SKOL Vikings!
My Sunday evening was a typical quiet evening, considering Jenny and I were both recovering from whatever this cold is that is floating around. We had had a late lunch and had the Vikings game on TV. Jenny had been doing some work around the house and came to sit down early in the second half, with the local team enjoying a 17-0 lead.
Shortly after she sat down, the Saints scored a touchdown. Then the lead got smaller again. She commented that she seems to have been the cause of the Saints’ resurgence. I laughed. My laugh became a little more nervous when the Saints took the lead, with my breathing becoming only a bit easier after Kai Forbath’s field goal with 1:32 left. I say only a little bit easier, knowing the Vikings’ history of heartbreak in the playoffs. I remember as a 10-year-old when the Vikings lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl IV.
There was the heartbreak of three more Super Bowl losses over the next six years. I remember a group of us ninth-graders from the neighborhood watching in Matt Mahowald’s basement as the Steelers tore our purple hearts out in Super Bowl IX.
After those four Super Bowls, the Vikings continued to put out some good teams, but have seemed snakebit in the years since. In the 1988 post-season, Minnesota looked to be headed for a game-winning touchdown late against the Washington Redskins only to see a pass to Darren Nelson dropped at the goal line. There was the 41-doughnut debacle against the Giants in 2001, the heartbreaking loss to Atlanta where Gary Anderson missed his only field goal of the season late, then the team took a knee at the end of regulation and finally lost the game in overtime. More recently, there was a battered Brett Favre throwing an interception against the Saints in 2009 in the “Bountygate” game, and two years ago there was the game where the terms “Blair Walsh” and “wide left” became forever linked together.
The Saints appeared ready to plunge another dagger in the hearts of Vikings fans everywhere when they kicked a field goal with 25 seconds left to take a 24-23 lead. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Minnesota Vikings fans were definitely questioning the sanity of cheering for a team that continues to find new ways of breaking our hearts.
The Vikings had one last chance. It shouldn’t have come to anyone’s surprise that the first play from scrimmage resulted in a false start penalty. This is the Vikings, after all. One completion for a first down meant the team had to burn their final timeout. A couple of incomplete passes and the Vikings had 10 seconds remaining and needed about 20 yards to get into field goal range and get out of bounds to set up a dramatic game-winning kick (Yeah, right. What could go wrong there?)
No one in Minnesota should need to be told the details of what happened on the field, but in case you missed it, Case Keenum threw up a pass to Stefon Diggs at about the 40-yard line. A Saints player somehow missed a tackle and knocked over a teammate who could also have made a game-ending tackle, and Diggs turned, kept his balance and sprinted the rest of the way for a 61-yard touchdown pass as time expired.
Chaos ensued. It took game officials about 15 minutes to get enough players onto the field for the conversion attempt (for once, the Vikings were glad to be able to take a knee) and Minnesota came out on top with a 29-24 win.
SKOL!
Social media, the evening news, talk at work, even newspaper columns talked about the significance of this game. Could it be the curse has been lifted? (Or as Coach Zimmer would say, What curse?).
The Vikings play in Philadelphia Sunday evening, and if they were to win, they would advance to their fifth Super Bowl - and their first in more than 40 years. The icing on the cake is that they would play this Super Bowl right in their home stadium in Minneapolis.
True believers are saying that this could be the year. This is a team of destiny. All of those heartbreaks will be washed away with two more Vikings wins.
I hate to put this thought out there, but the true Vikings fan in me can’t also avoid this nagging thought…. What if this is all a buildup to one more heartbreak?
Nope, not going to happen. Keep thinking positive.
SKOL Vikings!
