Keenum threw a ball up for grabs that was intercepted by Williams and returned 12 yards to the Minnesota 30 with 1:09 left in the quarter. Keenum, though, tossed what he called a “bonehead” interception late in the third quarter that could have proved quite costly. He completed 25 of 40 passes for 318 yards. The throw put a dramatic cap on Keenum’s first postseason game. “At that point, you’re just a kid throwing a football to another big kid, and he just runs and scores,” Keenum said. Keenum threw a 19-yard pass to Diggs and two incompletions before the winning toss to Diggs. The Vikings got the ball at their own 25 and were pushed back to the 20 on a false start by Mike Remmers. Brees kept their hopes alive with a 13-yard pass to Willie Snead on fourth and 10 at the Minnesota 46, leading to Lutz’s go-ahead field goal. The Saints had one more chance after Forbath’s kick, which was a Minnesota record for the longest in a playoff game. Forbath then kicked a 53-yard field goal with 1:29 left in the game to give the Vikings a 23-21 lead. The Vikings blew a 17-0 halftime lead and trailed 21-20 on three touchdown passes by Saints quarterback Drew Brees. “At some point it will pass it will just take a little bit of time.” “This will take awhile to get over,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. The officials had to clear the field for the meaningless extra point, but Keenum simply took a knee and the stunned Saints trudged to their locker room. I don’t remember.”įans spilled onto the field, and television interviews began with players. “Then I looked to see if he stepped out of bounds, then I looked to see if we had any penalties, then the next thing was to look and see how much time was left. “The first thing I did was I was saying, ‘Get out of bounds,’ ” Zimmer said. He said they were simply trying to set up kicker Kai Forbath to win the game with a long boot. Zimmer said the Vikings practice “Seven Heaven” each week. “We always hadn’t had the best luck and sometimes we usually end up on the other side of those. “This definitely does make up for them,” Wright said. Other devastating Minnesota playoff defeats have included overtime setbacks to Atlanta in the 1998 NFC championship game and to New Orleans in the 2009 NFC championship game and a loss to Seattle two years ago on Blair Walsh’s botched last-second field-goal attempt. “It’s good to see the tables turn,” said hall of famer Carl Eller, who was on that Vikings team, and celebrated with the players in the locker room Sunday. The dramatic play conjured up memories of the “Hail Mary,” the last-second pass by Roger Staubach to Drew Pearson that enabled Dallas to defeat Minnesota 17-14 in a 1975 playoff game. “I couldn’t believe what was happening,” Keenum said. Diggs stormed down the sideline untouched and into the end zone as the clock expired and the fans went wild. That’s when Keenum lofted a pass to Diggs, who caught it along the right sideline at the New Orleans 34 while safety Marcus Williams fell lunging to make a tackle. They faced third and 10 at their own 39 with 10 seconds remaining and no timeouts left. The Vikings, who had blown a 17-0 third-quarter lead, looked doomed when Will Lutz kicked a 43-yard field goal with 25 seconds left to put the Saints up 24-23. The Vikings advanced to play at Philadelphia next Sunday in the NFC championship game. “That was a heck of a game, wasn’t it? And the good guys won.” Stefon Diggs caught a 61-yard touchdown pass from Case Keenum on the final play for a 29-24 victory over New Orleans in a divisional playoff game Sunday at U.S. With the Vikings seconds away from yet another devastating postseason defeat, they came up with perhaps the most dramatic victory in team history. The Vikings needed a miracle, so they called a play called “Seven Heaven.”
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