Saints renew a mostly torturous series history against the Vikings
· Yahoo Sports
Coming off an embarrassing Monday loss, the New Orleans Saints play their third straight home game when they host the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. The Saints lost both their first two games in the Superdome to fall to 1-3. It's the only time New Orleans has three straight home outings and one of only twice the Saints have consecutive home games this season. This will be the 39th meeting between the Saints and Vikings. Minnesota has a dominant advantage in this series, though there have been some memorable outcomes between the two.
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Saints vs. Vikings series history
- Overall: 13-25
- Home: 9-10
- Last 10 matchups: 5-5
- Last 5 matchups: 2-3
- Last meeting (2023): Vikings (27-19)
- Last meeting in New Orleans (2020): Saints (52-33)
Minnesota has a decided advantage in this series because of a couple stretches of dominance. The Saints actually won the first game in the series, a 20-17 victory at Tulane Stadium during the 1968 season. After that, the Vikings rattled off six straight wins over the Saints and won eight out of nine against them between 1970 and 1981. The only game that the Saints won over that stretch was a 31-28 victory at home to open the 1978 season in the first matchup between these teams in the Superdome.
Minnesota also defeated the Saints in four straight meetings between 1986 and 1990, actually taking eight of ten matchups between 1986 and 2001. Included in that span were two postseason victories. One of those was a 45-3 Vikings rout of the Saints inside the Superdome during the 1987-88 playoffs. It was the first postseason trip for the Saints. These teams are familiar postseason foes, having met five times in the playoffs.
New Orleans won only one of those playoff showdowns against the Vikings, but it was the one with the most on the line. The top-seeded Saints hosted the second-seeded Vikings in the 2010 NFC Championship game. It was billed as a showdown between Drew Brees and Brett Favre, two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks. The Saints were outgained in total yardage in the game but took advantage of five Minnesota turnovers. Brees led an overtime march for the game-winning field goal in a 31-28 win that propelled the Saints to a Super Bowl XLIV victory two weeks later. The Vikings have won the last two postseason matchups against the Saints, taking a miraculous 29-24 last second win in the 2018 divisional round and a 26-20 overtime victory in the 2020 wild-card round. The second of those were in the Superdome, giving the Vikings a 2-1 edge over the Saints in the playoffs in their own building.
Inside the Superdome, the Saints own a slim 8-6 all-time edge over Minnesota even including the playoffs. The most resounding of those was a 52-33 rout on Christmas Day in 2020. Alvin Kamara tied an NFL record that was set back in 1929 and unmatched since with six rushing touchdowns in the win. The last 'home' game for the Saints against the Vikings actually took place in London during the 2022 campaign. Minnesota won that by a 28-25 score on a last second field goal.
Prior to this matchup, the Saints and Vikings have faced off six times in the month of October. New Orleans is 3-3 in those matchups with five of them taking place at home, including three in the Superdome. However, the Vikings have won three of the last four times that they've played New Orleans in October. The Saints are now trying to get themselves right against a surprising 4-0 Minnesota squad. New Orleans has also lost 13 of their last 19 games played in the Superdome. To turn around their season, they need to reverse that trend on Sunday.
This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Saints renew a mostly torturous series history against the Vikings