New Orleans Saints and Drew Brees look to destroy Minnesota Vikings – NFL Preview Week 15
Minnesota Vikings have a tough game ahead on Sunday as they face National Football Conference South Division leaders New Orleans Saints at the Mall of America Field.
The Saints will look to win their last three games of the regular season starting with Vikings to snatch the second seed spot in the playoffs from San Francisco 49ers. Currently on third the Saints with victory over the Vikings
can guarantee at least one playoff game at home field.
Quarterback and leader Drew Brees will be critical in any Saints victory. The quarterback has been phenomenal this season with Saints looking to go on and win their second Super Bowl title in three years.
Brees who was immense in Saints 2009 Super Bowl winning season is once more on fire. The quarterback has covered a league high 4,368 passing yards and 32 passing touchdowns. The quarterback also leads the NFL in pass completion
rate with 70.9% completing 385 out of 543 attempted passes.
The Saints won their last game against Tennessee Titans 22-17 coming back into the game as Brees sent two passing touchdowns in the fourth quarter to complete a brilliant Saints comeback.
"It was a gut-check win for us," Coach Sean Payton said. "A lot of things early on didn't go our way. We had some calls that could have went either way. We just kept fighting and won a good game on the road against a good team."
Such heroics however, may not be needed this week against Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings are 2-11 this season and on a five game losing streak with Coach Leslie Frazier under pressure to turn things around.
The Vikings do not have the motivation of competing for the playoff spots and hence will be an easy target for the Saints top ranked offense. Vikings will have the services of star running back Adrian Peterson and rookie quarterback
Christian Ponder for this game giving their offensive line-up a significant boost but will not be enough to overcome a well drilled Saints side. The Vikings defence has allowed an average of 248.8 passing yards this season and will struggle against Brees.
Ponder played during Vikings week 14 loss to Detroit Lions but was taken off the field after throwing his third interception in the third quarter as he struggled with a hip-pointer injury. Ponder threw two touchdown passes yet
his three interceptions proved costly as the Lions built up a big lead. Coach Frazier sent on Joe Webb to replace Ponder in the third quarter. Webb immediately made an impact and with a bit of luck could have led Vikings to a shocking comeback victory.
"I need to show improvement, not only for myself, but for my team," Ponder said. "I've got to do a better job of holding onto the ball. It's hard to win ballgames when you give the other team points, so I've got to do a better
job these next three weeks and hopefully get three wins."
The Saints are shoo-ins for the win and barring some miracle the Vikings have little to no chance against one of the NFL’s top sides.
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