By admin 
The Minnesota Vikings appear to be at a critical week in the season. They have not come close to hitting their offensive stride in their first four weeks, but they have gotten massive contributions from their defense and special teams. As a result, they take a 4-0 record into their road game against the Saints and they are one of three unbeaten teams in the NFL. They have joined the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs in that category.
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The Saints have struggled through their first four games, and they bring a 1-3 record into this meeting with the Vikings. In many ways, the teams are opposites. While the Vikings have been one of the least productive offensive teams in the NFL — they rank 31st in yards per game — the Saints’ issue is with their defense. New Orleans ranks 32nd in points allowed per game as they are giving up 32.0 per effort.
The experts are fairly mixed in their predictions for this game that has the Vikings favored by 1.5 points. New Orleans has backers who look at their offense and see a productive team. They also see the Vikings as being overachievers to this point and their offensive inefficiencies will catch up with them.
Vikings backers look at the defense as being the great equalizer. The Vikings have one of the best defensive teams in the league and that won’t change here. They also believe that Kyler Murray and the Vikings offense will get on track and have a productive game.
Here are some of the expert selections:
Pam Maldonado, ESPN, Saints, 23-17
Alec Lewis, The Athletic, Vikings, 27-6
Jon Krawczynski, The Athletic, Vikings, 12-6
Fox Sports Research, Saints win outright
Adam Kaufman, USA Today, Vikings, 23-20
Eric Moody, ESPN, Vikings, 26-23
Drew Dinsick, Rotoworld, Vikings win and cover
Erich Richter, New York Post, Saints win
Chinmay Vaidya, Sportsline, Vikings cover the spread in 64 percent of simulations
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Maldonado is one of the most thorough researchers who follow both the college and professional game. She does plenty of digging into the statistical findings and her work is consistently thorough.
Lewis has been covering the Vikings for multiple seasons for one of the sharpest outlets in the country. He has insight into the players and coaching staff that few can match.
Fox Sports uses data to analyze a team’s past performance as well as how it will perform in the future.
Sportsline employs game simulations to come up with a prediction on each NFL game.
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This story was originally published October 11, 2026 at 7:28 AM.