Minnesota Went 4–0 Without Scoring a Touchdown. Hockenson Even Chose Not to Score.

The Vikings started 4–0 by beating Miami 15–10 without putting the ball in the end zone one single time. Five field goals. FIVE. I know everybody with a Minnesota anytime-touchdown ticket was somewhere staring at the TV like, what the fuck are we doing? 😂

Will Reichard went a perfect 5-for-5. Kyler Murray threw for 247 yards. Aaron Jones had 128 yards from scrimmage. T.J. Hockenson caught 13 passes for 119. The offensive players were moving the ball, so how does a team get all that production and not score a touchdown? The answer is partly red-zone frustration, but the ending is even better.

Five kicks and a whole football game

Reichard's field goals came from 47, 50, 33, 41 and 29 yards. Minnesota went into halftime up 9–0, but Miami hung around because the Vikings weren't finishing drives with six points.

The Dolphins finally scored a touchdown on Ollie Gordon II's 12-yard run late in the third quarter. Gordon ran for 100 yards on just nine attempts, according to the recap. That's the kind of production that can change a game if the defense gets one more stop.

Miami did pressure Kyler and got four sacks, according to the South Florida report. Meanwhile, the Dolphins' own passing game gave them almost nothing—only 85 passing yards from Malik Willis. The Minnesota defense forced key turnovers and kept the Dolphins' offensive possessions limited.

Hockenson had a chance to score—and chose to end the damn game

Here's the detail I almost missed when I looked at the touchdown column. Hockenson caught his 13th pass of the afternoon and slid down at the Miami 2-yard line as the clock approached the two-minute warning. Miami was out of timeouts. By staying inbounds and sliding instead of diving for the end zone, he let Minnesota go into victory formation and end the game.

Think about that for a second. We spend all day yelling that a player needs to score. Then the guy does the smart football thing, refuses the touchdown, and his team wins. That's why nobody should confuse fantasy scoring with what actually helps a football team.

The Vikings' official team write-up says Hockenson caught all 13 targets. It also says that was the most catches by a Vikings player ever against Miami. That's a real performance even though his stat line doesn't end with a TD.

This is a lesson about what a touchdown prop can and can't tell you

If somebody told me Jones would have 20 carries and four receptions for 128 yards from scrimmage, or Hockenson would catch thirteen balls, I'd expect at least one of them to have a good chance to score. On a betting slip, that would sound reasonable. But the actual game said no.

Jones never found the end zone, and Hockenson intentionally avoided it on the play that ended everything. The fantasy version of that decision looks frustrating. The football version is exactly what a disciplined team should do when the clock can finish the job.

That's why I pay attention to usage, targets, red-zone share and the situation instead of pretending touchdowns are owed to somebody because the yardage looked good. Even perfect information about opportunities wouldn't make any single touchdown automatic.

My take: the Vikings won a game fantasy football would've hated

Minnesota's defense handled its side, the kicker handled his, and the offense made enough plays to keep the ball. I'm not gonna act like settling for field goals all season is a championship formula. The Vikings will need more touchdowns when the opponents start making them pay.

But I can respect the intelligence at the end. Hockenson sacrificing a score to protect a win says more about understanding the situation than any touchdown celebration would've.

Thirteen catches, 119 yards, zero touchdowns—and the smartest play of the day might've been choosing not to score.6ix / 6ixtv

Four-and-oh is four-and-oh. Clean up the red-zone offense, appreciate Reichard's leg, and give Hockenson some credit for putting the actual win above a personal statistic.

Watch the actual game and check the box score

6IX TAKE

Deepened October 14, 2026. Vikings 4–0 record and fifth field goal verified; Hockenson's deliberate slide at Miami's 2 confirmed by the Vikings' original game observations. Existing Minnesota team photo remains credited to the original copyright owner and is not represented as public-domain; no unlicensed new game photo duplicated. NFL video is linked/embedded from the league/team.