The Minnesota Vikings did many of the things they needed to do to win Sunday night against the New Orleans Saints. They intercepted Drew Brees. They established a respectable run game. They got Adam Thielen and Stefon Diggs involved early and often.
Everything was on schedule for the better part of two quarters. But two Vikings turnovers in the middle part of the game led to 14 New Orleans points, and Minnesota couldn’t recover. The Saints won 30-20 to extend their winning streak to six and knock the Vikings down a rung in the NFC playoff chase.
Kirk Cousins threw a Pick 6 in the third quarter that gave the Saints a 27-13 lead on a broken play where Stefon Diggs stopped running in an apparent attempt to switch directions. Cousins threw the pass right to P.J. Williams, who had an easy return for a back-breaking score. That play came moments after Cousins nearly threw an interception to Manti Te’o and had a fumble overruled when replay showed his knee was down. Cousins’ proclivity for risky play wound up biting the Vikings again. It was his second straight home game allowing a defensive touchdown.
The pick was where the Saints took control, but the momentum turned on Thielen’s fumble late in the first half.
Leading 13-10, the Vikings had found their offensive rhythm following Harrison Smith’s second-quarter interception — the first against Brees this year — but Thielen coughed up the ball while getting tackled in the red zone as Minnesota was threatening to extend their advantage.
Marshon Lattimore recovered and returned the ball to the Vikings 33-yard line, and Laquon Treadwell tacked on 15 more yards by throwing his helmet and picking up an unsportsmanlike conduct call. New Orleans scored two plays later to go up 17-13, just moments after it looked like they’d be facing a two-possession halftime deficit. They wound up scoring 23 consecutive points after falling behind 13-7 early.
Thielen — who extended his consecutive 100-yard games streak to eight games — rarely makes mistakes, but they’ve been big when he has: a game-ending fumble against the Lions last year, a dropped touchdown against Carolina, a momentum-turning botched punt against Dallas in 2016. Nobody is immune to errors in NFL, and Thielen is, in fact, human.
His first half had been tremendous before the fumble as he racked up 75 yards on five catches, including a mystifying snag over P.J. Williams’ helmet on the Vikings’ first drive. Two plays later, Diggs hauled in a back shoulder catch at the goal line and eventually finished the drive with a toe-drag touchdown on a Cousins bullet on fourth and goal.
Diggs’ touchdown matched New Orleans’ opening-drive score on a shovel pass to Kamara, who scored a pair of first-half touchdowns and finished the game with 47 yards rushing and 31 yards receiving.
The Vikings took a 13-7 lead on Latavius Murray’s one-yard touchdown midway through the second quarter, but Dan Bailey missed his fourth kick of the season, narrowly shanking the extra point wide left. It bit the Vikings later on as the Saints were able to take a three-possession lead in the fourth quarter with Wil Lutz’s field goal at 30-13.
Minnesota converted a late touchdown to Thielen to pull within 10, but Dan Bailey’s ensuing onside kick was unsuccessful, allowing the Saints to bleed away much of the remaining clock.
The Vikings’ aggressiveness will be discussed in the aftermath of the loss. On one hand, they converted two fourth-and-goal touchdowns, but a fourth and 1 failed when Treadwell couldn’t haul in a pass that hit his hands over the middle — his second mistake after the flag earlier.
With the loss, Minnesota falls two wins behind New Orleans in the NFC, one win back of Carolina and Washington and loses its NFC North lead to the Chicago Bears.
The Vikings host the Detroit Lions next Sunday with a chance to get to the bye at 5-3-1.
Stay tuned for more coverage from the Vikings locker room.
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