The New Orlean Saints travel to face the Minnesota Vikings to kick off Monday Night Football for 2017. Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match, starting from Tuesday 9:10am AEST.
Most of the talk before this game will centre on the return of Adrian Peterson to Minnesota. With Mark Ingram and rookie Alvin Kamara competing for carries, Peterson’s chances to shine will be limited.
Unless his passion to prove a point to his old team takes over, I wouldn’t expect a big day from the future Hall of Famer.
The real story in this game is the battle between the Saints offense and the Vikings defense.
The Saints boast a high powered offense that can jump out to a lead fast. The aforementioned trio of running backs should complement a potent passing attack featuring wide receiver Michael Thomas and quarterback Drew Brees.
The Vikings on the other hand have a stingy defense. The core of young veterans Harrison Smith, Xavier Rhodes, Linval Joseph, and Everson Griffen are some of the best at their positions in the NFL and are helped by talent and depth across the unit. This Vikings defense could end up challenging Seattle for best in the NFC.
Minnesota’s weakness is its offensive line. If the Vikings have any chance they to need to do a better job to protect quarterback Sam Bradford, who played some good football in 2016 but took a beating behind a porous offensive front.
For the Saints it’s all about a defense that was second last in points allowed last year. The Saints made moves to address this issue in the off season and showed some promise in the preseason. Now it’s a matter of whether or not it carries into the regular season.
Prediction
Tough call but I’m going to say the Vikings ride rookie running back Dalvin Cook to victory, 27-24.
Conan McGlone
Roar Pro
RECAP: The Minnesota Vikings have defeated the New Orleans Saints, 29 – 19. Sam Bradford led an explosive Minnesota offense to 470 total yards as they marched up and down the field all night. Bradford was 27/32 on passing attempts for 346 yards, 3 touchdowns, and no picks. 157 of those yards were to Adam Thielen who he targeted all night. Stefon Diggs contributed with 93 yards and two scores. Rookie running back Dalvin Cook had an impressive debut with 127 yards rushing. He looked like a young Adrian Peterson, exploding out of the backfield with authority and pace. By comparison, Adrian Peterson and the Saints running game was a non-factor with just 60 yards. Peterson was visibly angry on the sideline but his anger didn’t translate into much success when he had the chance on the field. On the other side of the ball the Vikings held the saints to 344 total yards, many of which were in garbage time as the game was out of reach of the Saints. Drew Brees struggled to get anything going against the stout Vikings defence who pressured him consistently. That wasn’t helped by the loss of starting right tackle Zach Strief who went down with a knee injury in the first half. The Saints will need to address this by next week as they host the New England Patriots who will be eager to bounce back after their loss to the Chiefs. For Minnesota it’s off to Pittsburgh in what is shaping up to be a great matchup.
Conan McGlone
Roar Pro
BALL GAME! SCORE: Vikings 29 – Saints 19.
Conan McGlone
Roar Pro
DALVIN COOK GETS THE VIKINGS ROOKIE RECORD. He outruns Adrian Peterson's previous record and puts up 127 yards rushing on his first ever start. Previous record was 107 by Peterson. The man is going to be a star.
Conan McGlone
Roar Pro
Dalvin Cook is just shy of 100 yards rushing. He looks desperate to get that as they hand that off time him for not much gain on consecutive possessions.
Conan McGlone
Roar Pro
Onside kick unsuccessful. Vikings take over at midfield.
Conan McGlone
Roar Pro
TOUCHDOWN SAINTS - Brees hits Fleener the score. SCORE: Vikings 29 - Saints 19. Too little to late? Probably, but expect the onside kick with 1:56 to play.
Nate
Guest
Yeah but with the Run & Shoot of the Gamblers nobody else will be able to keep up!
Conan McGlone
Roar Pro
2:00 MINUTE WARNING The Saints are back in the redzone after a productive drive that took up too much clock. They'll cop the loss here and regroup to face an angry Patriots team in New Orleans next week. With that said there's two minutes left and Brees will want to make this game look more competitive than it has been. A really lacklustre performance from the Saints offence. SCORE: VIKINGS 29 – Saints 12
Conan McGlone
Roar Pro
The Saints need to score now and need to do it fast if they have any chance of getting back in this (they don't) but Brees keeps firing underneath as the Vikings refuse to give up anything deep. SCORE: VIKINGS 29 – Saints 12
Dodi
Guest
I reckon the Roughriders are a good chance to go up. Either the Ottawa or Saskatchewan version.
Conan McGlone
Roar Pro
Brees hits Michael Thomas for 13 yards to the 47 yard line. 3:54 left to play.
Conan McGlone
Roar Pro
The Vikings drive ends in a 45 yard field goal. SCORE: VIKINGS 29 - Saints 12
Conan McGlone
Roar Pro
Bradford up to 340 yards after a strike to to McKinnon for 25 yards. Minnesota with the ball at the 36 yard line with 4:30 left to play. That's 428 yards for the Vikings vs just 269 for the Saints. Rookie Dalvin Cook (91) has more yards than the entire rushing attack of the Saints (60).
Conan McGlone
Roar Pro
Dalvin Cook runs with pace and violence, but you have to say that the improvement on the line has really helped both Cook and the passing game today. The offensive line was basically a turnstile last year.
Conan McGlone
Roar Pro
Play action on 3rd and goal fails. They fact the hand off to Peterson and Brees is forced to throw it away when nothing opens up. Saints kick another field goal. That's 4 trips to the redzone with zero touchdowns for the Saints. In the NFL that's simply not good enough. SCORE: Vikings 26 - Saints 12 07:49 to play.
Nate
Guest
Gamblers are all over it. Great roster top to bottom.
Conan McGlone
Roar Pro
Tedd Ginn catches one deep and we're back in the Redzone where the Saints are 0/3 in terms of touchdowns in this game. They need to get 7 on this drive. Vikings 26 – New Orleans 9
Conan McGlone
Roar Pro
This is more like it from the the Saints. For completions in a row. They didn't gain too many yards (33) but at least they're getting some rhythm. 10:07 in the game remaining Vikings 26 - New Orleans 9
Conan McGlone
Roar Pro
You'd say that in other years but I think it'll be the Colts, Jets, and possibly the Bills. I expect the New Jersey Generals, the Houston Gamblers and the Chicago Blitz to be promoted.
Conan McGlone
Roar Pro
Drew Brees has 13 minutes to get something going. He needs to come out firing. The offensive line is going to be trouble so he needs to get the ball away quickly.