Through four games the Minnesota Vikings are undefeated and look like a legitimate Super Bowl contender after putting the clamps down on the Giants during a 24-10 Monday night victory. Sam Bradford looks like a new/different quarterback in three games with Minnesota and Norv Turner is getting the most out of his weapons in a post-Adrian Peterson world.
But it's the defense doing the dirty work and locking people down. Specifically, the defense has absolutely dominated a quartet of quality quarterbacks over the first month of the season.
Marcus Mariota of the Titans, Aaron Rodgers of the Packers, Cam Newton of the Panthers and Eli Manning of the Giants have all looked well below average against the Vikes defense.
| QB | Comp/Att (%) | Yards | TD | INT | Sacked | QB Rating |
| Marcus Mariota | 25/41 (61%) | 271 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 86.5 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 20/36 (55.6%) | 213 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 70.7 |
| Cam Newton | 21/35 (60%) | 262 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 47.6 |
| Eli Manning | 25/45 (55.6%) | 261 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 63.3 |
Let's look at that as one giant quarterback and extrapolate it over the course of a full season:
| QB | Comp/Att (%) | Yards | TD | INT | Sacked | QB Rating |
| Composite | 364/628 (58%) | 4028 | 12 | 24 | 60 | 67.6 |
Those aren't great numbers. Let's compare this hypothetical line to quarterbacks over the past 10 years, utilizing Pro-Football-Reference's season finder and searching for quarterbacks with sub-60 percent completions, less than 15 touchdowns, more than 20 interceptions and a QB rating.
The three comps you get since 2006? Geno Smith in 2013, Mark Sanchez in 2009 and Matthew Stafford in 2009.
So the Vikings are basically turning a former Heisman winner and No. 2 overall pick, a two-time MVP, a one-time MVP and a two-time Super Bowl MVP into quarterbacks that look like rookies.
We've seen these quarterbacks post good games this season. Four games is a small sample size, but we're talking a quarter of a season now where the Vikings are making really good quarterbacks look really pedestrian.
It basically boils down to a combination of putting pressure on the quarterback and making these offenses adjust their game plans to limit the deep ball.
Only Newton averaged more than seven yards per attempt against the Vikings, and he's the only quarterback to register more than 50 yards on deep passing attempts (more than 20 yards down the field) against Minnesota.
Look at the numbers below. The Vikings defensive game plan is terrifyingly amorphous. Keep extra guys (Panthers) in and they'll sack you to death. Refuse to get sacked and they'll take away the deep ball. Mike Zimmer is happy to let you take the deep ball out of your game plan.
Pressure percentage, completion percentage under pressure and deep attempts/yards courtesy Pro Football Focus:
| QB | Yards/Attempt | Pressure % | Sacks | Pressure Comp% | Deep Attempts | Deep Yards |
| Marcus Mariota | 6.6 | 25.6 | 2 | 33.3% | 1 | 0 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 5.9 | 25.0 | 5 | 0.0% | 4 | 39 |
| Cam Newton | 7.5 | 48.9 | 8 | 38.5% | 8 | 104 |
| Eli Manning | 5.8 | 22.2 | 0 | 30.0% | 3 | 0 |
There's no magic formula here. The Vikings simply have high-end talent at every level of the defense and it shows in teams' inability to move the ball against them.
Linvall Joseph is a terrifying menace against the run.
Anthony Barr is breaking humans.
And Xavier Rhodes is morphing into one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL.
That's just three guys. It doesn't include Everson Griffin (three sacks against the Panthers), Harrison Smith (one of the five best safeties in the game), Danielle Hunter (in the middle of a massive breakout) or Eric Kendricks (a dynamic linebacker in just his second year).
In short, the Vikings defense is loaded, it's turning good quarterbacks into below-average passers and we shouldn't expect them to slow down any time soon.
Next up? Brock Osweiler, Carson Wentz and Brian Hoyer.
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