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Case Keenum had 10 seconds, one play and little hope. Afterward, he couldn’t even explain it.
There was nothing to explain. There was only the inconceivable ending to an already-incredible game—capped off by a play that made as little sense to the guy who threw the ball as it did to anybody who was watching.
Trailing 24-23 to the New Orleans Saints on their own 39-yard line, the Minnesota Vikings needed to advance the ball far enough downfield for a chance at a field goal but quickly enough that they would still actually have time for another play. Oh, and they were out of timeouts so the pass would have to be near enough to the sidelines so that they could stop the clock.
Then Keenum, the Minnesota quarterback, dropped back to pass. He slung it to his right to Stefon Diggs, who leapt and caught it at the New Orleans 34-yard-line. That’s when an already absurd play grew unbelievable: The Saints defender, Marcus Williams, whiffed. There was nobody between Diggs and the end zone to stop him—or the Vikings, who advanced to the NFC Championship with a 29-24 win against the Saints on this play that immediately entered the canon of all-time, classic finishes.
“I don’t even know what just happened,” Keenum said.
The wildness of the conclusion was only amplified by what led up to it. The game-winning touchdown pass wasn’t the first score in the final two minutes. It was actually the third.
After the Vikings raced out to an early 17-0 lead in the game, the Saints had slowly been marching back and took a 21-20 lead with 3:01 left in the fourth quarter on Drew Brees’s third touchdown pass of the second half.
Quickly, though, Minnesota responded with a field goal to go back ahead 23-21. That gave Brees 1:29 left for what looked like it would be the definitive, nail-biting drive. Brees, one of the most prolific quarterbacks in NFL history, delivered, setting up a field goal that sailed through the uprights with 25 seconds to go. Those were the first two scores in the game’s final 89 seconds.
Then the Vikings’ final drive began inauspiciously. There was a false start, bringing them back five yards, before a pass over the middle that forced them to call their final timeout. After two incompletions, came Keenum’s heave.
He spent three of his 10 seconds before throwing the ball. With four seconds left, Diggs landed with the ball—and in field-goal range, near the sidelines. But then he realized stepping out of bounds and risking the game on a long kick would be insanity. There was nobody to stop him from scoring the ball himself.
That was born out of a catastrophic defensive miscue. When Diggs was in the air, Williams, the closest defender went underneath him. He missed so thoroughly that Diggs had no problem landing and running. Even worse, Williams’s momentum carried him to bowl over the next closest Saints player. By the time Diggs reached the end zone, there was no time left on the clock.
That sets up an expected yet still surprising NFC Championship game between the Eagles and Vikings. The Eagles were the conference’s No. 1 seed but an underdog against the Falcons on Saturday because Philadelphia’s star quarterback Carson Wentz is out for the season. Still, Philadelphia won when it stymied a potential game-winning drive from Matt Ryan, who was shutdown at the goal line in the final minute.
In the AFC, there won’t be another Patriots-Steelers showing. While New England easily dispatched the Tennessee Titans, the Steelers were upset by the Jacksonville Jaguars in a 45-42 thriller in Pittsburgh.
But no finish topped the one in Minnesota, which is hoping to see its team again in a few weeks: The Vikings are now one win away from being the first team to play the Super Bowl in its home stadium.
Write to Andrew Beaton at andrew.beaton@wsj.com
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