Further Evidence That the 2023 Vikings Are the Inverse of the 2022 Team

The Vikings actually have a positive DVOA this year despite their 0-2 record.

Two weeks into the season, the 2023 Vikings are the inverted version of the 2022 Vikings.

Last year's team went 13-4 on the back of an 11-0 record in one-score games. The advanced metrics did not look fondly upon those Vikings. One metric in particular, DVOA (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average), ranked them as the fifth-worst team in the entire league, sandwiched between the 5-12 Rams and the 4-13 Cardinals.

This year, things have swung back the other way. The Vikings are 0-2, largely due to their league-worst minus-6 turnover differential, but DVOA has them at 16th. They're the worst team with a positive DVOA at 3.6%, but that's still a massive improvement over their -15.2% mark from last year. The Vikings have the best DVOA of any of the nine 0-2 teams, and they're ahead of the 1-1 Lions, who are 17th.

The Vikings rank 14th in offensive DVOA, 20th in defensive DVOA, and 8th in special teams DVOA.

Offensively, their 10th-ranked passing game is held back by the 30th-ranked rushing attack. If they can get some sort of run game going and stop turning the ball over, their prolific passing production could help the offense as a whole climb into the top ten.

Defensively, it's a similar story: The Vikings rank 12th against the pass and 27th against the run after getting eaten up on the ground against the Eagles. Brian Flores' challenge is to find a way to stop the run while still utilizing the smaller personnel groupings he likes for defending the pass.

Last year, the Vikings were a bad good team. This year, they appear to be a good bad team. If they can find a way to beat the Chargers on Sunday, they might be able to get their season back on track.

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