THE MINNESOTA MIRACLE
Desperation pass turns into 61-yard touchdown in unlikeliest of finishes
Vikings turn last-gasp pass into a 61-yard touchdown and a date in the NFC championship game
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 — he always is, he said last week — but a good nervous, an excited nervous, a carpediem kind of nervous.
He had been waiting his entire peripatetic career for a moment like the one that came Sunday, when Keenum had 25 seconds left to rescue his defence, 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 later.
Afterward, Keenum sat facing his locker, still in uniform, eye black smeared, resting his head against his hands. He lifted his head once, then dropped it back down, and then shook his head. They were all still amazed.
“This is the first time ever I’m out of words,” defensive end Everson Griffen said.
They had practised 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 already 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 the 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’ post-season history is defined by field-goal attempts.
Only a few players from that game populate the teams’ rosters, but one of them 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 1:34 left, Brees marched the Saints 50 yards, extending the drive on 4th-and-10 by finding Willie Snead for 13 yards.
The Vikings’ defence 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 offence scoreless until late in the third quarter, but Brees, assisted by a blocked punt, fired three touchdown passes within a span of14 minutes, turning a 17-0 deficit into a 21-20 lead with 3:01 remaining in the game.
Keenum became the first playoff debutante to beat a quarterback with at least 10 post-season starts since Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos outlasted Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers in the 2011 wild-card round.
The NFC championship in Philadelphia next weekend will feature two reserves elevated by injury, a matchup of Nick Foles and Keenum, teammates on that paragon of mediocrity known as the 2015 St. Louis Rams. In a league where the quality of quarterback so often defines the quality of a team, the conference finalists reinforce the value of having a complete roster.
The mandate for Keenum, as submitted by offensive co-ordinator Pat Shurmur, was to complete lots of passes, especially the deep ones, and play smart, efficient football.
As Keenum has done for most of the season. As he did for most of Sunday, completing 25 of 40 passes for 318 yards.