20-10 at the half

The Vikings are happy that Antoine Winfield is in their defensive backfield. Winfield, an opportunistic Viking defense, and a trick play near the goal line are the main reasons Minnesota has a 20-10 lead over the New Orleans Saints at halftime.

After New Orleans went nearly uncontested into the endzone for a quick 7-0 lead on their first posession, Minnesota struggled on their opening posession, having to punt, and it looked like the Saints were gonna walk away from this thing in a hurry. The Saints marched down the field, but were finally slowed at the 26 and Martin Gramatica went out to add to the Saints lead. However, the Vikings got penetration and blocked the kick and Winfield took it 59 yards for the touchdown to make it 7-7. It was the first blocked kick return for a touchdown in Vikings' regular season history and just the second overall.

Both teams traded field goals and then Winfied came up with another big play. Saints' QB Drew Brees dropped back to pass on a 3rd-and-5 and was blindsided by a blitzing Winfield, who took the ball right out of Brees' hands and rolled his way forward for a few yards after the fumble recovery.
Minnesota couldn't get anything going running the football though inside the red zone, so they turned to trickery to take their first lead of the game. On a 3rd and goal from the 4, Chestor Taylor took the handoff from Gus Frerotte, probably surprising everybody in the stadium. More often than not in those situations, when Taylor is in and not Adrian Peterson it is going to be a pass. Therefore, when Taylor got the ball, the Saints defense, which had been snuffing out the run since the opening kick, got a little overzealous and started to fly at Taylor hoping to stuff him behind the line. Taylor, however, reared back his arm and, to further surprise everybody and their mother, lofted a touchdown pass to Visanthe Shiancoe. Vikings lead 17-10.

Another Ryan Longwell field goal made it 20-10 at half.

The other theme of the half has been the penalties. The first was when Saints' RB Reggie Bush took a hand off around the right side, Vikings LB Chad Greenway reached out and forced a fumble that was recovered by Minnesota and then illegally advanced by one of the linemen, though it was still Minnesota's ball. The thing was that it was clearly visible on the replay that Greenway had ahold of Bush's facemask and used it to help him get ahold of Bush in order to force the fumble. Had the penalty been called it would've been Saints ball still. But the call was missed and Minnesota got the ball. And of course they could not capitalize, having to punt shortly afterward.

The other was when Adrian Peterson got one of his longest runs of the half, his helmet strap was pulled off and then he took a shot to his helmet, which was partially off his head at the time, causing him to lose the ball and the Saints recovered. The play was reviewed, however, and the ruling was that the ball was still secured in Peterson's hand when his knee touched the ground, even though it was moving, therefore it was still Minnesota's ball. The Vikings had to settle for a field goal though.

Thus far the story has been that the Vikings are capitalizing on New Orleans' mistakes. New Orleans is dominating the offensive statistics and Minnesota cannot run the ball at all, but the Vikings still lead 20-10 thanks to the efforts of their defense.
Minnesota must get the run going in th second half and they need to be better on special teams especially against the return. The Saints have been getting great starting position off of returns. If the defense can keep making plays and Minnesota can put a few more points on the board, the Vikings could be on their way to a 2-3 record.