The Vikings won the NFC North last season almost in spite of their special teams play. They are well on their way to repeating as division champions this season in part because of a significant turnaround in their special teams.
The combination of Percy Harvin's dynamic return skills and major improvement from the coverage units led coach Brad Childress to call his special teams play a "thing of beauty" Monday.
That's a far cry from last season, when the Vikings gave up an NFL-record seven special teams touchdowns and had no real juice in the return game.
"I think the mindset when we started the season was that we're going to forget about last year," said safety Eric Frampton, one of the team's core special teams players. "Last year doesn't matter. We're going to adopt a new way of approaching special teams and I think everyone has done that."
Of course, adding a player of Harvin's ability doesn't hurt. The first-round pick ripped off two momentum-changing kickoff returns -- 77 and 48 yards -- in Sunday's 38-26 victory at Green Bay that put the Vikings at 7-1 heading into their bye week.
Harvin slipped to No. 2 in the NFL in kickoff return average (30.7 yards) this week after Miami's Ted Ginn returned kickoffs 100 and 101 yards against the New York Jets on Sunday. Harvin and Ginn are tied for the league-lead with two kickoff returns for touchdowns.
Harvin has added a dimension to the return game that wasn't present last season. The Vikings had only four kickoff returns of 35-plus yards in 2008. Harvin already has five.
Harvin's ability as a returner has given the offense great field position. The Vikings lead the NFL in average starting field position on kickoffs at 34.9.