The Minnesota Vikings surprised many by slowing down the New Orleans Saints on offense in Sunday’s playoff win, but the seeds of Minnesota’s victory were sown in an entirely different game nearly two months ago.
According to Vikings defensive end Danielle Hunter, the team closely studied how the Atlanta Falcons played on defense when they upset the Saints 26-9 in New Orleans back on Nov. 10. That was a huge upset, but it wasn’t coincidental. Atlanta made the decision to attack the interior offensive linemen instead of the tackles, and Minnesota copied that strategy to great effect.
#Vikings watched how Falcons slowed Drew Brees and Saints, according to Danielle Hunter, and they decided to attack interior OL because of strength of both Saints tackles.
— Andrew Krammer (@Andrew_Krammer) January 5, 2020
The Saints were 7-1 and the Falcons were 1-7 with one of the league’s worst defenses. To say Atlanta’s strategy worked is an understatement, and it seemed to pay dividends for Minnesota as well. They held the Saints to 324 total yards, which is the team’s lowest total since their second matchup against the Falcons on Nov. 28. The Vikings definitely got some breaks in this one, but it sounds like they intensely scouted and game-planned this one out to perfection, with a hat tip to the Falcons for showing them how to do it.
