Dominant Vikings defense reaches streak NFL hasn't seen in 37 years

On November 9, a Lamar Jackson touchdown pass to Mark Andrews gave the Ravens some extra cushion in the fourth quarter of a Week 10 win over the Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Since then, the Vikings have played six full games of football — and they haven't allowed a single touchdown pass to their opponents. Well over a month later, that Jackson-to-Andrews connection remains the most recent TD pass converted by a team against Brian Flores' defense.

To put that in some context, the Vikings are the first team since the 1988 Browns to not allow a touchdown pass in at least six consecutive games. Before that, it had happened just four times since the NFL-AFL merger, all of them in the 1970s.

Of course, the first three games of this Vikings streak were losses against the Bears, Packers, and Seahawks. The offense was the bigger issue for Minnesota in those contests, but the defense did allow four total touchdowns. They just all happened to be rushing touchdowns by running backs.

Over the last three weeks, all Vikings wins, the defense has been even better, including two dominant performances against NFC East cellar dwellers. They shut out the Commanders a couple weeks ago, gave up a couple more rushing touchdowns in a win over the Cowboys the following week, and then held the Giants without an offensive touchdown in Sunday's 16-13 win at MetLife Stadium.

New York rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart was completely outmatched by Flores' defense in this game. His first pass completion didn't come until after the two-minute warning in the first half. He finished the day 7 of 13 for 33 yards and an interception. The Vikings had five sacks, plus two others that were negated by (relatively weak) roughing the passer calls involving helmet contact. The Giants had 13 net passing yards in total.

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The seven pass completions are the fewest by a Vikings opponent since Rex Grossman and the Bears had six in a December 2006 game in Chicago. More impressively, the Giants' 13 net passing yards are the fewest by a Vikings opponent since Archie Manning and the Saints had -7 in a 1975 game.

This was a throttling effort from the Vikings' defense, especially after they settled in following some early rushing success by the Giants. Blake Cashman had 16 tackles, Byron Murphy Jr. recorded his first interception of the season, and five different players had sacks.

This streak is a reminder of what could've been this season for the Vikings and this defense, which has been mostly excellent despite some struggles against the run.

The NFL record streak without allowing a pass touchdown, since the 1970 merger, is seven games. The Vikings can tie that record on Thursday against the Lions, but they'll have to snap Jared Goff's 21-game streak with a touchdown pass in order to do so.

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