re: Media more outraged that the Saints beat the Vikings

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SAINTS-VIKINGS: Yes, the Vikings had an advantage of more than 200 net yards, but they also had a lot more plays. Minnesota ended up with a smaller advantage in yards per play, 5.8 to New Orleans' 4.7. Yards per play (and DVOA) say more about a team's future performance than total yards. The difference between the Vikings' per-play performance and the Saints' per-play performance gets made up by three things:

*The Saints were much more efficient in the red zone than on the rest of the field. They ran seven plays in the red zone and three of them were touchdowns. In the third quarter, Pierre Thomas had three straight runs in the red zone and gained 6, 5, and 9 yards against the best run defense in the NFL.

*The Saints were much better on special teams, for two reasons: Courtney Roby's long kick return to start the second half, and a big day from rookie punter Thomas Morstead. Morstead averaged 52 gross yards and 48.5 net yards per punt.

*The fumbles

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