MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Brian Flores has become one of the most impactful and prominent assistant coaches in the NFL over four seasons as defensive coordinator of the Minnesota Vikings, with his knack for play calling and a gift for maximizing the group's strengths.
Flores might be doing his best work yet this year with the undefeated Vikings, who have allowed the second-fewest points in the league. He'll have the opportunity on Sunday to show off his tricks to his old team, the winless Miami Dolphins.
Fired after a three-season run as their head coach, Flores sued the NFL a month later in allegation of racially discriminatory hiring practices in a landmark case that's still in the court system four years later and awaits a trial sometime in 2027. Even if the Dolphins roster has only two players left from his last team in 2021 and his replacement Mike McDaniel was fired after last season, owner Stephen Ross remains in control of the club.
If Flores has any strong feelings about facing the Dolphins, though, he's keeping those to himself, other than an eagerness to catch up before the game with the dozens of support staffers he's still friendly with.
“I'm the same every week,” Flores said. “It's never about me. It's always about our team, and so the preparation's going to be the same.”
The Vikings defense has been especially ready this season, with league-best rates in sacks per pass attempt, touchdowns allowed inside the 20-yard line, and third down conversions. The foundation for Flores has long begun with an unwavering trust in his players.
“I tell them all the time, when people turn on the Vikings, I hope they see a team that really is connected and is having fun playing ball," Flores said. “I think we're doing that.”
The Dolphins, with star running back De'Vone Achane done for the season with a torn ACL and quarterback Malik Willis making just his 10th career start, will have a tough task amid the deafening roar of the crowd at U.S. Bank Stadium in trying to identify and block all those creative and unpredictable sets and rushes.
“You just can’t get really scared of it," rookie guard Kadyn Proctor said. "Just have to be locked in to the slants and to the blitzes and really just focus on doing our one-eleventh, focus on our job.”
Miami (0-3) at Minnesota (3-0).
When/where to watch: Sunday, 4:05 p.m. EDT, CBS.
Latest odds: Vikings by 10½.
Against the spread: Dolphins 0-3; Vikings 3-0.
Last week: Dolphins lost to the Chiefs 24-10; Vikings beat the Buccaneers 23-16.
Last meeting: Vikings beat the Dolphins 24-16 on Oct. 16, 2022, in Miami.
Series record: Dolphins lead 8-6.
Vikings OLB Dallas Turner vs. Dolphins LT Patrick Paul. While Flores creates constant uncertainty for offenses by frequently moving his pass rushers around the formation and never settling for defined positions, Turner most often lines up on the right side and has been a force in the backfield so far this season. Paul was a second-round draft pick in 2024 who became a starter last year.
— Each of Miami’s first four opponents — Las Vegas, San Francisco, Kansas City and Minnesota — have started the season 3-0.
— The Dolphins have gone three games without a sack by their defense — the only team in the NFL without one — and have allowed nine sacks through three games.
— Dolphins rookie WR Caleb Douglas (ankle) did not practice Wednesday or Thursday, still considered day to day after missing last week. RB Jaylen Wright (foot) returned to practice after missing the previous game with a stinger, a pinched nerve in the neck and shoulder area. He is listed first on the depth chart in Achane's absence, ahead of Ollie Gordon II.
— The Dolphins haven’t scored more than 13 points in a game this season and are averaging just 291 total yards per game, but they're still ahead of the Vikings, who are last in the league with 238. That includes just 137 net passing yards per game, which for a full season would be the lowest total since the Bears (131) in 2022.
— Vikings WR Justin Jefferson was forced out of the most recent game in the first quarter because of a sprained ankle and did not practice Wednesday or Thursday.
— The Vikings have won eight straight games, going back to Week 14 of the 2025 season. That's the longest active streak in the NFL. They started 5-0 in 2024.
— Vikings RB Aaron Jones has 40 carries over the past two games, with Jordan Mason sidelined by a broken thumb. His per-game average over three seasons with the Vikings is 13.7 attempts.
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
Miami Dolphins quarterback Malik Willis looks to pass the ball during an NFL football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Miami Gardens. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
FILE - Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores watches during warm ups before an NFL preseason football game against the Baltimore Ravens, Aug. 22, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Bruce Kluckhohn, File)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Christa Pike was scheduled to be executed. But after two injections, she kept breathing. She made snoring sounds, she talked, she said her arm was hurting.
Pike, sentenced to die for torturing and killing 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer in 1995, said as her scheduled lethal injection began that she was at peace.
Strapped to a gurney around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Pike, who was allowed to give a final statement, said she was leaving the world with love.
“I’m ready to be free,” she said. "This is a happy day.”
Pike, now 50, was 18 when she committed the murder and would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.
But instead she survived two doses of the pentobarbital meant to kill her. She left the prison in an ambulance instead of a hearse.
The Associated Press was among those who witnessed her failed execution. She was already strapped to the gurney, with IV inserted in her arm, when prison officials raised the curtain to the execution room at 7:27 p.m.
Her spiritual adviser was standing beside the gurney near her head. He spoke to her. They sang a song. The lyrics were not audible, but included repeating the phrase — "I love you.” The spiritual adviser stroked her forehead.
Minutes ticked by. She raised her head and looked around; she smiled. Then she said her arm was hurting and asked a prison official in the room if it was supposed to feel that way.
Ten minutes in, at 7:37 p.m., she sighed, the IV in her arm fed from a control room adjacent to the death chamber, separated by a ledge. At 7:41 p.m., a rock or paper weight about the size of a golf ball was placed on the ledge. Prison officials have not confirmed what it means, but its placement appeared to coincide with a direction in the protocol that says after the drugs are administered, a five-minute countdown begins until the curtain is closed.
At 7:46 p.m., officials closed the curtain, blocking the witnesses’ view of the death chamber. Pike’s spiritual adviser left the chamber and sat briefly with her attorney in the media witness room.
The curtain rose again three minutes later. The Tennessee lethal injection protocol calls for a second round of pentobarbital if the inmate is not deceased after the first round.
Her spiritual adviser returned to the chamber and stood beside Pike with his hands folded. Pike appeared to begin to lose consciousness at some point and started making a sound like snoring. She continued to do so for the next hour, a sign that she was alive long after she was expected to be dead.
Her head raised slightly off the gurney and turned to the side at about 7:56 p.m. She kept breathing.
Officials closed the curtain again at 8:06 p.m.
For the next 40 minutes, Pike could be heard from behind the curtain. She sounded like she was snoring, a rhythmic, regular breathing pattern.
Inside the prison, Pike's attorney, Randy Spivey, later told the media that at about 8:22 p.m. he demanded access to a telephone to contact other lawyers on the team. He said he demanded the execution be halted and that life-saving medical care be given to Pike. He said he received confirmation at about 8:50 p.m. that an ambulance was on the way.
At 8:53 p.m., an announcement came: “Will witnesses please exit the area.” The media was escorted out, and a prison spokesperson said she had no information to provide about what had happened.
Fire trucks and ambulances arrived in front of the prison at around 9:14 p.m. Pike’s attorneys later issued a statement that she had been taken to a hospital and was being treated, though they did not know the specifics of her condition. On Thursday afternoon, they said she was in critical condition receiving medical care.
The Tennessee Department of Correction issued a statement saying the department followed protocol.
“The lethal injection chemical in the protocol has consistently been effective, and the protocol does not allow for additional procedures beyond what was carried out this evening,” the agency wrote. “Christa Pike has been transported to an off-site medical facility.”
The agency has not said what went wrong. It was the second time this year that Tennessee has been unable to complete an execution, though in the other case, officials couldn’t find a suitable vein for an IV line so the drugs weren’t administered.
Gov. Bill Lee ordered a review and postponed another execution scheduled for later this year, calling what happened in the death chamber “deeply disturbing.”
Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, had traveled to Nashville to see the sentence carried out.
"I didn’t get justice for my daughter,” Martinez told the AP by telephone.
“I watched the whole thing. She was awake," Martinez said. "She was moving her head, moving her feet. She was trying to sit up. Didn’t work the first time they gave her a shot. It didn’t work the second time so she’s in the hospital and alive.”
“This isn’t justice for Colleen.”
Kathleen Walter prays in the area reserved for people opposed to the death penalty outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the planned execution of Christa Pike, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Media witnesses recount the moments before the execution of Christa Pike was halted Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Media witnesses leave Riverbend Maximum Security Institution after the execution of Christa Pike was halted Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Emergency vehicles arrive at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution after the execution of Christa Pike was halted Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
