LONDON — On Friday, as he recalled his last trip to the United Kingdom for a NFL game, Vikings linebacker Eric Kendricks offered this assessment of the crowd at a London game.
"From my last experience, it's just a bunch of NFL fans from across the UK, which is really cool," he said. "There's a ton of jerseys, whether it's of the teams that are playing or not."
Then, he added with a smile, "And everybody loves to watch the kicks."
If that's correct, the Vikings' wild 28-25 win over the Saints gave the sellout crowd at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium its money's worth.
After Greg Joseph hit his fifth field goal of the day to give the Vikings that 28-25 advantage, the Saints sent Wil Lutz for his second try of more than 60 yards in the game. Lutz had hit from 60 yards right after the two-minute warning, but his 61-yard attempt in the game's final seconds bounced off the upright, then the crossbar, as the Vikings escaped with a victory by double doink.
At the end of a day that featured plenty of missed opportunities and dubious decisions from the Vikings, they won for the third time in as many games in London, heading home with a 3-1 record before next Sunday's game against the Bears.
A clinical first drive ended with Christian Darrisaw flattening Pete Werner while Alexander Mattison made the final move to turn a third-down tunnel screen into a touchdown from the Saints' 15.
The Saints punted after a pair of penalties on their first drive; the Vikings started with fullback C.J. Ham on the field and hit a series of pass plays targeting the Saints' linebackers, implementing a hurry-up offense that prevented New Orleans from substituting.
But the Saints' internal push produced a Kentavius Street sack that forced a Vikings punt, and after the Vikings' defense forced another three-and-out, Kirk Cousins dropped back for a pass that would change the complexion of the game.
Safety Tyrann Mathieu carried Justin Jefferson's route downfield before sitting on an out route for Irv Smith Jr. Mathieu picked off the pass, and the Saints fashioned a 60-yard touchdown drive to tie the game.
The Vikings would score on their next two possessions, but a conservative series of decisions from coach Kevin O'Connell kept them from the touchdowns that might have put the Saints on the brink at the end of the first half.
After a third-and-1 Cousins pass went through Johnny Mundt's hands at the Saints' 10, O'Connell sent Joseph out for a 28-yard field goal instead of going for it on fourth down. The kick made it 10-7, and Dalvin Tomlinson and Za'Darius Smith combined for a strip sack that gave the Vikings another chance to score before halftime.
But when a Cousins-to-Jefferson connection went for no gain with 56 seconds left, O'Connell did not call the Vikings' first timeout. The clock ticked down to 22 seconds before a second-down incomplete pass where Cousins was flushed from the pocket and hit in the face as he threw. Brian O'Neill was called for a false start on third-and-10, Cousins hit Irv Smith for 7 yards with 16 seconds left, and the Vikings called their first timeout with three seconds to go, sending Joseph out for a field goal that made it 13-7 at halftime.
The Vikings' first drive of the second half reached the Saints' 6; O'Connell decided to send Joseph on for a field goal that made it 16-7. The margin wasn't big enough, though, to keep the Saints from taking the lead with a pair of scoring drives.
With Cameron Dantzler out of the game because of an injury in the third quarter, Andy Dalton, starting in place of the injured Jameis Winston, targeted rookie Akayleb Evans on a go ball, hitting Marquez Callaway for 34 yards to the Vikings' 8. Latavius Murray's touchdown run pulled the Saints within 2 points. Joseph's fourth field goal of the day came after Ryan Wright hit Jalen Nailor for a first down on a fake punt, and the Saints ran six times on a 75-yard drive to take a 3-point lead early in the fourth quarter.
The Vikings' first touchdown of the second half came with the help of two crucial penalties: an illegal-hands-to-the-face call on Mathieu, and a 41-yard defensive pass interference penalty on Marshon Lattimore that put the Vikings on the Saints' doorstep.
The Vikings took the lead on Jefferson's first career rushing TD, but Joseph missed the extra point that would have put them up by 4.
On the Saints' next drive, though, Dantzler made a diving breakup on Dalton's deep ball for Chris Olave, knocking the pass away from the receiver with his outstretched hand. Wil Lutz tied the game with a 60-yard field goal, but the Vikings got the ball back with 1:51 to go.
Jefferson won the final key play of his daylong duel with Lattimore, beating the cornerback off the line of scrimmage as Cousins placed a perfect throw that put the Vikings on the Saints' 29. Jefferson finished with 10 catches for 147 yards after being largely shut down the past two games.
Joseph hit from 47 to put the Vikings up 3 with just over a minute to go, and after Olave was ruled out of bounds on a throw he tried to come back and catch from Dalton, the Saints sent Lutz on for his final kick.
Their sideline initially celebrated like the ball had gone in, before it ricocheted off the upright and the crossbar, sending the Vikings home victorious, somehow or another.
