EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — The Minnesota Vikings’ 31-13 win over the Carolina Panthers Sunday provided two good reasons why special teams coordinator Mike Priefer was held over from the previous coaching regime..

A year after Priefer’s punt and kickoff returners set franchise records for season averages, the Vikings are standing out on special teams once again. Priefer is hitting his stride three months after the low point of his career saw him suspended for the first two games of the season after making an anti-gay remark to former Vikings punter Chris Kluwe in a team setting during the 2012 season when Leslie Frazier was head coach (5-10-1).

New coach Mike Zimmer appreciated Priefer’s coaching skills, praised his character and said at the time that Priefer’s mistake didn’t rise to a level that warranted “throwing away a man’s career.”

When the Vikings began Sunday’s game against Carolina, they had gone a league-high 453 games without returning a blocked punt for a touchdown. By halftime, they were just the fifth team in NFL history to return two for touchdowns in the same game as the Vikings won 31-13 on the seventh-coldest game (12 degrees) in franchise history.

The Vikings hadn’t blocked a punt since 2006 and hadn’t returned one for a touchdown since 1986. But Priefer told his players all last week that those streaks would end.

“That’s the thing about coach Priefer,” said Adam Thielen, who both blocked and returned the first punt for a 30-yard score. “He knew somebody was going to come free, but he wasn’t sure who.”

Less than 14 minutes after Thielen scored, linebacker Jasper Brinkley blocked a punt that defensive end Everson Griffen returned 43 yards for a touchdown. Making the play even more impressive was it came with the base defense executing the special teams play because of the possibility of a fake punt near midfield.

“There were a couple of things we thought we could exploit,” Priefer said. “And the way you block punts in this league is you have to believe you’re going to block punts. Our guys believed.”

Notes: LB Anthony Barr, who leads the team in tackles, aggravated a knee injury he first suffered two weeks earlier in Chicago. When the knee locked up at halftime, he tried to play at the start of the third quarter, but had to leave the game. … Defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd also left the game with a knee injury.

REPORT CARD VS. PANTHERS

–PASSING OFFENSE: B — Yeah, Teddy Bridgewater threw for only 138 yards. But his efficiency, career-high 120.7 passer rating and turnover-free effort was the perfect complement on a day when the Vikings returned two blocked punts for touchdowns. A week after throwing 11 first-half incompletions in 22 attempts against the Packers, Bridgewater completed his first four passes, including a 17-yard touchdown to Greg Jennings. He later completed a 35-yard deep ball to Jarius Wright.

–RUSHING OFFENSE: C — With rookie starter Jerick McKinnon out because of a lower back injury, the running game was there just to keep Carolina’s pass rush at bay. There was no explosion whatsoever as the Vikings averaged just 3.8 yards with a long of nine yards on 24 carries. Matt Asiata, who originally stepped in as the starter when Adrian Peterson was placed on the commissioner’s exempt list, is an admirable worker but basically a plow horse who slams into the line for a few yards here and there. He averaged 3.7 yards on 14 carries. Ben Tate had his first carries since being claimed off waivers two weeks ago. He ran for 15 yards. He had the nine-yarder, but added just six yards on his other four carries.

–PASS DEFENSE: B — A year after Cam Newton posted a career-high 143.4 passer rating in a rout of the Vikings in the Metrodome, the Panthers quarterback looked like he was playing in the coldest game (12 degrees at kickoff) of his career. He posted a 65.7 passer rating while completing just 51.4 percent of his passes with one interception and four sacks. He did throw a 32-yard touchdown pass to temporarily shift momentum in Carolina’s favor early in the third quarter. But it wasn’t long before cornerback Xavier Rhodes and linebacker Chad Greenway were shifting the momentum back by swatting away Newton passes in tight coverage on second- and third-and-long from the Vikings’ 42-yard line.

–RUSH DEFENSE: C — This has been an area the Vikings have struggled in this season. And Carolina’s final numbers – 178 yards and a 5.4 average on 33 carries – is unimpressive. But what was impressive was how the run defense opened the game. Carolina opened with back-to-back runs, clearly testing a Vikings team that was helpless when Green Bay’s Eddie Lacy was grinding out the clock the week before. The Panthers, however, netted just two yards on those two runs before giving up a third-down sack and punting the ball 28 yards. The offense took the good field position and scored a touchdown for a 7-0 lead.

–SPECIAL TEAMS: A-plus — Special teams coordinator Mike Priefer was telling his players all week that they would block a punt. Well, they blocked two. The Vikings also became just the fifth team in NFL history to return two blocked punts for touchdowns in the same game. Blair Walsh kicked a 39-yard field goal and had three touchbacks, moving him one past former 15-year Viking Fred Cox with a team career-record 134. After the two blocked punts, punt returner Marcus Sherels was able to break off returns of 26 and 19 yards as the Panthers shifted into protection mode.

–COACHING: A — The Vikings are a better team than the Panthers, so it’s not as though Mike Zimmer should get coach of the year for mauling a weaker team at home. But it was the Carolina, not the Vikings, who was still in the playoff picture when the ball was kicked off in 12-degree weather. The Vikings were the team that looked like they wanted to compete. Priefer saw cracks in the Carolina punt protection and exploited them in historic fashion. Defensively, Zimmer’s aggressive blitzes and coverages kept Newton from developing a rhythm. And offensive coordinator Norv Turner corrected some of Bridgewater’s mechanical issues from the week before, mainly getting him to step into and finish the easy throws, which led to better accuracy early and a rhythm throughout the game.