A narrow escape from the UK

The Vikings kept letting the Saints hang around but held on to improve to 3-1

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By Matthew Coller

The final result is all that matters. The Minnesota Vikings will fly back to the United States at 3-1 and they don’t have to apologize for anything. But against a New Orleans Saints team that was missing QB1, RB1, WR1 and LG1 and turned the ball over twice, the Vikings had a number of moments on Sunday that were too reminiscent of the recent past.

You wouldn’t have thought it would be a long day for the offense after the first drive. Following a week of conversations about why Justin Jefferson hasn’t been getting the ball, head coach Kevin O’Connell wanted to nip that in the bud early by throwing a quick screen to Jefferson to open the game. After a well-designed third-down pass to Irv Smith Jr. turned into a first down, Jefferson came flying out of the backfield for another reception to put the Vikings in scoring position.

They overcame a bit of trouble, drawing a penalty for an illegal pick play at the goal line and then responding with a quick throw to Alexander Mattison for a touchdown. The Vikings’ O-line blocked brilliantly on the screen and Mattison weaved his way into the end zone. Time to roll, right?

Not exactly. The Vikings struggled to find their spark again on offense throughout the game, despite the Saints doing everything possible to help them.

Up 7-0 with a chance to run away from the Andy Dalton-led Saints, Cousins hit Adam Thielen for a 15-yard first down but he got banged up in the process. Following the first down, Dalvin Cook, who was largely ineffective playing through a shoulder injury, ran for one yard and then Cousins threw an incompletion where he and Jalen Reagor appeared not to be on the same page. Cousins was sacked on third down and the Vikings punted.

Most of the day (morning?) looked like that. The sputtering Saints offense punted back to the Vikings on their second drive and Cousins immediately threw an interception. Safety Tyrann Mathieu jumped in front of a floating pass, giving New Orleans a jolt that they desperately needed.

With the Vikings’ defense slowing down the Saints’ run game, Dalton was repeatedly forced into passing situations. And sometimes he came through. The veteran backup QB found Chris Olave for a first-down conversion early in the second quarter and then hit his rookie receiver again in the end zone to tie the game.

Already it felt like an L for the Vikings to have allowed the Saints to stay in the game but they had more in store where that came from.

The two jetlagged teams exchanged punts before the Vikings drove to the goal line with just over one minute remaining in the first half. On third-and-1 at the New Orleans 10-yard line, backup tight end Johnny Mundt dropped an easy pass that would have set the Vikings up with first-and-goal. Maybe as a sign of how O’Connell was feeling about the offense, he settled for the field goal.

Dalton gave the Vikings a quick opportunity to make it right. He was strip-sacked by Dalvin Tomlinson and the Vikings got the ball back at the New Orleans 20 looking to go up by two scores heading into halftime. Instead Cousins threw a short pass for no gain to Jefferson and O’Connell let the clock run from 56 seconds to 22 seconds. They kicked another field goal, letting New Orleans off the hook.

Coming out of halftime, announcer and former O’Connell teammate Mark Sanchez stated the obvious: You can’t take those timeouts with you. Both the conservative field goal decisions and strange clock management were reminiscent of recent years past.

The Saints came out of the locker room slowly, punting on the first drive. Again the Vikings could not put them behind by multiple scores. Run, incomplete, incomplete, punt. However, Matt Daniels’ special teams shined as usual, creating a fumble that gave the Vikings the ball in Saints territory again.

This time, Jefferson got wide open when two Saints defenders ran into each other to bring the ball inside the red zone again. But Jefferson couldn’t haul in a pass in the end zone and then Cousins threw short of the goal line on third down to Thielen. The broadcast zoomed in on an unhappy Jefferson. They sent it down to the sideline for a report on the unhappy receivers. So if you had the under on five games before receivers were frustrated, you win that bet.

Since Dalton is an NFL-caliber quarterback, he was able to eventually take advantage of all the extra opportunities. He converted a fourth-and-4 and then found Marquez Callaway on a deep shot down the sideline against rookie Akayleb Evans. The Saints punched the ball into the end zone with former Viking Latavius Murray (who was elevated from the practice squad) and suddenly the Saints were only down 16-14 despite getting handily outplayed for most of the game.

Apologies if this is getting redundant but the Vikings had another shot at extending the lead and didn’t come through. A long kick return from Kene Nwangwu combined with a 15-yard penalty put the Vikings at mid-field. They went three-and-out but converted a fake punt for a first down. Then an intentional grounding call against Cousins pushed the offense back and the drive ended with Greg Joseph booting another field goal.

With the Vikings’ defense wearing down, the Saints got some traction offensively to open the fourth quarter. Three runs for a combined 26 yards brought them into Minnesota’s side of the field and Taysom Hill put an exclamation point on the drive with a run into the end zone. Dalton converted the two-point conversion to put New Orleans up three.

The Saints weren’t done giving the Vikings gifts though. The slogging offense failed on a balloon pass from Cousins in the direction of Thielen but New Orleans committed a penalty giving Minnesota another shot with five minutes remaining. Cousins lofted a ball into double coverage that was nearly intercepted but the Saints were again flagged, setting the Vikings up with first-and-goal. Jefferson ran in for a touchdown.

Greg Joseph had been rolling along with a great day but surprisingly missed the extra point, keeping the game within a field goal.

Dalton converted after a holding call and then the Vikings seemed to have gotten the big stop they needed on a Cam Dantzler pass breakup but apparently the football travels farther in England because kicker Will Lutz nailed a 60-yard kick to tie the game at 25. You can’t help but laugh at the fact that the last time Cousins and Dalton played in England they tied (or played to a draw?) and it was within reason that it could happen again.

O’Connell caught the Saints off guard to start the deciding drive, running Cook for a first down. Then Jefferson went full superstar on cornerback Marshon Lattimore, running by him for a massive 39-yard catch that put the Vikings inside the New Orleans 30-yard line. It was easily Cousins’ most confident throw of the game — and for the second straight week he waited until the final drive for that to happen.

The Vikings ran three straight times and gained nothing. Again, some flashbacks.

Joseph made the kick, leaving the Saints with just 24 seconds to mount a comeback. And they nearly made it happen. Olave made a tremendous catch in the middle of the field and a Harrison Smith injury stopped the clock. Then Olave made another spectacular play but his foot was out of bounds, setting up a 61-yard try.

And he almost made it. Lutz hit the goalpost (twice) and the Vikings won 28-25. The Vikings escaped a huge meltdown by literal inches.

The big picture of the London win is that it’s huge for the Vikings’ season. Sitting a 3-1 in a conference full of questionable teams is undoubtedly good. You don’t have to give the W back because it was ugly. But it’s impossible to walk away from the game without some questions. The offense does not look confident or comfortable and I’m not sure we can point to the overseas flight as the reason. Dalvin Cook and Adam Thielen are now both banged up. And the defense couldn’t completely shut the door on a team of backups.

The Vikings have some time to figure things out. They play against the Bears next week at home, then travel to Miami and hit the bye week. If they can even split the next two games, they’ll have done as well as they could have hoped to open the season. Of course, if they can’t resolve some of the issues, each week will continue to be a rollercoaster, as it has been for a long time.

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