In any discussion of the league’s worst teams, the Raiders, Bucs and Jaguars tend to get the most pub. And that’s fair; those teams have been terrible.
But the Vikings are also quietly stinking it up pretty well.
Minnesota teased us with a couple of decent games. They won their opener at St. Louis, with Cordarrelle Patterson running for 102 yards, and they remarkably put up 41 points in clobbering the Falcons in Teddy Bridgewater’s first start.
But the Vikings on offense haven’t scored 2 TDs in any of their other five games. Just 3 TDs in those games.
In today’s wide-open NFL, it’s rare to see teams score fewer than 2 TDs. Even a really bad team against a really good one often will clumsily stumbled into the end zone a couple of times.
Every other offense in the league, after all, has scored at least 2 TDs in over half of its games.
The Vikings have scored fewer than 2 TDs in over 70 percent of their games.
It’s early, but they’re in contention to score either 0 or 1 touchdown in over half of their games. In the last five years, this has happened only 17 times.
| GAMES WITH UNDER 2 TOUCHDOWNS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | 0-1 | G | Pct |
| 2011 | St. Louis | 14 | 16 | 87.5% |
| 2010 | Carolina | 13 | 16 | 81.3% |
| 2012 | Kansas City | 12 | 16 | 75.0% |
| 2011 | Kansas City | 12 | 16 | 75.0% |
| 2009 | Oakland | 12 | 16 | 75.0% |
| 2009 | St. Louis | 12 | 16 | 75.0% |
| 2014 | Minnesota | 5 | 7 | 71.4% |
| 2010 | Arizona | 11 | 16 | 68.8% |
| 2011 | Indianapolis | 10 | 16 | 62.5% |
| 2011 | Jacksonville | 10 | 16 | 62.5% |
| 2009 | Buffalo | 10 | 16 | 62.5% |
| 2009 | Cleveland | 10 | 16 | 62.5% |
| 2013 | Houston | 9 | 16 | 56.3% |
| 2012 | NY Jets | 9 | 16 | 56.3% |
| 2012 | Tennessee | 9 | 16 | 56.3% |
| 2011 | Cleveland | 9 | 16 | 56.3% |
| 2010 | Miami | 9 | 16 | 56.3% |
| 2009 | Tampa Bay | 9 | 16 | 56.3% |
—Ian Allan