In the second half, the Saints scored two touchdowns. However, the defense made enough negative plays in the second half, including two sacks and two interceptions, to keep them at bay. Regardless of how it felt to watch the game live, the Saints were never in with a chance of winning:
The outstanding defensive performance against the Saints was part of a bigger pattern of excellent defense throughout the team’s five-game winning run. During the streak, they’ve forced at least one turnover in every game, totaling 11 in total. With the exception of the Atlanta Falcons game, in which the Vikings gave up eight of the 28 points on a safety and two fumbles that put Atlanta in scoring position, Minnesota hasn’t allowed more than 20 points in a game over the period.
Efficiency measures reveal that the Vikings’ defense is improving. They haven’t broken away from the pack, but according to PFF’s Timo Riske, they have the best defense in the NFC in terms of recent play. They are also fifth in the standings, trailing the Cleveland Browns, New York Jets, Baltimore Ravens, and Kansas City Chiefs:
This season, the Vikings are clear outliers in their approach to targeting opposition quarterbacks. According to Sports Info Solutions, the Vikings were top in blitz rate (51%), and first in percentage of plays with only a three-man rush (22%), through Week 9 (Week 10 data is not yet available). To put this in context, the New York Giants, who finished second in blitzing, blitzed 43% of the time. Third spot is held by the Pittsburgh Steelers (35%). Only the Falcons and Saints, both at 14%, use drop eight in coverage even half as much as the Vikings.
Combine strong blitz rates with the Vikings’ use of a two-high shell on only 27% of snaps, the lowest in the league, and you get a defense that is difficult to run against in terms of box count and difficult to understand in pass coverage after the snap. Minnesota has began to alter their blitz deployment during their winning streak. According to PFF, they blitzed 81% of the time against the Chicago Bears and 63% of the time against the San Francisco 49ers. They blitzed 40% of the time against the Green Bay Packers, 50% against the Falcons, and then their lowest blitz rate of the season by far against the Saints:
