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As we’ve done for every game over the past couple of seasons, we’re going to take a look back at the history between the Minnesota Vikings and their upcoming opponent. This week, to start the 2017 NFL season, the purple will be hosting the New Orleans Saints in their first opener at home since 2012.
Over the years, these two teams have met 28 times in the regular season, and those are the matchups we’re going to focus on. . .not the sorts of games that the human colostomy bags known as Gregg Williams, Sean Payton, and Mickey Loomis should all still be serving lifetime bans from the National Football League over. Nope, regular season only.
While the Vikings have the overall head-to-head advantage in this series, the Saints have made up some ground in recent years, much to our chagrin.
Total Games Between the Vikings and the Saints: 28
All-Time Record: Vikings, 18-10
Total Vikings Points Scored, Head-to-Head: 703 (25.1 points/game)
Total Saints Points Scored, Head-to-Head: 512 (22.3 points/game)
Longest Vikings’ Winning Streak vs. Saints: 6 (27 September 1970 - 12 September 1976)
Longest Saints’ Winning Streak vs. Vikings: 3 (9 September 2010 - 21 September 2014)
Most Recent Vikings’ Home Win in series: 25 September 2005 (final score 33-16)
Most Recent Saints’ Road Win in series: 18 December 2011 (final score 42-20)
Biggest Vikings’ Home Win in series: 42 points, 3 December 1988 (final score 45-3)
Biggest Saints’ Road Win in series: 22 points, 18 December 2011 (final score 42-20)
Current streak: Saints, 3 wins
Yes, it’s been nearly 12 calendar years since the Vikings beat the Saints at home. Of course, they’ve only played in Minnesota one other time since then, and that was in the Vikings’ disastrous 2011 season when they probably would have had difficulty stopping LSU, never mind the Saints. In that one, the Vikings got off to a hot start, courtesy of three Daunte Culpepper touchdown passes (two to Travis Taylor) and staked themselves to a big halftime lead before going on to win 33-16. (That game is linked above.)
The last time these two teams met in Minneapolis, as mentioned, was in 2011. Drew Brees threw five touchdown passes, as the Vikings just couldn’t stop anything. If I remember rightly, this was the game that featured the infamous “Joe Webb takes a snap from center and fakes a handoff to Christian Ponder” play that I’m relatively certain wouldn’t have fooled anyone, but I could be wrong on that. Anyway, the Vikings got thumped in that one, 42-20.
The last time the Vikings beat the Saints in the regular season was at the Superdome in 2008. It was a pretty fun contest, looking back on it. The game was a back-and-forth battle, featuring Antoine Winfield returning a blocked field goal for a touchdown, a touchdown pass from Chester Taylor to Visanthe Shiancoe, and Reggie Bush returning not one, but two punts for touchdowns (and he would have had a third if he hadn’t tripped over the turf monster). In the end, the Saints were flagged for interference on a long pass from Gus Frerotte to Bernard Berrian, and that set Ryan Longwell up for the game-winning 30-yard field goal to give the purple a 30-27 win.
The last game between these two teams was in 2014, and it will be remembered for pretty much one thing. . .being the official start of the Teddy Bridgewater era. After Matt Cassel was injured in the first quarter of play, Bridgewater came in and saw his first NFL action. He wasn’t bad, but he couldn’t lead the Vikings to any touchdowns in a game the Vikings lost by a final score of 20-9.
That’s a quick look back at the history between the Minnesota Vikings and the New Orleans Saints. Outside of the obvious. . .any memories from the games between these two teams?