MOBILE, Ala. -- The Minnesota Vikings' year was filled with pivotal moments on special teams -- more of them good than bad -- and their performance ranked among the league's best, according to one of the NFL's special teams experts.

Dallas Morning News columnist Rick Gosselin, who published his annual ranking of the league's 32 special teams units on Friday, had the Vikings 10th in the league. That put Minnesota's special teams group at the top of the NFC North. Detroit finished 15th, Chicago was 26th and Green Bay -- which had seven kicks blocked this year and made some crucial special teams mistakes in its NFC Championship Game collapse last Sunday -- was dead last.

The Vikings finished 17th in Gosselin's rankings last year, and while they didn't get the same kind of dynamic performance in the return game they had from Cordarrelle Patterson in 2013, special teams coordinator Mike Priefer's unit did a number of other good things. The Vikings became the first team in 39 years to return two blocked punts for touchdowns in the same half against Carolina on Nov. 30, and safety Andrew Sendejo gained 48 yards on a fake punt on Nov. 16 against Chicago. The Vikings were also sixth in the league in yards per punt return, thanks to another strong year from Marcus Sherels. And kicker Blair Walsh was sixth in touchback percentage on kickoffs.

There were reasons for concern, too; Walsh struggled at the end of the year, making just 74.3 percent of his field goals for the season. Punter Jeff Locke was 22nd in net punting average, and struggled to pin opponents deep in their own territory. Only 7.9 percent of his punts were inside the 10-yard line, according to ESPN Stats and Information, and Locke wound up with six touchbacks.

But coach Mike Zimmer gave Priefer the freedom to be more aggressive on special teams this season, and the Vikings made some key plays on special teams because of it. They've got former Pro Bowlers at kicker and kick returner, and if they can get Walsh and Patterson back up to speed in 2015, they'll be in especially good shape on special teams.