Drew Brees finished a deadly accurate 27-for-36 but only for 237 yards and a touchdown. Brett Favre, on the other hand, was just 15-for-27 for 171 yards, a touchdown and a pick.
Adrian Peterson looked to be a factor early on, but with the Vikings trailing for much of the game, they turned to the air to try to win.
In all, this game had just three touchdowns but had two missed field goals and a blocked extra point. Not perfect by any means, but that's what can happen in the first week of the season.
The Vikings have nine days to prepare for their Week 2 matchup against the Dolphins, while the Saints have 10 days before they play on Monday night in San Francisco.
Fourth quarter, 1:00, 14-9 Saints: It wasn't pretty by any means, but the Saints will be 1-0 in 60 seconds after another kneel from Drew Brees.
Fourth quarter, 2:05, 14-9 Saints: The Vikings take their second timeout (lost one on the challenge), as the Saints are one first down away from being able to run out the clock. It's first-and-10 on the Saints' own 40.
Fourth quarter, 5:32, 14-9 Saints: A promising Vikings drive gets shut down due mostly to that holding call. That was followed by a three-yard loss on a pass that makes you wonder if Favre was trying to throw his first pick-six of the season.
Saints have the ball inside their 20 looking to score, something that's become somewhat impossible lately.
Fourth quarter, 8:12, 14-9 Saints: No sooner did Colinsworth say Favre trusted nobody other than Shiancoe than Greg Camarillo makes an athletic catch-and-run along the left sidelines, giving the Vikings a much-needed first down.
Then, inexplicably, Favre threw a basketball chest pass on the next play, but it came back on a holding call. That's probably a good thing.
Fourth quarter, 9:08, 14-9 Saints: These fingers were ready to type "what a beautiful touchdown catch by Robert Meachem," but no, he dropped it.
On came Garrett Hartley for the guaranteed field goal. Which he missed wide left.
If the Saints lose this game, at least they have a goat — the same goat who was a hero back in February. The NFL is a cruel, cruel place to work.
Fourth quarter, 14:57, 14-9 Saints: Not surprisingly, the call on the field is upheld. That's what bugs me about the NFL replay system — there's no room for creativity. If you're a human, you could see Kleinsasser's hands under the ball, but it's not insanely conclusive, so the call doesn't get reversed.
In Milwaukee, Bud Selig giggles.
(Just kidding — Bud Selig is sleeping.)
Fourth quarter, 14:57, 14-9 Saints: The Vikings are challenging an incompletion call on third down. Jimmy Kleinsasser appeared to have gotten his hands under Favre's pass, but as Chris Colinsworth astutely observed, referees don't generally give you a catch if they see a bounce.
And so, we wait.
Start of fourth quarter, 14-9 Saints: Frankly, I'm tired of seeing a score of 14-9. What kind of football game has a 14-9 score?
Third quarter, :27, 14-9 Saints: Incompletions! Failed third-down conversions! Penalties! Punts!
This isn't what the NFL had in mind when it selected these two teams to open the season.
The Saints punt again, with offsetting penalties on the kick, so we all got to witness another punt. Excitement. Vikings take over at their own 13 … after another holding call. You always want to hold a guy when your returner calls for a fair catch.
Third quarter, 1:32, 14-9 Saints: The past four Vikings drives: 36 yards, two first downs. Ugly.
Third quarter, 2:56 14-9 Saints: The Vikes protect their jugular — for now at least — and force a three-and-out.
Meanwhile, Ray Lews is popping out of the shower, hopping on giant birds and flying through the sky. Oh, and shooting laser beams at planets.
Third quarter, 5:13, 14-9 Saints: Favre threw another pick, but Malcom Jenkins was supremely out of bounds. The next pass was incomplete, and the Saints get the ball looking to go for the jugular to end the third.
Third quarter, 6:51, 14-9 Saints: An 11-play drive ends with a Pierre Thomas plunge from a yard out, and the Saints have the lead.
It wasn't a flashy drive, like the first touchdown drive, but it was a deadly effective for 74 yards and has the Saints in control once again.
Third quarter, 9:08, 9-7 Vikings: This is starting to look more and more like a Week 1 game, as neither team is ready to win a Super Bowl right now.
Third quarter, 15:00, 9-7 Vikings: So, thanks to Peter King on the halftime show, we now know that Tom Brady will be the Patriots' quarterback until 2013. Super. Now back to the game.
Halftime, 9-7 Vikings: Drew Brees threw for 138 yards in the first quarter. In the second, he threw for 10.
Likewise, after it seemed like Minnesota's game plan consisted solely of handing the ball to Peterson, Favre picked things up on the impressive scoring drive. He's 11-for-15 for 127 yards, a TD and an INT.
The other interesting number is that the Vikings have 16 carries for 59 yards, while the Saints have three carries for nine yards.
Halftime, 9-7 Vikings: The Saints don't threaten before the half, and the Vikes take a two-point lead into halftime.
They'll also get the ball to open the second half, and opening up a two-score lead has to be of the utmost importance right now. A three-and-out followed by a Saints score may sink them before they know what hit 'em.
Second quarter, :34, 9-7 Vikings: Visanthe Schiancoe is killing it right now. He looked like Shaquille O'Neal going up for an alley-oop on that touchdown pass from Favre, and the Vikings lead 9-7.
Yes, 9-7. Because the extra point was blocked. You probably won't see that for the rest of the year.
Second quarter, :40, 7-3 Saints: And that's exactly why those one-yard routes are foolish. Vistanthe Shiancoe ran straight up the field, caught a floater from Favre for 33 yards and got the Saints in position to score at least a field goal before the half. Nice touch on that one from Favre, as the Vikes take their second timeout.
Second quarter, :51, 7-3 Saints: The Vikings keep running these one- and two-yard routes, and they're getting either one or zero yards on them. Not exactly effective. Now, they face a third-and-1 deep in their own zone.
Second quarter, 1:24 7-3 Saints: Some stout defense from the Vikings keeps the Saints from doing serious damage, and then Garrett Hartley missed a 46-yarder pretty badly.
I had already written "Garrett Hartley drills home a 46-yard field goal" because I didn't realize he could miss. The Vikings have a long way to go in not a lot of time, but they do have three timeouts.
Second quarter, 2:37, 7-3 Saints: It only took a half of football for the idiotic Brett Favre interception to return.
Favre was getting plowed by Roman Harper, but that didn't stop him from trying to hit Shiancoe a few yards away. Jonathan Vilma stepped in front of the floater and the Saints are in prime position to score.
Don't blame Favre, though — he's just having fun out there.
Second quarter, 3:49, 7-3 Saints: I'm not sure what happened to that Saints offense that dominated the first quarter, but that was a real sloppy drive. It ended with Brees' worst throw of the night, but fortunately for him, it wasn't intercepted.
The Vikings are set to take over at their own 18.
Second quarter, 5:27, 7-3 Saints: The Saints blitzed the house, but Favre nearly connected with Bernard Berrian. The receiver dropped it, though, so on came Ryan Longwell for a 41-yard field goal to cut the lead to four.
Second quarter, 5:36, 7-0 Saints: A steady hangs in the balance on an upcoming third down. The Vikings already had a big third-down conversion this drive, when Favre hit Shiancoe on a perfect comeback route.
This one is a third-and-9 from the Saints' 23.
Second quarter, 9:52, 7-0 Saints: Offsetting facemask penalties. How 'bout that?
Second quarter, 13:00, 7-0 Saints: It's funny that everyone, myself included, talks about Favre, Favre, Favre and Favre when talking about the Vikings, because all Favre does is hand the ball to Peterson every snap. The guy has handled every play thus far in this drive.
End 1st, 7-0 Saints: The Saints' offense looks spectacular, picking up 138 yards through the air in the opening quarter. They've run just one rushing play, but they haven't really needed much outside of Brees and the receivers.
The Vikings did sack Brees shortly before the quarter ended, though, and the Saints will punt to open the second.
First quarter, 4:11, 7-0 Saints: Drew Brees: Good at his job. Fumbling a snap from his own 4-yard line, scrambling through his own end zone, and floating a pass 25 yards down the right sideline, Brees makes it all look easy.
First quarter, 5:38, 7-0 Saints: After a summer of playing Madden and not watching real football, fans must be wondering why the Vikings didn't go for it on fourth-and-3 from midfield.
Alas, they punted and pinned the Saints inside the 5.
First quarter, 7:14, 7-0 Saints: Welcome to the NFL season. I hope you like penalties.
Visanthe Shiancoe just got flagged for offensive pass interference, just a play after a long Adrian Peterson run was negated by a holding call. That brought up your standard second-and-30 for the Vikes.
First quarter, 8:03, 7-0 Saints: Adrian Peterson is a monster. He was stopped dead to rights before the line of scrimmage on a third-and-short, but the running back kept his legs churning and ran right through Jonathan Vilma.
High school coaches from coast to coast salivated at the thought of showing that film to their kids after practice on Friday.
First quarter, 9:16, 7-0 Saints: OK, the Saints have a three-and-out of their own, and it's finally time to take a second to catch our collective breath. That was a fairly whirlwind opening five minutes.
The Vikes are prepared to take over, looking to improve upon that seven-yard drive.
First quarter, 10:53, 7-0 Saints: A three-and-out for the Vikings' offense, and Drew Brees has the ball in his hands again.
First quarter, 12:56, 7-0 Saints: Jeez — think Drew Brees came ready to play?
The quarterback went 3-for-4 on a 77-yard touchdown drive, including a 28-yard pass to Marques Colston on the first play of the game. The drive ended with a 29-yard touchdown catch by Devery Henderson.
Brett Favre hasn't even touched the ball yet, and he's got a hole to dig himself out of already.
First quarter, 14:53: Courtney Roby runs the opening kickoff out to the 23-yard line, and the game is under way.
8:36 p.m.: Fear not, football fans. Brett Favre's beard is at its perfect "Aw, shucks! I forgot to shave for exactly 45 hours" length. I wonder how hard Just For Men has tried to get him to be the spokesman for the "tough of gray" formula.
8:31 p.m.: Ah, nice move by the Saints to wear the white jerseys. Last time they wore them, they won the Super Bowl. Very nice.
8:28 p.m.: No more killer jams. It's time for football now.
8:19 p.m.: I'm pretty sure that Rodney Harrison can't stand Tony Dungy. It seems like just looking at Dungy makes Harrison want to just divebomb him after he's already been tackled.
Harrison just said that the Saints might hit Brett Favre and intimidate him, and Dungy said Favre cannot be intimidated.
Harrison's response was succinct: "Are you kiddin' me?"
8:13 p.m.: With the season about to begin, you could say that we here at NESN got a little excited.
So, we have some previews.
Here are some Week 1 picks from Heidi Watney, Jerry Remy and other NESN personalities.
Here are Week 1 picks for the full slate of games.
Here are Jeff Howe's predictions for NFL awards and the playoff picture.
A nice photo gallery of some of the top storylines in the league is here.
And here are the top 10 games of the season.
8:07 p.m.: Dave Matthews Band? The NFL really has its fingers on the pulses of sports fans with these pump-up jams from Taylor Swift and the Dave Matthews here. Man, am I pumped right now.
7:51 p.m.: Hopefully Taylor Swift is done for the evening. And I take back that Jonas Brothers comment. That was bad. I'd rather watch Peter King stare blankly into the camera again than be forced to watch teenage pop music.
7:30 p.m.: As the parade and party rage on in New Orleans, it's moderately hilarious to hear Bob Costas utter the words "Taylor Swift."
Then again, the fact that someone decided to get Taylor Swift to open the NFL season is sort of funny in itself, too. At this point, though, I could put up with an hour-long Jonas Brothers concert, knowing that the NFL season is just 60 minutes away.
4:30 p.m.: The final seconds of the long NFL offseason are ticking off the click, as the Saints and Vikings are set for a rematch of the NFC Championship Game.
Last time we saw these two teams play, it was in the same place it will be this evening. Brett Favre was beaten like a rag doll but still had his team in position to win … until the pick.
This year, the roof could blow off the Superdome with the excitement of the fans down in New Orleans, and we'll have updates before, during and after the NFL season opener right here on the live blog.
