The Good: Causing fumbles
The only real moments of excitement in this game were two fumbles caused by the Saints in the red zone. Khristian Boyd punched the ball out of Aaron Jones’s hands and it was scooped up by Chase Young and returned 27 yards to set up an eventual touchdown drive. Later in the third quarter Pete Werner and Martin Emerson Jr. caused receiver Myles Price to fumble which was returned 87 yards for a game tying touchdown by Jonas Sanker. The Saints would miss the extra point to leave the game tied, but these
two forced fumbles and returns by the defense set up every point the Saints would score on Sunday.
The Bad: Keeping the QB in the pocket
Kyler Murray looked like his old self on Sunday, as the Saints allowed him to scramble around the field with impunity. Murray ran for multiple first downs, many of which on third down, and extended multiple plays leading to completions. Murray ran 10 times for just 51 yards, but it seemed like every time he ran it was impactful, either moving the chains or avoiding pressure and completing a pass. The Saints have struggled with this for a while, and did not make any adjustments during the game to mitigate the impact Murray was able to make with his legs.
The Ugly: The offense
The Saints offense gained just 142 yards against the Vikings. Minnesota does have the league’s top defense, but still we should have seen more. Tyler Shough had his worst game of the year, throwing for just 96 yards and 2 interceptions. The run game did nothing outside of a few good runs by Kendre Miller in the first quarter, and Chris Olave was held under 50 yards. The Saints offense did not have a play of longer than 20 yards, and every drive aside from the one scoring drive either finished in a 3 and out or a turnover/turnover on downs. The Vikings defense is great, but still it was an ugly game for the offense in a game that they could have won if they were able to put together just two more scoring drives.
