The New Orleans Saints travelled to London on Monday with two defeats in a row in the bag. Before the first London Game of the year against the Minnesota Vikings, nothing should be left to chance. But there are many problems. A look at the past might give some hope.

London – The New Orleans Saints don’t want to leave anything to chance. Everything is planned, everything is to be subordinated to possible success. And so, more or less directly after the 15:22 loss to the Carolina Panthers in Week 3 of the current NFL season, the Saints got on the plane, crossed the pond and landed in London on Monday. There, in the first game of this year’s NFL International Series against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 4 on Sunday, they will be looking for their second win of the season. And it has to be compelling. New Orleans currently has a record of 1-2.

Usually the teams from the USA arrive for these games on Thursdays or Fridays – as the Vikings are doing this year, by the way – but the Saints obviously want to have enough time to acclimatise in Europe, shake off the jet lag and prepare properly for the game against the “Vikings”. Basically a good idea. Because what it can be like when you arrive in the UK “last minute”, the then Oakland Raiders had to experience painfully in 2018, when they only landed in London on Friday evening and were literally dismantled by the Seattle Seahawks 27-3 just one and a half days later. We don’t want that to happen to the Saints.

Winston in focus of criticism

But for that to happen, they’ll have to improve athletically. Improve greatly, in fact. Especially quarterback Jameis Winston is once again in the focus of criticism. Understandable, given the five interceptions in the past two games – each time in the “crunch time” in the last quarter. It goes without saying that these games were lost. In addition, he was sacked eleven (!) times. A blatant value, but certainly not to be blamed on him alone; the Saints’ spotty offensive line plays a major role;

“We love Jameis,” says teammate Mark Ingram almost defiantly. “He has all the skills to lead a team to a championship, to lead to wins, to lead to great success. We have the utmost confidence in Jameis. How he prepares, how he leads the team – we support him as much as we can. “

“We want to protect him “

And further: “We all want to play well on the pitch all the time, protect him so he can’t be attacked and get the ball to the teammate. Then he can also direct the game the way we know he can. It’s just really about protecting him, protecting each other, all of us, continuing to improve, and then delivering the best performance possible on the pitch.”

Clear words from Ingram. And what does Winston himself say? “If you look at the first two drives in Carolina, for example, we moved the ball very well – but then shot ourselves in the knee every time. We really need to do better than that. We had strong periods in every game, but we have to have them more often,” said Winston, who added that “I know we have a good plan and our guys are giving everything they have on the field. So I already think that will translate into positive results soon. The bottom line is it’s really important that we put the negatives aside a bit and build on the positives. “

“Giving everything every day for this team “

But to do that, he said, the team must continue to work hard. “That’s what we’re doing. But even if you give everything every day and work extremely hard for a certain goal, you might not get there right away. But eventually it might come to you, you just have to keep at it and believe in yourself. I’m certainly doing everything I can every day to lead this team from week to week on the turf in the best way possible and to be successful in the end,” said Winston, who did not participate in the Saints’ team practice on Wednesday – but only for safety reasons. The quarterback was given a day off to be one hundred percent fit for Sunday’s game. A call-up is definitely not in jeopardy.

And Head Coach Dennis Allen is clearly setting the tone not only for the game against the Vikings themselves, but for this entire week in London. “We came to London so early, so we have a full week of practice to focus on the things we absolutely have to improve on to be able to win a football game on Sunday,” said Allen, who added with a serious face: “We have a lot of building sites to work on – on offence, defence and our kicking game. We have to work very hard together to get all that reasonably corrected by Sunday. “

“Many construction sites” at the Saints

Against the Panthers, the Saints committed three turnovers – one of which was a lost fumble that Carolina turned into a touchdown – a total of seven (!) penalties and kicker Wil Lutz had a 30-yard field goal attempt blocked and he also put a 48-yard kick next to the upright. It’s no wonder, then, that Saints head coach Allen speaks of “a lot of construction sites.”

Perhaps the past holds a good omen. The last time the Saints played in London in 2017, they also travelled to England this early – and then beat the Miami Dolphins clearly and emphatically 20-0;

Can they achieve the same feat against the Vikings?