NEW ORLEANS - For months, the Vikings' opener at New Orleans, in a rematch of an epic NFC title game, in the home of a city believing the Saints offered proof of its rebirth, felt as consequential and symbolic as Christmas.

Turns out it was more like Halloween -- a holiday signifying little, featuring loud costumes and leaving half the participants with queasy stomachs.

Ugly and overhyped as it was, the Vikings' 14-9 loss to the Saints doesn't mean much. Losing on the road to a championship team early in the season is hardly fatal. It was just another Fleur de Loss in "The City That Doesn't Sleep In Its Own Bed."

What the loss means is that the Vikings suddenly have little margin for error. They haven't dealt with this predicament previously with Favre at their helm.

Last year, they started with easy victories over Cleveland and Detroit, stole one from the 49ers and started the season 6-0. The early winning streak gave them immense confidence and a cushion in the NFC North that allowed them to survive unsightly late-season losses at Arizona, Carolina and Chicago.

In fact, that early winning streak obscured the Vikings' struggles on the road under Favre. Including the end of last season, the playoff loss at New Orleans and Thursday's loss, the Vikings have lost six of their past seven road games with Favre under center, a strange occurrence given his experience.

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Brett Favre got sacked.

Having lost at New Orleans, the Vikings face immediate urgency. They will play Miami at home in their next game. A victory should be expected, and would put the Vikings in position to beat Detroit and enter the bye at 2-1.

They need those two wins to buttress themselves against a brutal stretch that could determine their fate: at the Jets on a Monday night, followed by the Cowboys at home and the Packers and Patriots on the road.

Late Thursday night, tight end Visanthe Shiancoe, one of the more forthcoming Vikings, kept saying that the offense "left a lot of plays on the field," and promised that the group would get better.

The former is undeniable; the latter is likely. The problem for the Vikings is that unlike last year, when the Browns and Lions provided Favre with an extended training camp, Favre and the offense will have to shift into high gear quickly, while facing quality teams and defenses.

The vocal public has already weighed in on the loss, often defending Favre and castigating coach Brad Childress and his offensive staff. Somehow, when a quarterback bounces a pass to an open receiver that is the coach's fault.

Here's how to correctly apportion the blame for the opening-night loss, and how to view Thursday's failures in the context of the rest of the season:

• Favre blew it. The Vikings were in position to win, and then he completed just four of 12 passes in the second half against a statistically poor defense. He threw off his back foot, and threw inaccurately, and that is his and only his fault.

If Tarvaris Jackson had come in at the beginning of the second half and gone 4-for-12 while bouncing the game's key pass to Greg Camarillo, fans would want him thrown out of the league.

• The receivers must get better. Bernard Berrian dropped a key pass and Percy Harvin quit on a deep route. Camarillo displayed good hands and should be a bigger part of the next game plan. Only Shiancoe acquitted himself well.

• If Childress deserves blame for anything in this loss, it is that he abandoned a game plan that was working increasingly well. Adrian Peterson ran with admirable intensity all game, and didn't come close to reprising his fumbling problems. He seemed to be wearing down the Saints' defense.

Then came the fourth quarter, and here's how the Vikings' play calls went: pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, pass.

• Saints' coach Sean Payton didn't outcoach Childress by beating him in a chess match. Payton outcoached Childress by adhering to the most clichéd, old-school football philosophy in existence: Running the ball is a good thing. Payton emphasized the run in the second half; Childress abandoned it in the second half.

Childress and his staff need to remind themselves that Peterson is their best player right now, and if he avoids fumbles, he may again be the best player in the league.

• After looking lost in the first two series (Drew Brees missing Devery Henderson for what should have been a long touchdown saved the secondary), the Vikings defense adjusted admirably.

But with the game on the line, the strength of the unit -- the front seven -- failed to stop the run.

Shiancoe's right. The Vikings should get better as the offense spends more time together.

It's just that this season their margin for error and time for tinkering have been cut shorter than Favre's graying hair.

Jim Souhan can be heard at 10-noon Sunday on 1500ESPN. His Twitter name is SouhanStrib. jsouhan@startribune.com