http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/sports/football/minnesota-vikings-sam-bradford-nfl-best-team.html 2016-10-10 16:29:39 The Best Team in the N.F.L.? Right Now, It’s the Vikings While indicators don’t suggest the Vikings are a superteam, there is more to the team’s 5-0 start than a surprising offense. === Five weeks have been played in the N.F.L. season. The The N.F.C. champion Panthers, 15-1 last season, have lost three times. The Cardinals have already matched last season’s loss total with three. Only one team remains undefeated. Is it possible that the best team in the N.F.L. is quarterbacked by Sam Bradford? It is not as if the But things did not look good when quarterback Teddy Bridgewater tore an anterior cruciate ligament in preseason practice and was knocked out for the year. When the team traded a first- and a fourth-round pick to the Eagles for Bradford, the consensus was that it was a desperation move. After four uninspired years with the Rams that were marked by repeated injuries, Bradford was somewhat surprisingly acquired by the Eagles in The Vikings used the 36-year-old journeyman Shaun Hill in a Game 1 win over the Titans before turning the reins over to Bradford. Amazingly, he has shot to the top of the quarterback charts. In winning all four games he has played, Bradford has thrown six touchdowns without an interception. His adjusted yards per pass attempt figure is 8.9, third in the league. His previous career high was only 6.8. The Vikings have also succeeded despite losing Adrian Peterson, last year’s leading rusher, in Week 2. He will not return until midseason, at the soonest. There is a lot more to the Vikings’ 5-0 start than the surprising offense. The smothering defense ranks first in the league in yards per play, both against the pass and over all, and has scored two touchdowns. Special teams have helped as well. The Vikings have a league-leading two punt returns for touchdowns, both by Marcus Sherels. Cordarrelle Patterson leads the league in yards per kick return. Still, despite being 5-0, not every indicator marks the Vikings as a superteam. Their schedule so far has not been brutal. Minnesota’s opponents are 11-12. The Vikings have played three home games, including against the best team they have had to face so far, the Packers, and they won that game by only 3 points. Elite teams tend to win blowouts often, but the Vikings’ biggest margin of victory is 18. A small but subtle worry is that the Vikings have recovered five fumbles and lost only one. Many years of data have shown that fumble recoveries are largely a matter of luck and tend to even out over a season. It’s way too soon, of course, to call the season off and award the Vikings the Super Bowl trophy. There is a cluster of nine teams with only one loss. Oddsmakers have the Vikings After a bye week, the Vikings will be tested with a game against Bradford’s old team in Philadelphia, where the rookie Wentz has played well enough that few are lamenting Bradford’s absence. The Super Bowl may well turn out to be a predictable matchup like New England-Green Bay or Pittsburgh-Seattle. But to the shock of Bradford’s many detractors, the Vikings have thrust themselves into the picture.