The Minnesota Vikings had what, for them, qualifies as an offensive explosion on Sunday afternoon at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, as they scored two touchdowns in the same game for the first time since Week 1. When you’re playing defense the way the Vikings have been, that’s just about all you need.
Despite committing two turnovers in the red zone that led directly to all of the New Orleans Saints’ points, the Vikings did enough to keep themselves undefeated on the 2026 season, as the Vikings’
offense had its best game of the season and did enough to put together a 23-13 victory in New Orleans in Week 5.
The Saints won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half, giving the Vikings’ offense the football first in this one. Kyler Murray found T.J. Hockenson early on for a first-down completion that saw Hockenson get his head slammed into the ground awkwardly and end up going to the sidelines for a concussion evaluation. The Vikings’ offense continued moving down the field, including Murray finding Tai Felton for a 23-yard completion to get into Saints’ territory. A third-down completion to Justin Jefferson that would have put the Vikings into the red zone was negated by an illegal formation call, and the Vikings could not convert the ensuing third-down attempt, so on came Will Reichard. He connected from 40 yards out to give the Vikings an early 3-0 lead six minutes into the contest.
The Saints’ offense saw their first possession turn into a very quick three-and-out, with Tyler Shough getting knocked to the ground twice. The Vikings took over and, once again, put together another nice drive, with Jefferson getting his first two official catches of the game to push the Vikings into New Orleans territory at the 30. A pair of carries by Aaron Jones moved the chains again and put the Vikings’ offense into the red zone for just the ninth time this season. The Vikings then found themselves facing a 3rd-and-1 from the New Orleans 10, and Jones took another handoff and fumbled the ball away. Chase Young picked up the loose ball for the Saints and returned it to the New Orleans 34-yard line, making it a turnover for the Vikings and yet another offensive possession that ended without a touchdown.
The Saints’ offense picked up a first down as the first quarter ended, as Shough found Chris Olave at midfield. The Saints then converted on a couple of short fourth downs, one on a pass to Olave and another on a pass to Devaughn Vele. The New Orleans offense kept pushing and moved into the red zone and, eventually, into a goal-to-go situation behind a couple of runs from Kendre Miller. Miller then took the ball down to the 1-yard line, and eventually took the ball into the end zone from two yards out to give the Saints a 7-3 lead with eight and a half minutes left to go in the first half.
The Vikings got the ball back, and three straight handoffs to Jones resulted in a three-and-out. New Orleans got the ball back at their own 21-yard line following the Brett Thorson punt. The Saints’ offense reciprocated with a three-and-out of their own, and Myles Price once again showed why he is quickly establishing himself as the best return specialist in the league. He fielded the punt from former Viking Ryan Wright and took it 43 yards, putting the ball on the New Orleans side of the field at the 47-yard line.
As is their wont after a big play, the Vikings started the drive with a penalty, as Ryan Van Demark was called for holding, pushing the ball back to the Minnesota side of the field and making it 1st-and-20. The drive went nowhere after that, and Thorson had to punt it away once again. But the Saints went three-and-out at the two-minute warning, giving the Vikings the ball back with 1:56 left on the clock and one timeout left from their own 31-yard line.
The Vikings managed to push the ball into Saints’ territory at the 39-yard line on a nice throw from Murray to Jefferson, but then Murray inexplicably took a sack to force the Vikings to burn their last timeout. Another pass to Jefferson got the ball a little closer to the end zone, and that meant another opportunity for Reichard, who put the ball through the uprights from 54 yards out to make it a 7-6 game going into halftime.
The Vikings’ special teams made an impact on the second-half kickoff, as rookie Jake Golday punched the ball free from Saints return man Jayden Price, with Jeshaun Jones recovering the fumble for the Vikings to give them the ball right away. A trick play missed on first down, but then Murray corrected things by scrambling for 18 yards on 3rd-and-10 to avoid a three-and-out. Then, on another third-down play, the Vikings did something that they hadn’t done in over two full games.
They scored a touchdown. On offense.
Murray lofted one up in the back-left corner of the end zone for Jefferson in triple coverage, and Jefferson managed to come down with it for a 15-yard touchdown to put the Vikings back on top, 13-7.
The Saints’ offense committed a second straight turnover on the next series, as a series of penalties pushed them back into a 2nd-and-26 situation, and Shough threw a pass right to Byron Murphy for an interception.
Minnesota promptly moved back into the red zone and found themselves facing a 3rd-and-15 from the New Orleans 19-yard line. Murray flipped a short pass to Myles Price on the left side, and it looked like the Saints’ defense had taken him down, but the ball came loose and was picked up by Saints’ safety Jonas Sanker, who raced down the sideline for an 87-yard score, and just like that the score was tied at 13-13.
And it remained tied because Daniel Carlson, the former Viking, pushed the extra point wide to the left.
The Vikings got the ball back, and Murray found Jeshaun Jones for his first NFL reception, a 32-yarder that quickly put the Vikings back into New Orleans territory. Aaron Jones then took a handoff for 19 yards, and the Vikings were right back into the red zone. After they changed ends for the fourth quarter, Jones took a handoff from Murray and barreled over Julian Blackmon for an 8-yard score to put the Vikings back in the lead, 20-13.
The Saints’ offense, once again, went three-and-out, giving the Vikings’ offense another opportunity to add to their lead with around twelve minutes left in regulation. The Vikings’ offense was moving the bal until Kevin O’Connell, inexplicably, called a trick play that saw Jefferson try to throw a pass back to Murray that was nearly intercepted by a Saints’ defensive lineman but “only” wound up going down as an 11-yard loss. The Vikings did add more points, fortunately, thanks to another field goal by Reichard. He connected from 55 yards out to make it 23-13 with seven minutes left in regulation.
New Orleans took their next possession into Minnesota territory and faced a 4th-and-7. Rather than have Carlson attempt a 62-yard field goal, they elected to go for it, but Shough’s pass to Juwan Johnson was stopped short of the line to gain for a turnover on downs. The Vikings wound up punting it away, but they got the ball back soon thereafter as the defense intercepted Shough again, with Byron Murphy getting his second of the day on a deep ball intended for Olave.
The Vikings only had to pick up one more first down after that, and once the two-minute warning hit, the Saints had no timeouts remaining, and the Vikings had to do nothing more than kneel out the clock to push their record to 5-0 on the 2026 season and head home from New Orleans with a 23-13 victory.
Murray had his best game as a member of the Vikings in this one, as he completed 24-of-30 passes for 229 yards and a touchdown. He also ran the ball 10 times for 51 yards and converted multiple first downs with his legs to keep drives alive, something that he had not done a lot of in previous games. He was aided by another solid performance by Aaron Jones, who carried the ball 25 times for 113 yards and a score and recovered nicely from the lost fumble early on in the game.
Brian Flores’ defense put on another suffocating performance as well. The Saints had just 142 yards of offense on the afternoon, and though the Vikings only sacked Shough twice, he was under constant pressure all game and threw the two interceptions to Byron Murphy that we mentioned earlier. The Vikings ran 25 more plays than the Saints did and held a nearly twenty-minute time-of-possession advantage over the Saints, which is a testament to just how dominant their performance was in this one.
The Vikings will take Week 6 off for their bye week before returning to the field in Week 7, when they host the Indianapolis Colts at U.S. Bank Stadium.
The Minnesota Vikings will remain one of the NFL’s unbeaten teams as they fend off the New Orleans Saints at the Caesars Superdome in Week 5 by a final score of 23-13. Thank you to everyone who got their coverage of this week’s game right here at The Daily Norseman!
