It was Mother Nature briefly making way for Lady Luck. What’s that Thomas Jefferson quote again? “So that stings. I’ll be working hard to erase that from my career, but it’ll take awhile”.
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More than 50,000 football fans braved the frigid weather Sunday for the Seattle Seahawks and Minnesota Vikings NFC wild card playoff game in Minneapolis.
Aesthetically-speaking, the game had all the appeal of an ’85 Yugo. The temperature was minus -2 degrees, with a wind chill of -19 degrees. Seattle, probably still giving thanks for Walsh’s wayward kick, knows that scoring in only one quarter – and only 10 points – won’t be enough against Carolina. Instead, it was a day none of them may ever forget.
Wilson, who did a few Houdini tricks during the afternoon to keep drives alive, ended his effort by going 13-of-26 for 142 yards, including a 3-yard touchdown pass to Doug Baldwin.
Yogi Berra said it best “it ain’t over ’till it’s over”. “Brad Johnson, I miss you”. Even though he nearly had to take cover. But Aaron Rodgers found a way to escape the pass rush despite his terrible offensive line, finishing the game with 210 passing yards and two touchdowns, with Green Bay outscoring the Redskins 18-0 in the final 24:41, including two rushing touchdowns by James Starks and Eddie Lacy. That led Carroll to believe it was entirely possible that Walsh could miss even from point-blank range, so that’s what Seattle played for. I’m still picking Seattle to make it back to the Super Bowl and it’s a pretty safe bet that if they do, it’ll be a Super Bowl rematch. But the fourth-quarter heroics weren’t limited to the offense.
Minnesota Vikings kicker Blair Walsh (3) watched as he missed a field goal.
While the eighth fumble of Adrian Peterson was the most damaging, it was similar to a number of the previous blunders of the running back during the year. “If we’re going to do something really special, it’s going to take an incredible run for us”.
Chancellor said after Sunday’s game he thought the call was bad. “So we’ll have to wait and see”. He didn’t point out that he had made three other field goals – of 22, 43 and 47 yards – to account for all of his team’s points during the game, which just happened to be the third coldest in league history.
Minnesota Vikings kicker Blair Walsh stood in front of his cubicle and spoke to media about his now-infamous 27-yard field-goal try that went wide left in the last minute of Sunday’s 10-9 playoff loss to the Seahawks.
As the moment registered, the Seahawks might have set a team record for simultaneous looks to the heavens.
“It’s so quick that I don’t know what happened”, a teary-eyed Walsh said after the game via ESPN. “It is shameful. I have to do better”.
That play left Vikings fans in tears, like this fan.
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“We just needed a game like this to get our mojo back and get our confidence going”, said Rodgers, who had been under close scrutiny during his team’s regular-season offensive struggles. Sounds boring, but there’s validity to that.
