Saints suffer loss as 61-yard Lutz field goal double doinks
The NFL’s 100th international game definitely gave fans abroad a more entertaining game than usual on Sunday in the Saints loss to the Vikings.
Sunday marked the second time that quarterbacks Andy Dalton and Kirk Cousins met in a matchup in London, England. When Cousins was with the then Washington Redskins and Dalton was with the Cincinnati Bengals, they gave the international fans an exciting game in 2016, too with a 27-27 tie at Wembley Stadium.
This year, it was a back-and-forth showdown between the New Orleans Saints and Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings scored just two touchdowns, a 15-yard catch by Alexander Mattison and a 3-yard run by Justin Jefferson. The rest of their 28 points came from kicker Greg Joseph, who, despite missing one extra point, gave them a whopping five field goals.
But it is the Saints kicker, Will Lutz, who everyone is talking about this week. Lutz tied up the game 25-25 with just 1:51 remaining on a 60-yard field goal. Unfortunately for him and the Saints, he was forced to have to do that a second time after the Vikings got within field goal range yet again and Joseph handed them another 47-yard field goal to make it 28-25.
24 seconds is and was enough for the Saints to get down the field and give Lutz the opportunity to send the game into overtime, and they did do one of those things. Lutz was at 60 yards and on the attempt, it looked painfully close to going in, but instead, he got…the double doink. The ball bounced off of the upright bar and then again off of the crossbar to make the field goal no good. And the Vikings won the game.
“We’ve hit that kick plenty of times. I hit that kick in warmup both ways,” said Lutz after the game. “I hit them both as flush as I could. Just honestly kind of still in shock the second one didn’t go in.”
“As soon as he hit it, I thought it was going in, the second one,” said Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connel. “I told him after the game, you hit them both as pure as they come. He’s outdoors here. For him to line up two of those in a row, felt like they had a good chance to go through. A couple of bounces later, we’re able to walk off as the winning team.”