By AJ Olona

Thursday, Dec. 25 at 2:30 PM ET

NFL NETWORK

SPREAD: Saints, -7.0

A Christmas Day matchup between two NFC teams that are both stuck in a bit of a rough patch as the season closes out. The New Orleans Saints were finally able to get quarterback Drew Brees back from injury last week, yet they still suffered their second loss in a row at the hand of the Kansas City Chiefs.

On the other side of the ball, the Minnesota Vikings to are in the midst of a two-game losing streak. After going on an impressive run in the middle of the season, the Vikings put themselves in a position to fight for a wild card seed in the NFC. However, after two losses, the Vikings are going to need a Christmas miracle to make the playoffs at this point.

Minnesota Vikings

When the Vikings lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 14, it was a tough loss, but somewhat excusable. The Buccaneers are a top team in the NFL and will be playing football in January.

The loss that was really disappointing was last week’s 33-27 loss to the Chicago Bears. The Bears are also fighting to make the playoffs and with the Vikings losing in Minnesota in Week 15 to Chicago, it is all but certain that Minnesota will miss out on the playoffs this year.

Vikings Offense

The Vikings offense has been hard to predict from game to game. It seems as though teams have finally caught on to the Vikings game plan of running Dalvin Cook into exhaustion. Despite that, Cook had still been amazing on the season. He has rushed for 100 plus yards in 4 of the last 5 games.

The Vikings are a bit banged up when it comes to the run game, outside of Cook. Alexander Mattison and C.J. Hamm have all yet to practice this week and are questionable for this game while tight end Kyle Rudolph has already been ruled out. If any of these players miss Friday’s game, it will make things harder on the rushing attack.

The real question mark of the Vikings offense has been the same all year. At times, the Vikings passing game has been great, as evident in rookie Justin Jefferson’s 1,182 receiving yards and Pro Bowl nod and Adam Thielen’s 13 touchdowns — good for 3rd best in the league.

The real problems arise when the Vikings fall behind and are forced to throw the ball. Last week with the game on the line and playing from behind, Kirk Cousins threw a crucial interception and his 13th on the season.

If the Vikings can maintain a lead over the Saints heading into the 4th quarter, they will have a chance to put the game away. Let’s just hope that they aren’t forced to abandon the run at any point in this game.

Vikings Defense

The Viking’s defense has been somewhat of a let down lately. Last week they gave up 33 points to Mitchell Trubisky and the Chicago Bears. In fact, the Vikings have given up 20 or more points in all but one game this season while giving up more than 30 on five separate occasions.

While these numbers aren’t entirely on the defense, it is telling that they are in the bottom 20 for nearly all defensive categories this season.

First and foremost, this defense needs to find ways to get to the quarterback. After losing Danielle Hunter and Anthony Barr to injury and trading away Yannick Ngakoue earlier this season, the Vikings only have 22 sacks on the year, ranking 26th in the NFL. That simply won’t be able to cut it, especially against an immobile quarterback like Brees.

Things will also be tough for the Vikings this week as they will be without three linebackers due to injury, including Troy Dye and Eric Kendricks who were both ruled out, and Todd Davis who is listed as doubtful.

New Orleans Saints

Last week’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs was definitely disappointing for the Saints. A team that was once winning back-to-back games without their starting quarterback suddenly is on a losing streak. The loss to Philly two weeks back was bad. However, Week 15’s loss is a bit easier to overlook.

The Kansas City Chiefs have only lost one game this season and is the leagues defending Super Bowl Champions. While Drew Brees did not look great in his return from injury, he was still able to put his team in a position to win the game.

Despite the 33-29 loss, the Saints still look like a top team in the NFL. They cannot afford to struggle against a desperate Vikings team on Christmas Day.

Saints Offense

The New Orleans offense has been disappointing for a better part of the year. Despite the intrigue of seeing what Taysom Hill could finally do under center, things have not been great for the Saints. Most of that can be chalked up to injury as Drew Brees was forced to miss a handful of games and while Michael Thomas has not been consistently healthy all year.

On top of that, the Saints lack a true consistent rushing attack in the backfield. Alvin Kamara has been solid all year but sees a lot of action as a receiver as he has not had a single game where he rushed for more than 100 yards. Latavius Murray accomplished that feat a few weeks back against the Broncos, but other than that, the Saints don’t have a true number one rushing threat. They need to allow Kamara to get more involved in the running game to keep the defense back and keep pressure off of Drew Brees.

Speaking of Brees, in his first game back, he was able to throw for 234 yards and 3 touchdowns. Despite the impressive numbers, it is starting to be more and more clear that Drew Brees is starting to lose a little touch on the ball.

Luckily for Brees and the Saints, he should have all the time in the world to sit in the pocket and dump the ball off to Kamara and his teammates. This Vikings defense is not intimidating at all and shouldn’t give Drew Brees and the Saints any issues.

Saints Defense

The Saints are going to need to get back to playing elite football. For a stretch of the season, the Saints defense was finally dominant again. However, ever since the Eagles games, the Saints defense has taken a step back. While Patrick Mahomes did not throw for an insane amount of yards last week and the Chiefs did not have a 100-yard rusher, the Chiefs were still practically able to do whatever they wanted.

The Saints will be without star safety Marcus Williams in this one as he was already ruled out of the game while both Malcom Brown and Trey Hendrickson are questionable.

This defense will need to contain Dalvin Cook and force Kirk Cousins to throw late in this game to keep the game in front of them.

The Prediction

This game will flow entirely through Dalvin Cook. If the Vikings can establish the run early, it will go a long way in having a chance to get back into playoff contention. We have seen time and time again this Vikings offense crumbling late in the game. Dalvin Cook will give them an opportunity to not let it come to that. The Vikings will control the line of scrimmage and jump out to an early seventeen point lead, all on the back of Dalvin Cook. Let’s hope that the Vikings defense can hold off long enough because if not, I can see another late-game push by this Saints offense to make things closer than they should be.

AJ’S PREDICTION: Vikings 28 - 20

AJ is a sports writer for La Tonique Media.