VINDICATION

Vikings 26

Saints 20

OT

What an incredible day! 

Two years ago the Vikings did the miraculous. Today they did the impossible. They pulled off their biggest postseason upset in over 30 years. They took down the 13 win Saints in their own house. They made one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history look like a jittery rookie. Their unfairly beleaguered head coach had one of his finest days. Their quarterback played a clean game in his biggest game ever, and hit the 2 throws he absolutely had to hit in order to win the game.

Nobody gave them a chance. I didn't even pick them to win, although I at least picked it close. 

This win is so unbelievably satisfying. It changes all those irritating narratives. This one win trumps all those regular season losses to winning teams or on the road or in primetime. It is a vindication of Zimmer and Cousins. 

It looked like maybe things were gonna go the expected way early. Adam Thielen fumbled on the opening drive. The Saints had the ball deep. But in the first sign that this was not going to be one of those shaky defensive performances, we held them to just the field goal. An early touchdown there and you might be spending the whole day in catch up mode.

We got the game tied up on the next drive. And most importantly that early defensive stand was not a fluke. It became very clear very quickly that the Zim Reapers, even if just for one afternoon, were back. The defensive front was overwhelming. Hunter was his usual beastly self, but Everson Griffen was just a monster too. Drew Brees was visibly rattled.

The only other first half score by the Saints wasn't even from Brees, but that annoying little gadget twerp Taysom Hill, who chucked a deep pass inside the 5, burning Rhodes and Smith(who argued on the sidelines about it). The Saints punched it in right after for the lead.

We responded with another field goal, but settling for that felt deflating. We kept having drives nuked by dumb penalties or other negative plays, often by Thielen. But then the next series after our field goal Brees just chucked one deep and Anthony Harris picked it off, plus a decent return.

Finally we put one in the endzone. Kirk hit a resurgent Thielen on a couple big passes. Cook ran it in and we had the lead.

A huge swing moment happened next. We had bad coverage on the kick return, which got the Saints near midfield. Then Brees hit one pass and just like that the Saints were in field goal range. 

But Will Lutz missed the kick. That was a 3 that wasn't that would loom very large later.

Nothing changed in the 2nd half. Our defense kept at it, hassling Brees and mostly shutting down the run. We swapped a couple punts but then got driving again. Once again the key play was a pass to Thielen. There was also a great dart to Diggs at the goal line. Finally Cook blasted in and we had a 20-10 lead.

Okay, here is where I started to get really scared. It was one thing to be hanging in there in a game I felt was a likely loss. But at this point, no, we can win this game. We can do this. And by now if we don't it would be a crusher. 

And we still had over a quarter to play.

We sent the Saints 3 and out. Then we had just a mess of a drive where we looked panicked for some reason. We had a penalty, a negative run. Had to punt. 

And here came the Saints. It was the one drive all day that Brees really sizzled. He hit a wide open Hill for the touchdown. And here we go again with the 2019 Vikings taking years off my life. 

We picked up 1 first down, but Alexander Hollins could not haul in a Kirk deep shot and we had to punt. 

And here came the Saints again, led largely by that twerp Hill, who we let bust a 28 yard run on us. But on the very next play, Hunter blasted through the line, hit Brees's arm, and forced a fumble that Jalyn Holmes fell on. One more time that pass rush had made a huge play.

But we couldn't salt the game away. And on the first play we had an all time disaster...momentarily. Cook was tackled and certainly looked to have fumbled and had it ran back for a touchdown and a Saints lead. But, if you're going to win these games you need a little luck, and on replay Cook's knee was down just a moment before the fumble. We had a reprieve, and even got a first down on another clutch Thielen grab, but we just could not dagger them. We had a couple more negative plays(Cook was really stifled in the 2nd half) and a sack and had to punt. 

And here came the Saints again. Brees picked us apart with a bunch of mid-range passes, but at least we kept things in bounds so it took them a lot of time to get into field goal range. This time Lutz nailed it, and here we were again.

Almost exactly 10 years later, going into overtime in the Superdome, knowing that losing the coin toss would probably mean the season was going to end. 

But if you're going to win these games you need luck, remember, and we won the toss and the ball.

This was the moment we have all been waiting for. Could Cousins take us down the field and win the game? 

It was the drive of the game, of the season, and of the Cousins era. A Cook run got us over the 50. Then Kirk unleashed a throw worth every penny of that $84 million, a deep bomb to Thielen, who hauled it in inside the 5.

It's a hell of a thing to be just a seemingly simple few yards from such a monumental win. And the Vikings will never not extract every drop of anxiety from you, so they ran it twice with Cook and actually lost yardage. 3rd and goal.

Cousins drops back, and lofts it to the corner of the endzone...where Kyle Rudolph leaps and comes down with the ball for the game winning touchdown!!! 

Euphoria! Absolute euphoria!

Best win of the Mike Zimmer era. The miracle game had the more exciting moment, but this was the best team win. It's one thing to win at home, as favorites, but something very different to win on the road as huge underdogs, and shorthanded too. 

It's only the wild card round, but it is a win worthy of more. Even if we lose next week nobody can say "well you only won a wild card game." No, this was a win in one of the toughest venues against one of the best teams. It is a fantastic triumph for this franchise. It's one of the best wins they have ever had.

I am over the moon happy for Zimmer and Cousins. All the shit that gets thrown on them, and to have this outcome is a wonderful middle finger to the haters. Zimmer's defense(which for the record has been quite good since the Seattle game) gave them the chance, then Cousins made the plays at the end. I'm also thrilled for Griffen and Rudolph, who each could have been elsewhere this year, but stayed and made huge plays today.

So it's off to San Francisco. We will be big underdogs again. But, if this were going to finally be the year we do this, we have kind of already won in the toughest place. And while it is a bit of a distant memory, we did play really well against Garappolo and the Niners in week 1 last year, albeit at home. And I loved that Zimmer has already reminded the team of how they played after their last tense playoff win. I would be shocked if they laid an egg out west next Saturday.

The dream is still alive. Go Get It!