Final Prediction for Saints-Vikings Week 5 Matchup

It's unbelievable how quickly things can change in the NFL. The New Orleans Saints felt like a bandwagon that everyone wanted to get on, mostly due to the overperforming defense and Tyler Shough, but that has changed. After their embarrassing loss against the Falcons, many of the issues that have plagued the Saints this season looked even worse. It could have easily been an outlier, but those issues are, realistically, not going to change much, especially with injuries. 

With this in mind, it does not help that the Saints are now going to play the Minnesota Vikings this week. 

So far this season, the Vikings are 4-0 with one of the best defenses in the NFL. Defensive coordinator Brian Flores has continued to be one of the best play callers in the league, and going up against his blitzes can completely change the success of an offense. For the Vikings offense, they have not been as good as the defense, but also not horrible. It is important to note that Minnesota has not played the best teams so far, but the Saints are also not the best team. 

In this game, star WR Justin Jefferson is returning from his injury, which will cause trouble for a struggling Saints pass defense. The place where the Saints may be able to stop the Vikings is in the run game, but it is important to note that Aaron Jones has had a good start to the season. If the Saints can limit Jones’ impact, they may have a chance to disrupt the Vikings offense. 

For the Saints' offense, the blitz the Vikings will send is going to be nearly impossible to stop. With the offensive line struggles, Flores has a chance of winning the game himself, but if the Saints do have some time to throw the ball, the Vikings' secondary can be attacked. We may see something similar to Tyler Shough’s performance against the Detroit Lions in the fourth quarter, but we could also get a performance like what we saw for most of that game. 

For my prediction, there’s really no way I can choose the Saints to win. I said something similar to this when they played the Baltimore Ravens, so hopefully I'm wrong, but the Vikings’ strengths will attack the Saints’ weaknesses. My final score prediction is 30-10, with the Vikings' defense getting 8 sacks. I hope I'm wrong, but this could be another tough game for the Saints, with too much to overcome.