Vikings get back to work after their bye, in an even better position in the standings

At home during the Vikings' bye week, Kirk Cousins watched last Thursday night's game between the Saints and Cardinals to get an early look at Arizona, his team's next opponent. Over the weekend, the quarterback settled in for the Sunday slate of games like the rest of the American football-viewing public.

Anything catch his eye?

"Just seeing how games didn't go maybe the way I thought they would, in terms of teams you thought would have the upper hand losing, and vice versa," Cousins said.

Certainly, Cousins couldn't have had the Vikings' biggest rival losing to his former team at FedEx Field in mind. Nonetheless, the Vikings — who already had the biggest division lead in the NFL through six games — built an even bigger margin in the NFC North on Sunday when the Packers' loss to the Commanders extended Green Bay's losing streak to three.

Through seven weeks, the Vikings (5-1) are the only NFC North team with a winning record; they are 2 ¹⁄₂ games clear of the 3-4 Packers and Bears, having already defeated both teams at home. They are at home against the Cardinals on Sunday, while the Bears — who traded pass rusher Robert Quinn to the Eagles on Wednesday — travel to face the 5-2 Cowboys and the Packers head to Buffalo for a Sunday night matchup against the 6-1 Bills.

The Vikings return from their bye with as good a chance to win the NFC North as they've had since 2017. Their schedule, according to Football Outsiders' DVOA metric, is the seventh-easiest in the NFL the rest of the season. They will play six of their final 11 games at home, and their Week 10 trip to Buffalo is their only remaining road game against a team that currently has a winning record.

As their weekend off increased their NFC North lead, it also gave coach Kevin O'Connell reason to guard against complacency.

"I said to them today, we can be really proud of being 5-1, overcoming some adversity and really standing on some foundations of how we've tried to build this team," he said. "But ultimately, you prove yourself every Sunday. The parity that exists around the NFL, the first time really getting a chance to watch a lot of football this past weekend, you just see it — game in and game out, nothing's going to be easy. It's about that elite execution, and we feel very strongly about our team."

They will get back to work against a Cardinals team that scored 42 points against the Saints to end a two-game losing streak in wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins' first game back from a six-game suspension. Hopkins, who caught 10 passes for 103 yards in his return, adds another threat in a matchup where the Vikings have to worry about quarterback Kyler Murray's mobility as they build coverage schemes.

"Especially if you can get five eligible [receivers] out like they do, there's only so many bodies if you still want to have a four-man rush," O'Connell said. "So if one of those cover-type players is responsible for the quarterback, [and] they can still have five eligibles in the pass game, that gets to the point where you're going to have four or five 1-on-1s no matter how you try to protect, disguise or line up in the shell.

"This is one of those games where it's about all 11 and it might sound cliché, but if one guy is out of their gap or doesn't maintain the rush responsibilities, it can be a huge play just like that."

The Vikings have an opportunity at home to extend their win streak to five games, and put even more pressure on the teams chasing them in the NFC North. Their approach figures to start with them ignoring the standings.

"As a young player, I might have looked ahead, but now, I know it's a young season," running back Dalvin Cook said. "Every season is broken into two, and once you have that bye week, it's time for you to roll over to the second half of the season.

"We're starting over; everybody's coming in and studying, and let's just go play some football. Let's go play better football than we did before."