Those three
little words were my simple response to how things had played out with 25
seconds left in the second NFC Divisional playoff game; the last football game
of the weekend. Yes, it was only a one
point game at 24-23, but come on…this is the Vikings. A missed pass interference penalty in 1975 in
this very round ended what many people say was that team’s best chance to win a
Super Bowl. Even if we get into field
goal range, there’s no guarantee Kai Forbath makes the kick (with apologies to
Kai…he’s still a better kicker than Blair Walsh).
This team
has had a recently awful track record with clutch kicks in the playoffs. Gary Anderson hadn’t missed a single kick in
1998, and missed one that would have likely put the NFC title game away against
the Falcons. Blair Walsh missed the
easiest kick of his life in the last playoff game the Vikings had.
With all of
that on our minds, why was this game any different? We were about to lose to the freaking New
Orleans Saints, the team that put a bounty on Brett Favre and were allowed to
get away with it. Of all the teams to
lose to, only the Saints or the Packers (if they had run the table) could have
hurt this much.
But then,
Stefon Diggs caught that pass and somehow stayed on his feet as two Saints ran
into each other, giving him a free path to the end zone. Before the game, if you had told me one of
these teams would win like that, I would have assumed the Saints. Because a receiver breaking free for a last-second
winning touchdown after two defensive players collided seems like a vintage
Vikings choke moment that may or may not have happened at some point.
Somehow, some
way, the Vikings now have their miracle playoff moment, like Pittsburgh and the
Immaculate Reception, which turned that franchise’s entire history around. The Steelers won four Super Bowls in seven
years following Franco Harris’s immortal play, so perhaps there are greater
things in store for the Vikings even if they are unable to “Bring It Home” this
Sunday with a win over the Eagles.
Then again,
how do we know that the Minnesota/Minneapolis Miracle wasn’t the start of such
a thing? There’s only one way to find
out; by tuning in to the NFC Title game at 5:40 p.m. on Sunday. Here’s hoping if we win, we don’t need
another miracle to do so.
And here's the miracle itself, one more time, because I will never get tired of this.
https://youtu.be/OKgUiBOpsZ4
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