The Vikings are 4-1, having won three straight one-possession games against teams with losing records. They fell behind by 14 points at home in the first one, missed multiple chances to pull away in the second one and gave up 19 straight points after taking a 21-3 lead in the third one.
They will head to Miami this weekend with a chance to reach 5-1 before their bye week. Between now and then, they will provide plenty of fuel for a content machine that loves to run on this question especially:
"Are the (insert team name here) really that good?"
The next batch of NFL power rankings will hit Tuesday, attempting to place the Vikings' 4-1 record in context. Pro Football Focus' grades place the Vikings near the top of the league; other data analysis models have them more toward the middle. Fans and commentators will all subject the Vikings to various eye tests, measuring a five-game sample from a new coaching staff against some arbitrary standard.
The question of how good the Vikings are, on Oct. 10, might not be terribly easy to answer. It might also not matter much.
Through five weeks, the Vikings' offensive starters have played 346 game snaps together in a new scheme, and their defense has played 322, after most of the team's prominent players sat out the preseason. They have 12 more game weeks, in addition to whatever practice time they'll log during next week's bye, to become more precise.
Their 4-1 start, with four conference and three division wins in the season's first five weeks, means the Vikings won't be scrambling to catch up in the NFC playoff race as they figure things out. The NFL's expanded playoff field gives them a realistic chance to make the postseason just by going .500 the rest of the way.
Should they reach the playoffs, they'd compete with a NFC field that seems to have few complete teams at the moment. The Eagles (5-0) look like the class of the conference so far, the Giants are a surprising 4-1 under first-year coach Brian Daboll and the Cowboys' defense has helped them start 4-1 with Cooper Rush playing for the injured Dak Prescott.
But the final four teams in last year's NFC playoffs — the Rams, 49ers, Buccaneers and Packers — have all lost at least two games, and all four have offenses ranked 20th or worse in average points per drive. While the Vikings have plenty to figure out, so do many of their competitors.
A 17-game regular season and a 14-team playoff field means the goal for NFL teams is to reach the postseason with a relatively healthy team playing its best football in January. There's no telling what could happen if the Vikings get there, particularly if they're able to play at home for the first time since the Minneapolis Miracle.
It's a long ways off, but the Vikings' start affords them a bit of time to figure things out. There's no selection committee picking a playoff field, or algorithm ranking the teams that will ultimately be chosen for the postseason. All that matters is wins, and ugly ones count just the same. After a 1-5 start in 2020 and a 1-3 start in 2021, they're in a much more comfortable place to begin 2022.
By the time the question of whether they're any good actually means something, they might be able to provide an answer.
"We're going to be talking each week here all the way through to January, and that's where it really matters. We've got to finish strong," quarterback Kirk Cousins said. "But it's a great start, and we've got to build on it."
