Vikings defeat Saints in a wild monday night football game

The good news for the New Orleans Saints was the electrifying performance of Reggie Bush, who tied a NFL record with two punt returns for a TD in one game. The bad news for the Saints was that they managed to find a downright bizarre way to lose a game they were leading by a TD with just over 7 minutes remaining after digging out from under a 10 point halftime deficit. In a game so strange that it couldn’t have been scripted, Minnesota kicked a FG in the closing seconds to break a 27-27 tie and went on to defeat New Orleans 30-27.

Bush became the 12th player in NFL history to return two punts for touchdowns in a game. The last to pull the feat was Eddie Drummond of the Detroit Lions in 2004. He also set several team records—his 176 return yards were the most by a Saints player in a single game, and his 3rd TD return of the season and 4th of his career are also franchise best marks. Perhaps the most inexplicable component of a crazy game is the Vikings decision to keep punting to Bush—in addition to his 2 TDs he nearly broke another return for a TD, returning a 3rd quarter punt 29 yards to the Minnesota 49 before tripping.

Perhaps the strangest play of the evening occurred on the Saints’ first FG attempt—Martin Gramatica’s first quarter try was blocked by Minnesota’s Antoine Winfield and returned 59 yards for a TD. Plays like that were a primary reason that New Orleans trailed at halftime despite winning every significant statistical battle. Trailing 20-10 at the half, the Saints became the first NFL team in six years to outgain their opponents by more than 130 yards in the first half and trail by 10 or more points.

The game ended in strange fashion as well—trailing by 7 Gus Frerotte connected on a 33 yard TD pass to Bernard Berrian, who had run the wrong route and was way out of position. He nearly collided with the ball’s intended receiver Aundre Allison and the pass nearly hit him in the head but he hauled it in for the score to tie the game. Berrian would also figure into the game winning FG as Frerotte threw a long pass his way into double coverage, drawing a pass interference penalty.

The 30 yard FG by Ryan Longwell that officially determined the outcome was almost an afterthought, but it dropped the Saints to 2-3 for the year and raised the Vikings’s record to 2-3. For a team that desperately needed a win, they got one in the strangest way possible.