Game recap

Dolphins @ Vikings

2026 Wk 4 · MIN 15, MIA 10

Will Reichard kicked five field goals and T.J. Hockenson caught all 13 passes thrown his way.

FanIQ Research · October 5, 2026 · 6 facts, every one from the play-by-play

T.J. Hockenson caught all 13 passes thrown to him. Only six players since 1999 have had a perfect game on 13 or more targets.

Rare

Hockenson finished with 13 catches for 119 yards on 13 targets. He had 9 catches for 76 yards in Minnesota's first three games combined. The 13 receptions tie his career high, set at 13 of 16 against the Giants in 2022. Since 1999, a player has caught every target in a regular-season game with 13 or more targets six times; George Kittle in 2020 is the only other tight end. Three of Hockenson's catches came on the final drive, the last an 8 yard grab on third-and-5 that reached the Miami 2, after which Kyler Murray knelt out the clock.

Perfect catch games on 12+ targets, 1999-2026 (regular season)

Season	Week	Player	Team	Opp	Rec	Targets	Yards
2019	16	Christian McCaffrey	CAR	IND	15	15	119
2020	4	George Kittle	SF	PHI	15	15	183
2009	16	Wes Welker	NE	JAX	13	13	138
2019	9	Jaylen Samuels	PIT	IND	13	13	73
2023	18	CeeDee Lamb	DAL	WAS	13	13	98
2026	4	T.J. Hockenson	MIN	MIA	13	13	119
2013	14	Larry Fitzgerald	ARI	LA	12	12	96
2014	5	Matt Forte	CHI	CAR	12	12	105
2019	15	Michael Thomas	NO	IND	12	12	128
2022	7	Austin Ekeler	LAC	SEA	12	12	96
2024	13	Trey McBride	ARI	MIN	12	12	96

Hockenson, 2026 regular season

Week	Rec	Targets	Yards
1	4	5	36
2	3	4	29
3	2	4	11
4	13	13	119

Why it matters. A perfect catch rate on that much volume says as much about the throws as the receiver: Murray threw to him 13 times and none of the throws missed. After three quiet weeks, he was the centerpiece of an offense that otherwise had no touchdowns, and his catches on the last drive are what let Minnesota keep the ball until the clock ran out.

Five Will Reichard field goals and nothing else: the first win built on exactly five field goals since the 2017 49ers

Anomaly

Reichard made kicks of 47, 50, 33, 41 and 29 yards, and Minnesota scored no other points. The Vikings ran 8 pass or run plays inside the Miami 20 without a touchdown: two trips ended in field goals, and the third ended with three kneel-downs from the 2 after Miami was out of timeouts. Since 1999, a winning team has scored only field goals, and at least five of them, 24 times, including two playoff games. Exactly five has happened 13 times, and the 49ers at Chicago in Week 13 of 2017 were the last before this one.

Winners who scored exactly five field goals and no other points, 1999-2026

Season	Week	Type	Game	Winner	Final
2000	2	REG	WAS @ DET	DET	DET 15, WAS 10
2000	6	REG	BAL @ JAX	BAL	JAX 10, BAL 15
2000	9	REG	LV @ LAC	LV	LAC 13, LV 15
2000	14	REG	TEN @ PHI	TEN	PHI 13, TEN 15
2001	9	REG	PIT @ CLE	PIT	CLE 12, PIT 15
2002	17	REG	TB @ CHI	TB	CHI 0, TB 15
2005	8	REG	TB @ SF	SF	SF 15, TB 10
2006	Divisional	POST	IND @ BAL	IND	BAL 6, IND 15
2010	2	REG	BAL @ CIN	CIN	CIN 15, BAL 10
2012	15	REG	KC @ LV	LV	LV 15, KC 0
2013	8	REG	NYG @ PHI	NYG	PHI 7, NYG 15
2017	13	REG	SF @ CHI	SF	CHI 14, SF 15
2026	4	REG	MIA @ MIN	MIN	MIN 15, MIA 10

Winners who scored only field goals, five or more, 1999-2026

Field goals	Games
7	2
6	9
5	13

Reichard's field goals

Qtr	Clock	Distance	Score after
1	7:57	47	MIN 3, MIA 0
2	7:13	50	MIN 6, MIA 0
2	0:04	33	MIN 9, MIA 0
3	6:38	41	MIN 12, MIA 3
4	6:43	29	MIN 15, MIA 10

Why it matters. A team that settles for field goals usually gives the opponent a chance to win with one touchdown, and Miami did get within 12-10 late in the third quarter. Minnesota survived it because Reichard did not miss, including two kicks of 47 and 50 yards, and because the defense held Miami to 198 yards. Winning this way is about once a season league-wide; doing it with exactly five kicks had not happened in eight seasons.

Miami ran 37 offensive plays, its fewest in any game since 1999. Its third-fewest also came in Minnesota, in 2002.

Comparison

The Dolphins had 37 pass and run plays for 198 yards. Minnesota had 69 for 341. Only three of Miami's plays came in the fourth quarter. In the 2025 regular season, 2 of 544 team-games had 37 or fewer pass and run plays. Miami's previous low was 38, in a 2018 win over the Raiders, and the 39-play game in 2002 was a 20-17 loss at Minnesota.

Miami's fewest offensive plays in a game, 1999-2026

Season	Week	Game	Plays	Yards	Final
2026	4	MIA @ MIN	37	198	MIN 15, MIA 10
2018	3	LV @ MIA	38	374	MIA 28, LV 20
2002	16	MIA @ MIN	39	239	MIN 20, MIA 17
2022	3	BUF @ MIA	39	212	MIA 21, BUF 19
2008	15	SF @ MIA	40	249	MIA 14, SF 9
2015	11	DAL @ MIA	41	210	MIA 14, DAL 24

This game, both offenses (pass and run plays)

Team	Plays	Yards	EPA/play	3rd down	Red-zone plays	Red-zone TD	Sacks taken
MIN	69	341	-0.047	8 of 17	8	0	4
MIA	37	198	-0.204	2 of 9	4	1	2

Why it matters. Play count is mostly a function of possession, and Minnesota had the ball for two long drives at the end: 14 plays and a field goal after Miami's touchdown, then a clock-killing drive that never gave the ball back. Miami converted 2 of 9 third downs, which kept its own drives short. With 37 plays, even a +0.180 EPA average on designed runs could not produce enough volume to score more than 10.

After Miami's touchdown with 15 seconds left in the third quarter, the Dolphins ran three more plays

Trend

Ollie Gordon II's 12 yard touchdown run cut Minnesota's lead to 12-10 at the end of the third quarter. The Vikings answered with a 14-play, 60-yard drive that took 8:22 of game clock and ended in Reichard's 29 yard field goal at 6:43. Miami recovered its own muffed kick, ran once and threw twice incomplete, and punted at 5:48. An illegal blindside block on the return moved Minnesota back to its 19, and the Vikings still went 79 yards to the Miami 2 on 8 pass and run plays, then knelt three times.

Scoring plays

Qtr	Clock	Team	Play	Score after
1	7:57	MIN	Reichard 47-yd FG	MIN 3, MIA 0
2	7:13	MIN	Reichard 50-yd FG	MIN 6, MIA 0
2	0:04	MIN	Reichard 33-yd FG	MIN 9, MIA 0
3	11:58	MIA	Patterson 27-yd FG	MIN 9, MIA 3
3	6:38	MIN	Reichard 41-yd FG	MIN 12, MIA 3
3	0:15	MIA	Gordon 12-yd TD run	MIN 12, MIA 10
4	6:43	MIN	Reichard 29-yd FG	MIN 15, MIA 10

Possessions after Miami's touchdown

Team	Clock	Start	Plays	Result
MIN	0:05 (Q3) to 6:43 (Q4)	MIN 29	14	Reichard 29-yd FG
MIA	6:39 to 5:48	MIA 18	3	Punt
MIN	5:41 to 0:00	MIN 19	8 plus 3 kneels	Reached MIA 2, ran out the clock

Offensive plays by quarter (pass and run)

Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
MIN	12	23	13	21
MIA	12	9	13	3

Why it matters. Down 12-10 with a full quarter left, Miami was one field goal from the lead and never got a real chance at one. Between the two Minnesota drives, Miami had the ball for less than a minute of fourth-quarter game clock, from the kick at 6:43 to the punt at 5:48. The last one ended with Hockenson's third-down catch at the 2, after which Miami used its final timeout and Minnesota chose kneel-downs over a touchdown try, since a score would have handed the ball back.

Miami's designed runs gained 113 yards at +0.180 EPA a play. Its 20 dropbacks were worth -0.530 each.

Split

Gordon carried 9 times for 100 yards and a touchdown, including a 53 yard run on third-and-5 to open the second half, but only 2 of those carries came in the first half. Malik Willis went 9 of 17 for 85 yards with no touchdowns and was sacked twice, his lowest passing total of the season by more than 100 yards. Miami split its plays almost evenly, 17 designed runs and 20 dropbacks, and the dropbacks produced almost all of the damage to its expected points.

Miami offense by play kind

Kind	Plays	Yards	EPA/play	Success rate
Designed run	17	113	+0.180	35.3%
Dropback (incl. sacks, scrambles)	20	85	-0.530	35.0%

Ollie Gordon II carries by quarter

Qtr	Carries	Yards
1	1	12
2	1	3
3	6	83
4	1	2

Malik Willis, 2026

Week	Comp	Att	Yards	TD
1	15	27	220	0
2	14	23	197	1
3	20	36	210	0
4	9	17	85	0

Why it matters. The two halves of Miami's offense pulled in opposite directions. Gordon's carries were the only reliable gains, and six of his nine came in the third quarter, when Miami scored all 10 of its points. In a game where the Dolphins had so few snaps, spending 20 of them on dropbacks that averaged a loss of half a point each left little room to catch up.

Minnesota is 4-0 for the sixth time since 1999 and the second time under Kevin O'Connell. Miami is 0-4 for the fifth time.

Milestone

The Vikings have allowed 51 points in four games, the second-fewest of their six 4-0 starts in this span, behind 50 in 2016. Miami has scored 13, 13, 10 and 10, for 46 points in four losses.

Vikings 4-0 starts, 1999-2026 (first four regular-season games)

Season	Points for	Points against	Most scored in a game
2000	95	71	31
2003	112	58	35
2009	118	80	34
2016	88	50	25
2024	116	59	34
2026	86	51	39

Dolphins 0-4 starts, 1999-2026 (first four regular-season games)

Season	Points for	Points against	Most scored in a game
2004	32	63	13
2007	78	119	28
2011	69	104	24
2019	26	163	10
2026	46	101	13

Why it matters. Minnesota's start rests on defense: it has scored 86 points, fewer than in any of its other 4-0 starts, and has won three straight games while scoring 9, 23 and 15. Miami's offense has not scored more than 13 in any game this season, and this was its second straight 10-point game.

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