Week 5 was a third consecutive home loss for the New Orleans Saints in a 23-13 loss to the Minnesota Vikings
. You can make a strong argument that this was even worse than the abomination on Monday against the Falcons in the Superdome. The defeat dropped the Saints to 1-4, with the Vikings improving to 5-0. It wasn't a pretty game in any aspect, but especially if you're in any way affiliated with the Saints.Ryan Wright
New Orleans put on their worst offensive display of the season, gaining a laughable 142 total yards. Tyler Shough had only 96 passing yards with 2 interceptions on 16 of 25 passing. The Saints ran the ball for just 55 yards, averaging 3.2 per attempt. While down three defensive starters, New Orleans gave up 364 total yards and 153 on the ground
to a bad Minnesota offense. There was very very few positive takeaways from this humiliation, but we'll try as we hand out this week's game balls.
You know you've had a bad day at the office when the punter gets a game ball. Yet, here we are. No disrespect intended to Ryan Wright, who actually had an outstanding afternoon. Wright averaged an impressive 57.3 yards on four punts with a long of 64. He was one of the few who did his job, kicking the team out of trouble and flipping field position. At least New Orleans found themselves a punter. With the incompetence of the offensive line and Kellen Moore's game plans, they'll need him.
Carl Granderson
Granderson had his first major impact of the 2026 campaign. He had 1.5 sacks, 2 tackles for loss, and a handful of quarterback pressures while playing the run reasonably well against the run on the edge. Chase Young again had a solid game and played with tremendous effort in spite of facing multiple blockers on every play. Young and Jonas Sanker each had some standout moments for a defense that was otherwise invisible. However, it was Carl Granderson that, albeit in a reach, was the Saints player of the day. If Granderson can continue this kind of effort and production, the Saints will at least have themselves a pair of disruptive playmakers on the edge.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Reluctantly-earned game balls from Saints' latest ugly loss to Vikings
