. That was expected, given Dart’s inexperience.
Harrison Smith and his crew also faced some high-flying pass attacks, making the feat even more valuable. Ben Johnson’s white-hot Bears were followed by the Packers, the Sam Darnold-led Seahawks, the Commanders (partly) with Jayden Daniels, and perhaps the top offense in football, the fully loaded Dallas Cowboys with Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and George Pickens all available. The Vikings prevailed.
In Thursday’s Christmas game, the Vikings could tie the seven-game mark, and they could reach the record eight games in the season finale. Those two games could be tough challenges. Jared Goff ranks second in the NFL with 32 passing touchdowns and has thrown for a touchdown in all of his 15 games this season. Jordan Love has tossed 23 TD passes, but none against the Vikings in their first annual matchup.
The Vikings are 7-8, and the defense has won several of those games without much contributions from the offense.
Editor’s Note: Information from PFF, Over The Cap, and Sports Reference helped with this article.