Tailgaters were setting up around the Superdome at dawn, and one pregame cookout even doubled as a wedding. Some government offices, business and schools shut down.

NFL-sponsored pregame festivities included a concert in the French Quarter featuring Dave Matthews and Taylor Swift, along with a Mardi Gras-style parade, for which police estimated the crowd at about 200,000.

Shortly before kickoff, singer and New Orleans native Harry Connick Jr. entered the Superdome on a parade float with a giant replica of the silver Vince Lombardi Trophy. Also on the float was Saints owner Tom Benson, holding the real trophy.

As Connick finished the first verse of, "When the Saints Go Marching In," a black championship banner was unfurled from the roof of the dome and Saints players streamed out of the tunnel to sustained and boisterous applause.

Shortly before kickoff, Brees stood on the 30-yard line, holding a fist up high before pumping his arm down in an orchestrated move to send the sellout crowd of 70,051 into a chants of: "Who dat say dey gonna' beat dem Saints!"

Soon after, the Saints received the opening kickoff and scored on only five plays, with Brees hitting three of his first four passes for 69 yards, including a 29-yard scoring strike to Devery Henderson on a rollout.

Minnesota made it 7-3 on Ryan Longwell's 41-yard field goal in the second quarter and the Vikings defense stifled Brees and the Saints in the second quarter, allowing only 7 yards. New Orleans' only scoring threat in the quarter came after Vilma's interception at the Vikings 34, but Hartley missed a 46-yard field goal.

The Saints quickly regained their stride on their first drive of the second half, going 74 yards in 11 plays, capped by Thomas' 1-yard TD plunge up the middle. That turned out that was all the scoring the Saints needed.

NOTES: The defending Super Bowl champion has played host to the past seven Thursday night openers and won them all. ... The previous lowest-scoring Saints victory under Payton was his debut as a head coach in the 2006 regular season, a 19-14 win at Cleveland. ... Brees, who completed 75 percent of his passes without an interception, had a quarterback rating of 101.3, the 30th time in 64 regular season games with the Saints that is rating was above 100. ... Favre was 15 of 27 (56 percent) with one interception for a passer rating of 71.7. ... Favre needs two more TDs passing to become the first NFL quarterback with 500. ... Shiancoe finished with four catches for 76 yards, all in the first half. ... Thomas rushed for all but 1 of his yards in the second half.

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