“Absolutely a gritty win by our team,” said the Vikings Head Coach. “So many moments in that game, so many things we talked about going into this football game that materialized. Especially got to give it up for our defence, Flo [Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores] and those guys. We needed them today. It was not good enough to our standard on offense, and moments like this are where we lean into a lot of things that our organization is built off of. Adversity, dealing with adversity together, no flinch, all three sides figuring out a way to come together and win a football game.

“What I told our team is there’s going to be days like this, and when there’s days like this, good football teams find a way to pick each other up against a future Hall of Fame quarterback [Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers] in tough circumstances.

“Kind of a sloppy day all the way around with a little spitting rain and all those things. A thousand excuses out there. Our team didn’t look for any of them. We kept playing, Will Reichard was phenomenal for us. When we needed three, he got it. And like I said, our defence, just lights out from the standpoint of picking up our team when we needed them.”

Commenting on his side’s London trip, O’Connell stated:

“It’s been a phenomenal trip. Want to thank everybody that took care of us at our hotel, the NFL, putting on a great trip for us, and obviously all the folks with the Vikings that plan this thing year-round. There’s a lot of people that their names can’t be mentioned right now, but I wanted to personally thank all of them for helping make this trip go.

“We’ll go into our bye, get healthy at a couple spots and hopefully come out with the momentum that a 5-0 team should. Tons of challenges out in front of this and I can’t wait to attack them with my guys.

“Just injury updates on a couple guys. Aaron Jones did have a right hip and not return. He’ll be evaluated. I’ll keep you guys posted from the standpoint of what that looks like, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that that hopefully will be short-term. And then Akayleb Evans did have a left hip flexor and did not return.”

Minnesota Vikings Linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel told the assembled media:

“It’s a great feeling, obviously, when you can make a play like that, it can change the game. It’s exciting, and I’m just glad I caught the ball and the rest is history. Once I got out of that first tackle, I started running, I saw Harrison Smith had a huge block, and if he doesn’t make that block, I don’t think I score. It’s a shout out to him and shout out to all the guys behind, just block the skill players so they couldn’t catch me.”

Minnesota Vikings Quarterback Sam Darnold, whose side now goes 5-0 for the season, said of this afternoon’s game:

“I think obviously a win is a win. I think our defence, our special teams played out of their minds today, and I think as an offense, I think we’ve just got to find a way to continue to play consistent football. The pre-snap penalties, the communication just has to continue to get better, but as a whole, I feel like we were able to make plays when we needed to, but we’ve just got to continue to get better that way.

“I think for us, we have a lot of good things clicking right now as a team, but it’s early. We know it’s a long season, and we just — again, like I said, kind of in the beginning, we’ve just got to continue to take it one step at a time, and if you get caught up in what people are saying about you and you’re this or you’re that. We weren’t listening to anything that people were saying before the season, so why would we start now. I think for us, it’s kind of have that mindset.”

The post Minnesota Vikings’ Reaction to London Win appeared first on SportsNewsIreland.

Since 2019, eight of the nine NFL regular-season games played at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium have been decided by one score (eight points or fewer).

The opening quarter saw the game favourites, Minnesota Vikings, take an early lead through Reichard. The kicker slotted over a 54-yard field goal, to give his side, the designated home team, a three nil advantage.

Just as the Jets seemed to be gaining territorially, linebacker Van Ginkel intercepted for the Minnesota franchise, and returned 63 yards to touchdown for the game’s opening five-pointer.

Along with his three sacks this season and an interception-return for a touchdown in Week 1, Van Ginkel becomes the first player in NFL history with at least three sacks and two interception-return touchdowns in his team’s first five games of a season.

With Reichard again successful with his extra-point effort, his side had a 10-0 lead at the end of quarter one.

Vikings’ Ham rushed over from 2 yards with 3.50 to play before the half-time break, and with Reichard again adding the extra point, Kevin O’Connell’s side extended their lead to 17-0.

Jets finally score

The Jets finally got on the scoreboard on the cusp of the interval when Lazard caught for a 14-yard score. Zuerlein successfully kicked the point to leave the score 7-17 in favour of the Vikings at the break.

Zuerlein’s 32-yard field goal attempt before the end of the third quarter narrowed the gap to just seven points, in a game for so long seemed to be edging away from the Jets.

Reichard continued in his rich vein of kicking form when scoring a 53-yard field with 12.07 remaining in the final quarter.

With a little over six minutes remaining in the game, Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ short pass was complete to Wilson who went in from one yard to increase the anxiety in the Vikings’ camp. Zuerlein’s extra point was good, creating a three-point game.

With 3.07 to play Reichard’s 41-yard field goal attempt ended any hope the NY Jets and their many fans in London had of taking a shock victory, as the Minnesota Vikings held out for a  23-17 London success and are now 4-0 in regular-season international games, the most wins without a loss among all teams in international games.

On what was a bad day at the office for losing New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, he passed for 244 yards and has 60,148 career regular-season passing yards, becoming the ninth player with at least 60,000 regular-season passing yards in NFL history.

The post NY Jets 17 Minnesota Vikings 23 in NFL London Game appeared first on SportsNewsIreland.

While the NFL game in Brazil in week one was a first for that country, London has been a regular host of NFL game for a long time now.

Twickenham, Wembley Stadium and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium have all hosted NFL games in recent years, the latter having staged eight games since 2019.

Interestingly, seven of those games were decided by eight points or less.

This afternoon the New York Jets, who have started their season 2-2 face the unbeaten Minnesota Vikings (4-0).

This will be the Vikings’ fourth London game, and they are currently unbeaten on their London visits to date. The Jets on the other hand have a 2-1 record in London, but are 0-1 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

They join Kansas City (3-0), New York Giants (3-0) and Philadelphia Eagles (2-0) who have achieved multiple wins in international games and are unbeaten outside of the USA.

The Vikings, the only undefeated team remaining in the NFC are 4-0 for the first time since 2016.

If they win this afternoon’s game, they will be 5-0 for the first time since 2000.

In regular season clashes between the Jets and Vikings, the New York side lead the series 8-4, but Minnesota have won the last three games between the sides.

The last time the teams met in the regular season was in 2022, when the Vikings ran out 27-22 victors.

The game is free to air in Ireland on Virgin Media Two, with the broadcast starting at 2pm.

The game kicks off at 2.30pm.

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