(tense music playing)
- [Announcer] It's January 14, 2018.
We're in Minneapolis for an incredibly close
divisional round playoff game between
the hometown Vikings and the New Orleans Saints.
Minnesota has 10 seconds to score any sort of points.
Easier said than done, from their own 39, with no timeouts.
If the Saints prevent that,
they're heading to their first NFC Championship game
since winning it all in 2009.
In order to appreciate what comes next,
let's look at who stepped up to get these teams here.
How New Orleans went from being blown out
to now seconds away from victory.
And why everyone here hoping for a miracle
likely knows better.
Let's rewind.
(instrumental music)
Minnesota needs points however they can get them
and right now their hopes rest with Case Keenum.
A fairly surprising potential hero.
The Vikings have had a revolving door
at the quarterback position for the last few years.
And unfortunately each QB
has gotten their leg caught in that door.
When Teddy Bridgewater led Minnesota
to a division title in 2015,
the QB looked to be the new face of the franchise.
But a year later with hopes on the rise,
Bridgewater had a disastrous knee injury
during training camp.
That sent a good team scrambling to remain good,
which sent first and fourth round picks to Philly
for Sam Bradford.
And honestly, Minnesota's front office
looked like geniuses through five weeks.
Bradford played well, the defense did their thing.
And then the wheels froze off after their bye week.
During a historically brutal single season collapse,
one bright spot was that Bradford,
a talented passer synonymous with knee injury
finished the year unscathed.
Minnesota spent the offseason improving the O-line,
part of which simply meant getting healthy.
Then got the future of their ground game
in the second round of the draft.
While injuries are often the biggest if in the NFL,
for the Vikings heading into 2017
it looked like if they stayed healthy,
this could be a dangerous team.
But like I said big if.
An impressive week one proved too much for Bradford's knee.
In his place stepped Case Keenum.
Prior to this season
Keenum was best known for his time at U of H.
In Houston he threw the ball nonstop
broke pretty much every collegiate passing record he could
and stuck around six years.
So you know the guy's pretty smart.
But smart guy's intro to the NFL could have gone better.
He bounced between the Texans and Rams with mixed results.
And that's what Minnesota got out of Keenum,
for the first few weeks.
Everything changed in week five though.
Bradford came back but couldn't make it to halftime,
After Keenum stepped in and led Minnesota to win.
An MRI showed Bradford's need needed a scope,
which meant injured reserve,
which meant this was Keenum's team, or almost.
As Bridgewater remained on the mend,
the Vikings treated the QB spot
as a week to week sort of thing,
even as Keenum led Minnesota
to an eight-game winning streak.
He won NFC Player of the Week honors
which turned into becoming the NFC Player of the Month.
If you're into numbers, those also said
Keenum had played pretty well.
His career year helped fuel a Vikings 13 win season
that earned them the NFCs two-seed.
Now, admittedly the Vikings defense
really controlled things as they had the last few years.
With Pro Bowlers at every level,
it didn't matter what opposing offenses tried to do,
Minnesota could stop it.
Really these guys had just been waiting around
for some consistency out of the offense.
The fact that it all came together with Keenum,
plus a ground game of Latavius Murray
and Jerick McKinnon, who filled in for Dalvin Cook
after an injury spoiled the rookie's great start
to the year.
Well, the word surprising comes to mind.
Now, the fact that they find themselves here,
a divisional playoff game still with an ounce of life.
It's also got a lot to do
with who Keenum's able to throw to.
But we'll get to that.
Because while the Vikings offense
has been a pleasant surprise this year,
The Saints defense has possibly been an even bigger one.
Their secondary best captures how the defense
has changed the Saints fortune.
They've got DB's, PJ Williams and Ken Crawley
cheating towards the sideline,
both in their second year of action.
There's the rookie Pro Bowler Marshon Lattimore
manning the opposite side of the field
and for security, Vonn Bell in his second season,
plus another rookie in Marcus Williams
watch from the safety positions.
This is a young bunch, but the two rookies
specifically have given reason for folks in New Orleans
to be excited for what's to come.
The Saints took Lattimore 11th overall in the 2017 draft,
then 31 picks later they snagged Williams.
While the former Buckeye looked like a foundation piece
at corner, folks definitely weren't sleeping
on Williams at safety.
In college he showed a knack for finding the ball,
as well for making some highlight real hits
when given the chance.
Williams's play leading up to the season,
even had his head coach sounding giddy.
Along with Lattimore, Williams became a week one starter,
which meant his first action in the NFL
came against these Vikings.
And the first tackle he was credited with in his career
came against Stefon Diggs.
Regardless of it being pretty far on to the sideline,
it's a special moment.
It's his first penalty too.
Williams, Lattimore, and the rest of the secondary
helped propel a defensive youth movement in New Orleans.
They'd been the inverse of Minnesota the last few years.
One of the league's best offenses,
that got repeatedly dragged down to seven-and-nine
by their defense.
But in 2017 Lattimore led New Orleans in interceptions
with Williams right behind him.
The duo alone matched how many picks
the entire Saints defense came down with a year earlier.
And earlier tonight, the rookie safety
continued to make an impact.
At the end of the third quarter,
Williams flew in to pick off a ball
Keenum heaved into the air for Diggs.
That play, sandwiched between Saints touchdowns,
helped turn today into a close great game.
This score once looked like we were on the way
to a Vikings win that would fall
somewhere between comfortable and blowout.
And to fully appreciate how we got here,
we need to look at what these fans have been through
both with today's roller coaster and ...
Okay, here's the part where we jump pretty far back.
So the Minnesota Vikings,
they won the NFL Championship in 1969,
but lost the Super Bowl that followed.
A couple years later, they went on a run
and made three of four straight Super Bowls.
But they lost each time by double digits.
They didn't even manage a first half point
in any of those four games.
In 1975's, divisional round
Minnesota was on the receiving end of the "Hail Mary."
In the late 90s, the Vikings assembled
one of the NFL's greatest teams ever.
But their 15-and-one season is best remembered
for a field goal in the conference championship,
that could have given Minnesota an insurmountable lead.
But Gary Anderson's miss,
instead gave the Falcons life
which Atlanta turned into an overtime victory.
A couple seasons later, they came nowhere near as close.
In 2010, they faced New Orleans (of all teams)
in the NFC Championship.
Tied late, but on the cusp of field goal range,
Brett Favre threw an interception
that sent things to overtime where again,
the Vikings didn't win.
And most recently, the 2015 Vikings season
ended on a shocking field goal miss from 27 yards out,
that would have won it for Minnesota.
So basically, when talking about
memorable moments from Vikings postseason history,
there's a lot of stinkers
and for a while tonight,
it felt like the Minnesota locals
were guaranteed a reprieve.
The Vikings rolled out to a 17-nothing lead
Keenum had the offense cruising
getting everyone involved,
while the Minnesota defense clamped down on the Saints.
When New Orleans finally put a drive together,
Anthony Barr picked Brees off in the redzone
to keep the first half shutout alive.
But the teams had a complete role reversal after the break.
Michael Thomas, the second year wide-out
having a breakout season in New Orleans,
caught just two passes in the first half.
He had three on The Saints first drive
of the third quarter alone,
including the touchdown that got New Orleans on the board.
And with a short field following Williams's interception
Brees once again found Thomas
to suddenly make it a three point game.
The Vikings doubled their lead
but with five and a half minutes to play,
this crowd was yet again gifted a rollercoaster ride
that started with the Saints blocking a Minnesota punt.
Four plays later, thanks to rookie,
do it all superstar Alvin Kamara,
The Saints took their first lead of the game
with three minutes to go.
Minnesota responded with a 90 second drive of their own
and Kai Forbath put the Vikings field goal woes
in the past with a 53 yarder to retake the lead.
The Saints got the ball back down two with a minute 29 left.
Brees quickly got them going,
but after waltzing into Vikings territory,
it all came down to one play.
Fourth down, 10 yards to go for The Saints season
to stay alive.
Welcome to a moment in ...
Well okay, so not yet but Brees did find Willie Snead
and they kept the drive going.
With under 45 seconds left, the Viking's defense
needed to return to form and make a stop.
New Orleans got in field goal range,
picked up a few smaller chunks,
but faced a third and one.
With Alvin Kamara in the backfield,
who in his rookie year as a runner,
had never lost yards when facing one yard to go,
Minnesota's defense did this.
(crowd cheering)
- [Commentator] Doesn't get anything.
- [Announcer] New Orleans elected to kick,
retaking the lead but still giving Minnesota some hope.
Three lead changes in just two and a half minutes.
For the Saints, this sort of wild ending in the playoffs
also isn't anything new, just lately
they're used to being on the shitty side of it.
Their three playoffs since winning the Super Bowl
have ended thanks to the Beast Quake in 2011,
then a year later a 49er's touchdown
with just nine seconds left knocked them out.
And in 2014 Marques Colston
decided to try and keep a play alive
instead of going out of bounds
only for a lateral to not exactly be a lateral.
While not quite on the level of Minnesota,
The Saints can also shake off some demons.
So right here. The Vikings need a miracle.
We know who stepped up to get them this far.
We know who will be trying to prevent it.
We know what everyone watching has been through.
But if the Vikings are going to pull this off,
there are two guys Keenum will likely be relying on.
To his left is Adam Thielen
like his quarterback Thielen went undrafted
and picked 2017 to have a career year.
He easily became Keenum's favorite target,
which Thielen turned into a Pro Bowl season.
The downside of that is one play earlier
the Saints showed how much respect they were giving him.
As Thielen worked his way up to the field
Lattimore stuck between him and the sideline
while Bell doubled from up top.
So realistically,
if anyone's going to get opened from Minnesota,
it'll be someone from the bunch to Keenum's right.
And the most likely target here would be Stefon Diggs.
Diggs is a great receiver who seems to be capable
of anything on the football field,
but he's had some handicaps throughout his time playing.
As one of the nation's top recruits
in his high school class,
Diggs decided to stay local for college,
passing up the spotlight or QB talent
that some of his other options offered.
Still, Diggs had an absurd freshman year
that put him on par with some Maryland all time greats,
but a broken leg derailed year two,
then more missed time during his junior season
hurt the receiver's draft stock.
Compared to Thielen though, the Vikings shelled out
by using a fifth round pick on the receiver in 2015.
Those who worked with Diggs,
knew that the receiver could be something special,
which was great news for the Vikings
who had an air attack that needed some work.
As a rookie, despite starting just nine games,
Diggs easily led the team in receiving.
A year later with the emergence of Thielen,
he helped give the Vikings their most productive
receiving duo since their last NFC Championship appearance.
And in 2017, Diggs scored more touchdowns,
than in his first two years combined,
two of which came week one against the Saints.
The tricky thing about this offense though,
is even with a talented pair of wideouts,
the big plays just haven't been there.
When they have managed to make splash plays
in the receiving game. It's usually come off screens,
or from these guys doing most of the damage,
after catching a quick pass.
And although they had success with big gains
against the Saints in week one,
there are two major differences.
First, the Saints defense has come a long way
since opening day.
And second, Bradford started that game,
but when he exited the season,
the deep ball went with him.
So right now would be a pretty good time
for Minnesota to overcome that.
It would require Keenum's career year
to have just a little magic left.
It would wash away any talks
of a postseason curse in Minnesota.
Or if the young Saints secondary does their job,
they could add to the list of crushing Minnesota exits
and propel an exciting Saints team
to their first NFC Championship
since their Super Bowl season.
To do that, the New Orleans defense,
will need to shut down some special players.
Vikings down one, 10 seconds left,
a trip to the NFC Championship up for grabs.
With the help of Paul Allen,
KFAN's voice of the Vikings, welcome to a moment in history.
- [Commentator] Marshon Lattimore, 12 yards from Adam,
Case on a deep drop, steps up in the pocket,
he'll fire to the right side.
(crowd cheering)
(commentators cheering simultaneously)
- Caught by Diggs.
(crowd cheering)
Touchdown. Are you kidding me?
(commentators cheering)
It's a Minneapolis miracle.
- [Commentator 2] No way.
(click sound)
(electronic music playing)
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every single freaking detail
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