Unbeaten Vikings ride winning formula to victory over Saints

Ben Goessling, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Oct 11, 2026

Published in Football

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NEW ORLEANS — The Minnesota Vikings, after a 23-13 victory over the New Orleans Saints at Caesars Superdome, remain perfect to start the 2026 NFL season.

The Vikings won Sunday without Jordan Addison, who was deactivated after a brief pregame workout to determine whether his sore hamstring would affect his availability, and without T.J. Hockenson, who sustained a concussion when he hit his head on the turf after a catch on the Vikings’ second offensive play.

They put Gavin Bartholomew, the 2025 sixth-round pick who missed his entire rookie year, at tight end, and used Ben Yurosek, last year’s undrafted free agent who caught his third NFL pass on Sunday after returning from injured reserve.

They didn’t have left tackle Christian Darrisaw because of a concussion, and started Joe Huber at left guard after Donovan Jackson tore his meniscus against the Dolphins last week. And 31-year-old running back Aaron Jones Sr., who had more yards (113) and carries (25) than in any of his previous games with the Vikings, did it all while leaving the game briefly with a knee injury.

Jones’ fumble was one of two Vikings turnovers in the Saints red zone, and Ryan Van Demark (playing in place of the injured Darrisaw) had an illegal formation penalty that wiped out a third-down conversion to Justin Jefferson on the first drive of the game.

For all the resourcefulness their victory required, the Vikings got to 5-0 with a formula that might be relatively simple: They let quarterback Kyler Murray be Murray, they let Jefferson be Jefferson and they leaned on a defense that made young Saints quarterback Tyler Shough its latest victim.

It sent the Vikings into their bye week with a two-game lead in the NFC North, after the Green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Bears at Lambeau Field on Sunday. Minnesota has wins over both teams, and already has four wins in the NFC. The Vikings’ five victories, in as many weeks to start the season, might already have them halfway to the total they’d need to return to the postseason.

Murray completed 24 of his 30 passes for 229 yards, throwing his second touchdown pass in a Vikings uniform when he fired for Jefferson behind triple coverage in the back of the end zone early in the third quarter. Not counting three kneel-downs at the end of the game, Murray ran seven times for 54 yards; Joshua Dobbs, who had 66 yards in his mercurial debut with the Vikings in 2023, is the only Minnesota quarterback to run for more under coach Kevin O’Connell.

The Murray-to-Jefferson throw ended a streak of just over eight quarters for the Vikings without a touchdown, and gave Jefferson, who’d played seven snaps in the Vikings’ past two games, a chance to do the Griddy at the Superdome for the first time since the St. Rose, La., native helped LSU win the national championship game over Clemson on Jan. 13, 2020.

Jefferson caught six passes for 79 yards, including a sensational one-handed grab for 21 yards against Kool-Aid McKinstry before halftime that set up Will Reichard’s second of three field goals in the game. Reichard, who hit from 54 yards before halftime, drilled one from 55 in the fourth quarter, running his streak of consecutive field goals to 34. During that streak, which dates back to last November, Reichard has hit 11 kicks of at least 50 yards.

And while the Vikings posted 364 yards of offense, they held the Saints to just 142 yards of offense — the lowest total of the season against the Vikings — and picked off Shough twice while limiting him to 96 yards on 16-of-25 passing.

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