Incredible finish propels Vikings — Jags also advance
Minnesota advances on 61-yard pass on final play
MINNEAPOLIS — About an hour and a half before his playoff debut, Minnesota quarterback Case Keenum came bounding out of the tunnel at U.S. Bank Stadium, a bundle of kinetic energy, pumping fists and slapping hands and bumping chests. He anticipated feeling nervous, but a good nervous, an excited nervous, a carpe-diem kind of nervous.
He had been waiting his entire career for a moment like the one that came Sunday, when Keenum had 25 seconds left to rescue his defense, to demonstrate that his remarkable season was more revelation than fluke, to lift the trailing Vikings — and a fan base grated by playoff despair — to victory against the New Orleans Saints.
On the final play, Keenum flung the ball downfield, in the general direction of Stefon Diggs, who jumped, caught it, and sped untouched down the sideline. The Fox television broadcast panned to Keenum, who kept saying, “Oh, my God,” after Minnesota escaped with a 29-24 victory, preserving its bid to become the first team to play a Super Bowl in its home stadium.
Teammates mobbed Diggs in the end zone, causing him to nearly pass out, he said.
Afterward, Keenum sat facing his locker, still in uniform, eye black smeared, resting his head against his hands. He lifted his head, dropped it, then shook it. They were all still amazed.
“This is the first time ever I’m out of words,” defensive end Everson Griffen said.
They had practiced that play, which Diggs said was called Seven Heaven, a lot. But in all the times they had run it, Diggs had never caught it, receiver Jarius Wright said.
“I just threw it, man,” Keenum said.
Plenty of fans had departed before the final play, numbed by the cumulative anguish produced by years of field goals that had gone against the Vikings, after Wil Lutz drilled a go-ahead 43-yarder that sent Saints personnel in the press box exclaiming that they were headed to the NFC Championship Game next Sunday in Philadelphia.
From misses by Gary Anderson (1999) and Blair Walsh (2016) that cost them seemingly certain victories to the overtime conversion by Garrett Hartley (2010) that escorted the Saints into the NFC title game, the Vikings’ postseason history is defined by field-goal attempts.
Only a few players from that 2010 game populate the teams’ rosters, but one is Drew Brees, who gives the Saints the advantage, his teammates believe, in every game. After Minnesota’s Kai Forbath kicked a 53-yarder with 1 minute 34 seconds left for a 23-21 lead, Brees marched the Saints 50 yards, extending the drive on 4thand-10 by finding Willie Snead for 13 yards.
The Vikings’ defense considers itself the best unit in the NFL playoffs, and the statistics support it: They are first in points allowed, second against the run and second against the pass. They had held the Saints’ powerful offense scoreless until late in the third quarter, but Brees, assisted by a blocked punt, fired three touchdown passes within a span of 14 minutes, turning a 17-0 deficit into a 21-20 lead with 3:01 remaining in the game.
Their first-half possessions, aside from a kneeldown, included three punts, two interceptions and a field goal. After halftime, New Orleans scored on four of its five drives. But somehow, crazily, improbably, it was not enough.
Afterward, the Vikings ran around the field, in disbelief and celebration. The Saints, stunned, just shook hands. They had to clear the field after several minutes for the extra point, for which Vikings just knelt, completing an utterly mind-bending game.
Keenum became the first playoff debutante to beat a quarterback with at least 10 postseason starts since Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos outlasted Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers in the 2011 wild-card round.