MINNEAPOLIS — Last year, the Vikings won just two times at home, in the worst year they’d ever had at U.S. Bank Stadium.

It was clear even in the preseason, when the Vikings played for a comeback victory over the Las Vegas Raiders, how much it bothered Kevin O’Connell not to win at home. After an upset victory over the San Francisco 49ers a week ago, the Vikings scored their most lopsided win since 2019 with another victory over an undefeated team that came to Minneapolis as favorites.

Their 34-7 win over the Houston Texans, their biggest since a 39-10 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers on Dec. 15, 2019, was the most dominant of O’Connell’s tenure. Offensively, they got four touchdown passes from Sam Darnold. Defensively, they sacked C.J. Stroud five times and sent him to just the second multi-interception game of his career, holding the Houston Texans scoreless until a third-quarter touchdown that made it a 21-7 game. But the Vikings finished with three more scoring drives, with Will Reichard kicking a 58-yard field goal, and stopped Houston in the red zone to end the game with just seven points allowed.

Why it happened: The Vikings’ 11 sacks through two games, and a convincing victory over the 49ers that followed their six-point effort against the New York Giants, got the NFL buzzing about a Brian Flores defense that had added a layer or two of nuance to the pressure packages it used in 2023. That buzz isn’t likely to subside after this one, a dominant effort that left a high-powered Texans offense searching for answers all day. The Vikings gave up one of their first big plays of the year on a 34-yarder from Stroud to Nico Collins, but their rush and coverage schemes were again too much for a young QB to decipher.

What it means: The Vikings are 3-0, one of just two undefeated teams in the NFC (the other one, Seattle, plays this afternoon). Two straight impressive victories against 2023 playoff teams — this one without Dallas Turner, Ivan Pace, Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson — furthered the idea the Vikings are a force in the NFC. A team that couldn’t put opponents away a year ago now has two wins of 20 points or more and closed things out in victory formation at home for the second straight week.

Play of the game: On a third-and-2 from the Texans 8, the Vikings lined Justin Jefferson up in the backfield, sending him out on a wheel route that pulled coverage out of the middle of the field. O’Connell called for a mesh concept from Aaron Jones and Johnny Mundt, with crossing routes from opposite ends of the formation, and Mundt’s route created a moving screen for Jones to find space in the middle of the coverage. Darnold hit him for an 8-yard touchdown pass that made it 14-0.

Turning point: Things pivoted quickly in this one. The Vikings deferred after winning the coin toss, putting their defense on the field first against a quarterback they believed they could rattle. After Cade Stover was called for holding on the first play that put the Texans in first-and-20, Harrison Phillips tipped a Stroud pass for Tank Dell and Kamu Grugier-Hill, playing some of his first meaningful snaps of the season, returned the interception to the Texans 21. It set up a Vikings touchdown from Darnold to Jefferson and gave the Vikings a lead they would not relinquish.

Up next: at Packers, Sept. 29, 1 p.m. ET. Green Bay (2-1) won its second consecutive game Sunday without quarterback Jordan Love, beating the Tennessee Titans 30-14 in Nashville.

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