The Saints Lost To The Vikings On A 61-Yard Double Doink Missed Field Goal

The Saints and Vikings met in one of this year’s NFL London games on Sunday morning, kicking off at 9:30 a.m. on the East Coast stateside from Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

It was a slow start, with Minnesota taking a 13-7 lead into halftime, but the two teams picked up the pace in the second half and the fans in England were treated to a furious finish. The Vikings and Saints traded late leads, with Minnesota going up late in the fourth quarter on a Justin Jefferson reverse for a touchdown, but they only led by three after Greg Joseph pushed the extra point wide right. The Saints took advantage of that break by moving it across midfield and having Wil Lutz bang home a 60-yard game tying field goal with 1:51 to play.

Minnesota quickly moved into field goal territory themselves with a big play to Jefferson again, setting up Joseph for some redemption on his fifth field goal attempt of the day, knocking through a 47-yarder with 24 seconds to play.

That, seemingly, was going to be enough, but Andy Dalton found Chris Olave for a big gain across midfield with 12 seconds left, and Minnesota had to call timeout due to an injury allowing the Saints to avoid a hurry-up situation for a spike.

After missing a pair of throws to the sideline to pick up a few more yards, they trotted Lutz out for a 61-yarder to force overtime, who had enough leg but clipped the left upright, then bounced off the crossbar and just landed on the wrong side to give Minnesota the win.

The reverse angle shows how close the field goal was to going through on both bounces, as it barely clipped the upright and then landed almost flat on the middle of the crossbar, but just had enough to bounce towards the end zone instead of through.

It’s the latest example of Double Doink misery, as Bears fans are all too familiar with, and while a Week 4 loss in London isn’t as painful as a playoff loss on such a play, it’s a tough way to drop a game.