NEW ORLEANS — Drew Brees doesn’t often let the jugular veins in his neck bulge to the size of his biceps, but he was running red hot.

Incensed by a personal-foul penalty on which he was wind-milled to the turf by cornerback Captain Munnerlyn early in the fourth quarter — which wiped out Munnerlyn’s critical third-down sack — Brees responded coolly by throwing an 18-yard scoring pass to Marques Colston to wake up a stagnant offense and lift the New Orleans Saints to a 20-9 victory over the Minnesota Vikings Sunday at the Mercedes Benz Superdome.

“That was straight Hulk Hogan from 1995 — a suplex (move),” Brees said, smiling. “That got us another 15 yards, got us a first down and helped us go on a 90-yard drive, score, shorten the game and get us the momentum.”

Saints coach Sean Payton agreed with the call, and he knew how important the call was with New Orleans clinging to a 13-9 lead.

“When you go from a sack, where you’re going to be punting, to a personal foul that’s now a first down, that can be a significant momentum shift, and it was,” Payton said. “Obviously, it was the right call, and fortunately we were able to take advantage of it.”

The victory was the Saints’ first after an 0-2 start and extended their home winning streak to a franchise record nine games. Brees completed 27 of 35 passes for 293 yards and two TDs.

The Saints had taken a 13-0 lead on their first two possessions, capping an 80-yard, 11-play drive with a 1-yard run by Pierre Thomas and following up with an 82-yard march that ended with Brees’ 34-yard strike to wide-open tight end Josh Hill.

On their first 18 plays, the Saints picked up 11 first downs. After those first two scoring drives, they held a 162-2 edge on the Vikings in total yardage.

But the Vikings clawed back, despite losing starting quarterback Matt Cassel, who fractured bones in his left foot on a third-down scramble early in the second quarter.

Rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater got his first NFL action and completed 12 of 20 passes for 150 yards, keeping several plays alive with his feet. He had another 27 yards on six carries. The first-round pick will be asked to steer the ship going forward, head coach Mike Zimmer said.

Bridgewater said as he snapped his chinstrap and got ready to take the field, quarterbacks coach Scott Turner gave him his final marching orders and told Bridgewater “This is your time.”

Already without their best offensive player, running back Adrian Peterson, the Vikings chipped away at the Saints’ lead with field goals of 25, 30 and 40 yards by Blair Walsh, cutting the deficit to 13-9 early in the third quarter.

Zimmer said having to settle for field goals instead of getting touchdowns hurt his team’s cause.

“That was disappointing, but, honestly, at the time, we needed (the field goals) to sustain ourselves after the two drives they had,” Zimmer said. “They pounded us. It was good for us to catch our breath. Obviously, you’d love to get touchdowns.”

The game’s key play came with the Saints facing a third-and-14 from their own 31 early in the fourth quarter. Brees got heavy pressure on the edge, and Munnerlyn came clean for a blindside sack that would have forced a punt. But the officials ruled that Munnerlyn wind-milled Brees, who was fighting to break the tackle, to the turf and called Munnerlyn for a personal foul.

Brees was so incensed by the play that he got up and pushed safety Robert Blanton in the back, mistakenly thinking Blanton was the one who had slammed him down.

“I like (Munnerlyn) — no offense taken,” Brees said. “He came up to me 30 seconds later and said, ‘That wasn’t a penalty.’ And I said, ‘Of course it was. You suplexed me. Thank you, we needed the 15 yards.'”

The personal foul gave the Saints an automatic first down at the 47, and seven plays later, Brees found Colston on a seam route for the 18-yard score, putting the Saints up 20-9 with 12:22 left. That capped a 12-play, 90-yard drive. The Saints ran out the final 6:54 after getting the ball back at their 16.

Bridgewater said he was not pleased to get the quarterback job at the expense of Cassel’s health, but he’s not unnerved by the task at hand.

“Not at all. This is where I always wanted to be,” Bridgewater said.

Bridgewater got his first NFL snap after Cassel went down with a left toe injury on a tackle by linebacker Curtis Lofton following a third-down scramble early in the second quarter. Shortly after Cassel reached the locker room on a cart, Bridgewater’s first career drive ended with three points.

What the Saints said:

“I was hoping they would call a penalty. Emotions were running hot. That (kind of tackle) can hurt somebody. It gave us a free set of downs, and we scored a touchdown. That’s all that matters.” — Quarterback Drew Brees.

What the Vikings said:

“Now I may be able to get more physical reps. Before it was mainly mental reps. Now I’ll be able to get in with the guys and get the chemistry and the timing. In life and throughout the season, you have adversity. It’s all about overcoming those obstacles. There are great guys in this locker room, and we demand greatness from each other.” — Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater

What we learned about the Saints:

1. Despite entering the game 0-2, the Saints had shown offensive balance, averaging 156.5 yards rushing, fifth best in the league. Playing without injured Mark Ingram (broken hand), the Saints ran 32 times for 108 yards (3.2 yard average) against Minnesota. It wasn’t a great output, but it followed coach Sean Payton’s intent to emphasize the running game in order to protect Drew Brees. The Saints ran out the final 6:58, with 14 plays covering 65 yards. Ten of the plays were runs. “We were able to possess the ball,” Payton said.

2. The defense, which had allowed 31.5 points per game in the two losses, finally got some red zone stops, holding the Vikings to three field goals. Two of those stops came in the red zone. “The thing that’s encouraging is our red zone defense and forcing them to settle for field goals,” Payton said. “That’s huge. That’s the one thing we were able to do when we were playing well last year.”

–WR Marques Colston, whose fumble in overtime of the season opener led to the Saints’ 37-34 loss to the Falcons and who was shut out in last week’s loss to the Browns, came back in a big way, although he didn’t start well. Colston dropped what should have been an easy first-down completion late in the first half to blunt a drive, but he came through in the final period, holding onto Drew Brees’ bullet up the seam for an 18-yard score. On the play, Colston broke a sandwich tackle by safeties Robert Blanton and Harrison Smith. He finished with two catches for 25 yards. His other catch was tough one of a low Brees pass.

–WR Brandin Cooks caught eight passes for 74 yards, and the key reception was a 19-yarder on third-and-7 to the Minnesota 18, setting up WR Marques Colston’s clinching TD. Cooks was targeted several times on bubble screens and made a few errors by turning back into pursuit, but it is clear QB Drew Brees is making the rookie one of his prime targets.

–LB Curtis Lofton was all over the field with a team-best eight tackles, seven of them unassisted. Lofton’s tackle of QB Matt Cassel on a third-down scramble early in the second quarter resulted in Cassel breaking his foot.

What we learned about the Vikings:

1. They are banged up three games into the season. In addition to Matt Cassel’s broken foot and the uncertain status of running back Adrian Peterson, who is on the exempt-commissioner’s permission list for allegations of child abuse, the Vikings lost tight end Kyle Rudolph and right guard Brandon Fusco during the game. There’s no word on the extent of their injuries. “That’s why we’ve got 53 players, so we can get guys in there and keep playing,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said. “No one’s going to feel sorry for us. We just got to go back to work and we’ve got to be smarter. We can’t jump offside on third-and-3. We can’t give up two third-and-15s. When we stop beating ourselves, we’ll be a good football team.”

2. Teddy Bridgewater will have on-the-job training, but he showed good pocket presence by moving to get extra time and threw well on the run. “He played with a lot of poise and made some scrambles and a couple of throws,” Zimmer said. “He’ll continue to grow, and I believe he’ll be a good player.”

–QB Matt Cassel struggled against the Saints’ pressure, and he was a sitting duck against a defense that struggled in its first two games. Credit Vikings coach Mike Zimmer for honesty not often seen from NFL head coaches. He announced that Cassel broke several bones in his foot and said Cassel would undergo an MRI exam Monday. Cassel could be out for an extended period.

–QB Teddy Bridgewater (12-for-20 for 150 yards) doesn’t have the entire offense mastered, but he showed great pocket awareness after replacing Matt Cassel (foot). The rookie escaped pressure time after time and threw accurately on the run. Bridgewater had a very good preseason, and now the Vikings will be counting on him to invent some offense despite the lack of RB Adrian Peterson and the injury to TE Kyle Rudolph.

–RB Matt Asiata is trying, but he will have a hard time carrying the rushing load for the Vikings. Asiata, who lacks the speed to be a matchup threat, had 35 yards on 12 carries (a 2.9-yard average) Sunday. Asiata did, however, take advantage of blown Saints coverage to rumble 41 yards on a swing pass from QB Teddy Bridgewater — the longest play of the game.