homerj07

I know the fans (say) they aren't worried. The columnists know enough to be fearful.


Minnesota columnist: Vikings need 'machetes,' 'steel-toe boots' to defeat Saints, get closer to Super Bowl | Saints | theadvocate.com

CheramieIII

No they don't but I do: Saints 33 - Vikings 21

hagan714

saints 17
Vikes 14

QBREES9

Saints 28 ViQUEENS 17

K Major

34 - Saints
27 - Vikings

Rugby Saint II

I'm not even going to try to predict this score but I don't believe that it will be a shoot out with these two defenses playing well. However, I believe that we are the more complete team and should come away with a win if the crowd noise doesn't cause false starts and longer first downs.

We have to do better on the first two downs so that we don't have so many long third downs. It will all come down to special teams field position and turnovers and if our young defense can get them off the field consistently.

AsylumGuido

I'm not that concerned about crowd noise having much of an affect on the Saints. I dug up a very interesting statistic concerning the Saints and false strarts.

In 2017 the Saints committed fewer false start penalties than any other team in the NFL and by a significant margin. The Saints were penalized only SIX times for false starts. Only two other teams had fewer than 11 and they both (Dallas and Buffalo) had nine. The league average was 16.22 false starts for the season.

Minnesota's opponents have committed 16 false starts on the season, therefore the Vikings are only at league average in drawing the penalty.

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill

SaintsBro

Exactly right, Guido. A lot of Minnesota fans seem to think they have a really loud and hostile stadium, but I've always felt like they're really only average in that regard.

Minnesota Vikings - 2017 Penalties - View by Games - NFL Penalty Stats Tracker - List/Statistics/Data of NFL Penalties - 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017

Their first game with the Saints, there was ONE false start penalty against the Saints, in the first quarter. Which was ONLY the third snap of the whole season, so....

The Vikings' game against Detroit, Detroit had a false start in the 4th quarter. That one could have been important but Detroit was already down by two scores at the time. Baltimore had one in the 4th quarter of their game as well.

The Rams had a false start near the 2 minute warning of the half, and a 12 men on the field, and Goff had a delay of game for not getting the snap off out of the shotgun in the 3rd quarter.... So that's something. But is anyone doubting that Brees > Goff when it comes to stuff like that.

So it's a real thing, like in any loud stadium, but it's not like Minnesota fans are really disrupting opponents' offenses like the way the Superdome or the Seahawks' noise level gets so insane, that teams start burning time outs just to put their hands on their helmets and recuperate. I don't see that being a thing. To save time, I only looked at the Vikings penalty stats in a few home games against GOOD teams, winning record teams, etc. I'm sure that a bad team with an inexperienced QB and coach would do worse there.


All in all, the Vikes home field seems pretty average on penalties. Unless there's something in the play-by-play that I'm not seeing. But other than that Rams game with Goff making a lot of mistakes, it does not seem to be terribly intimidating or fearful based on penalty results.

saintfan

Saints - 27
Vikes - 24

The Dude

You really think we are going to hand 34 on that D?
Our defense better score a few.