The Minnesota Vikings got off to a nice start in this one, as they forced Saints' tight end Jimmy Graham to fumble on New Orleans' third play of the game, courtesy of Jamarca Sanford. Rookie Mistral Raymond scooped up the fumble and took it to the Saints' 26, which led to a 44-yard Ryan Longwell field goal to give the Vikings a 3-0 lead.
The Vikings forced the Saints to go three-and-out on their second drive as well, but the Vikings responded with a three-and-out of their own. On the next drive, the Saints appeared to have a 40-yard touchdown pass from Drew Brees to Robert Meachem, but the play was negated by a holding penalty on the Saints. New Orleans did finally get the ball into the end zone, however, thanks to a 5-yard touchdown pass from Brees to Lance Moore to make it 7-3.
The Vikings' defense is missing a lot of tackles so far, and that's something that needs to come to an end if the Vikings want to have any chance in this one.
Asher Allen is also in the locker room with "concussion-like symptoms," so we're going to see some Cedric Griffin going forward after he was not out there to start the game. Hopefully he's up to the task in this one.
We're trailing after one quarter of play, ladies and gentlemen, but we're not getting killed yet.