Defense caught off guard by Saints' opening efforts

NEW ORLEANS – Defensive-minded Vikings coach Mike Zimmer thought his game plan could hoodwink offensive-minded Saints coach Sean Payton at the start of Sunday's game at the Superdome.

He was wrong. Boy, was he ever.

The Saints led 13-0 before the Vikings could muster a first down or complete a pass. In 10 minutes, the Saints ran 18 plays for 162 yards, two touchdowns and faced third down only twice.

After the 20-9 loss, Zimmer admitted Payton's plan trumped his during the deciding opening quarter.

"They changed a lot of things in what they did with some of their reads, so it is probably my fault," Zimmer said. "I was going to trick them a little bit in the beginning of the game, but they ended up changing things. It caught us a little off-balance."

The Vikings were competitive for three quarters, but not the first one. The Saints had 11 first downs in the first 10 minutes, nine over the next 43 minutes and then five while killing the final 7 minutes with a 14-play drive.

In the Vikings locker room, defensive players pointed the fingers at themselves, not the coaches, as was sometimes the case a year ago.

Payton pointed to the Saints' balanced attack as the reason for early success. With top running back Mark Ingram out because of injury, the Saints still ran for 32 yards and three first downs on their first three carries.

By the end of the first quarter, the Saints had 54 yards on just nine carries (6.0). Over the next three quarters, they totaled 54 more yards on 23 more carries (2.3).

With a balanced attack, quarterback Drew Brees completed his first nine passes for 108 yards and a 34-yard touchdown to tight end Josh Hill. He was pressured only once, and it was mild.

Although the Vikings held All-Pro tight end Jimmy Graham to six catches for only 54 yards, his presence played a role in Hill being so wide open on his touchdown.

When strong safety Robert Blanton came up to apparently support cornerback Captain Munnerlyn's coverage of Graham, Hill raced open down the middle. Free safety Harrison Smith said he contributed to the problem by biting on Brees' pump fake the other way.

"Early on, we weren't stopping the run," Smith said. "But everybody kind of settled down and started doing our jobs. There was no crazy magic or anything. Just doing our jobs."

The Saints converted 69 percent (nine of 13) of their third downs. The Vikings also failed to get a takeaway for the second straight week.

"We just didn't play well early on, and it cost us," linebacker Chad Greenway said.