MINNEAPOLIS _ They came into Monday night almost as a subplot, before a game drenched in anticipation over Adrian Peterson's return to Minnesota and Randy Moss' official enshrinement among the Vikings' greats.
With perhaps the two most dynamic offensive players in team history watching just feet away, the members of the Vikings' 2017 offense provided a shot of hope they might be just fine, too.
At least on Monday night, in the Vikings' season-opening 29-19 win over the New Orleans Saints, the team's offense was a more suitable complement to a stifling defense than it has been in some time.
Given a surplus of time behind his reworked offensive line, Sam Bradford turned in what might have been the best of his 16 starts with the Vikings, hitting 27 of his 32 passes for 346 yards and three touchdowns. He found Stefon Diggs for the first two touchdowns, as the third-year receiver became the first Vikings wideout to catch two TD passes in a season-opener since Moss in 2004.
And while Peterson fizzled on the field and fumed on the sideline, following Saints coach Sean Payton down the sideline in one heated exchange captured by ESPN's cameras, the running back the Vikings drafted to help replace their all-time leading rusher upstaged Peterson.
Cook finished with 137 combined rushing and receiving yards, breaking out after halftime as the Vikings put together an 89-yard touchdown drive to effectively ice Peterson and the Saints' running attack for the evening. Peterson finished with just 18 yards on six carries, coming out of the game on most third downs as he did in Minnesota.
The Vikings' own run game remained a work in progress for much of the night, averaging just 2.94 yards per carry through the first three quarters before Cook's 32-yard burst opened the fourth quarter. But the team's new offensive line gave Bradford ample time to stress the continuity of a Saints defense with eight new starters.
Hit just twice in the game's first three quarters, Bradford delivered downfield strikes with a frequency not seen during his first season in Minnesota. According to ESPN Stats and Information, Bradford's seven throws of at least 15 yards downfield were more than he had in any game last season.
He found Thielen for 35 yards running alone with Manti Te'o on a crossing route. He hit Jarius Wright for 21 yards on the next play, throwing a strike as he got drilled. And on the next play, Bradford's first touchdown of the season was as easy as they come, as he connected with Diggs for a 15-yard score after a play fake froze the Saints' defense.
Thielen exploited gaping holes in the Saints' zone coverages for many of his 157 yards on nine catches, gaining 44 yards on a crossing route late in the first half. He was wide open again at the end of the third quarter, hauling in a Bradford pass for 27 yards to set up the Vikings' final touchdown.
The Vikings will face sterner defensive tests than the Saints as soon as Sunday, when they travel to Pittsburgh for an afternoon game with the Steelers. But after the team's front office devoted much of its offseason to remaking the offense, and after the Vikings put up just three points in 12 preseason drives with Bradford on the field, the group needed to show something to support the idea it could be markedly better than the unit that posted the fifth-fewest yards in the NFL last season.
The Vikings' defense, though, was in command again on Monday night, holding the Saints to 196 yards through the first three quarters before Brees directed a pair of scoring drives to dress up the final score. A group that's allowed the sixth- and fifth-most points in the NFL the past two seasons provides a firm foundation for an offense that might need only to be competent for the team to make a playoff push.
Bradford and company more than met that standard on Monday night, with two outsized figures in the building and their specters hanging in the air.
The tests will get harder soon, but on a night charged with symbolism, the Vikings passed the first one.
