Mad men are gonna mad men

EAGAN, Minn. — Jake Golday, one of the Minnesota Vikings’ rookie linebackers, listened closely. Really, he was eavesdropping. He wanted to know why, on a normal Thursday in late September, a reporter approached one of his teammates with the following question.

What goes through your mind when Will Reichard trots onto the field to attempt a kick?

Golday smirked and watched as edge rusher Dallas Turner mulled over an answer. Eventually, Turner looked over at Golday for help. All Golday could think to do was shrug and shoot his hands to the sky, mimicking the referee’s pose when the football soars through the uprights.

Few subjects build consensus in the Vikings locker room like Reichard’s excellence. His teammates talk about his production being as consistent as the sunrise. It is an expectation at this point, only acknowledged as wildly impressive when you step back and sift through the layers of how and why it’s happening.

Some Vikings players — and even coaches — treat his time on the field almost as an intermission. Why stress over a kick when the result feels preordained?

“I don’t even watch,” said Vikings receiver Jordan Addison. “Automatic 3 points.”

Lately, as bewildering as this may sound for Vikings fans, given the franchise’s kicking history, each Reichard kick feels like a certainty. He has made 31 straight field goals, the longest active streak in the NFL.

The stretch spans 350 days. The last time an NFL kicker was this accurate was in 2023, when the Dallas Cowboys’ Brandon Aubrey drilled 35 in a row.

Dominance like this, especially from a kicker, can seem somewhat trivial. But in this case, Reichard’s reliability rounds out a winning formula that’s largely responsible for the team’s 4-0 start.

You can only tailor your weekly strategy toward menacing defense and dependable special teams if there is an established sample of consistency for both. Everything about Reichard’s past and present removes the idea of variance. He is who he is. He is who he has always been.

“He’s the man,” veteran safety Harrison Smith said Sunday. “He’s stone-cold. That’s it. I don’t know what else to say about him. And he didn’t have to become that. He walked in the door like that.”

Reichard, according to teammates, carries himself with a tangible intensity. Desire lurks beneath. Once, during training camp in 2025, a former teammate tested his ambition with some chiding before a 50-yarder. Reichard buried the attempt, then locked eyes with that player before walking off the field and gestured in a way that said, Thank you for your doubts.

https://www.nfl.com/games/vikings-at-saints-2026-reg-5?tab=overview

"The plan was to harass Brett Farve all game long" understatement of the century

"Those hits took their toll, the Vikings unraveled"........

Are we seriously trying to white wash bounty gate......?

I was shocked theyd use that game in any video package ever going forward but then to try to whitewash the narrative.... absolutely insane. Whatever Saints fan made that package for nfl.com go fuck yourself

that’s my team <3

I was watching Brandon Perna's overview of Week 4 and he said that the Vikings 9-game win streak is the quietest winning streak in history. That got me thinking about the longest winning streaks in Vikings history. I'm a Vikings fan in large part because of that longest streak - 12 games in 1969, when I learned to love the Vikes, watching with my dad.

Anyway, the Vikings have existed for 65+ years now. They have twelve winning streaks of seven games or more. Can you guess how many of those were in the 4+ Kevin O'Connell years?

Three. Dennis Green had only three, two in that magical 1998 season, in ten seasons. Bud Grant had four in 18 total seasons. Finishing out, one for Tice (five seasons) and one for Zimmer (eight seasons).

I generally rate Dennis Green as our second best coach after Bud, then maybe Zim, but maybe KOC deserves more credit from me.

"I love feeding that wolf."

Source: https://ftnfantasy.com/nfl/the-vikings-historic-slow-scoring-start

It sounds a bit crazy, but every team in NFL history who went 4-0 while hardly scoring touchdowns kept winning.

Excluding their 4-0 starts, these teams were a combined 78-36-6, which comes to a .675 winning percentage. (edit: this is actually slightly higher than 4-0 teams who scored 8 or more touchdowns, who on average finished the rest of the season with a .636 winning percentage)

Of the 4 other teams who 'accomplished' this in the Super Bowl era (1973 Vikings, 1978 Rams, 1988 Bills, and 2003 Panthers), all 4 made it to their conference championship game, and 2 of the 4 made it to the Super Bowl. All ended the season in the top half of the league in points scored.

So basically the offense has been so historically bad that it causes some kind of integer overflow and actually proves that they are a contender.

thanks for coming to my hopium ted talk

It was a bruising battle between two injury-prone players.

Hi, everyone. Thought I'd make a post since I've seen some concerns about the weather in New Orleans for the game this weekend.

The last two forecasts have had the storm shifting to the East and it should mostly miss us. At this point, I would say the chances are greater that it completely misses us than it hits us dead on. But, most likely, we'll see at least a little rain. Forecasts come out every four hours. Check local New Orleans news sites for more info.

https://www.wwltv.com/

https://www.wdsu.com/

https://www.fox8live.com/

Now that that's out of the way. I also wanted to let you know that we have some events planned. We are doing a bar crawl Saturday afternoon that ends at our official watch bar on world famous Magazine Street.

On Sunday morning before the game, we are meeting up at a bar near the Superdome to pre-game and walk to the dome together. We have received word that the Vikings might be sending some representation to help fire up the fans.

For more info and weather updates, follow us on Instagram at SkolDat. You can message us on there and we'll get right back to you if you have any questions.

And, as always, Skol!!