The Vikings build a 9-0 cushion through three quarters off of 22, 43 and 47-yard field goals, but the 27-yard attempt missed wide left. Yup, that’s the sort of chip shot that high schoolers make with regularity. The Vikings, led by Randy Moss and Randall Cunningham, went 15-1 in the regular season, and Anderson went 94 for 94 on field goals attempts and extra points – becoming the first kicker to go a full season without missing.
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“It’s so quick that I don’t know what happened”, Walsh said, fighting through tears. “I didn’t come through for us in that moment and that hurts”. But the quarterback who Vikings coach Mike Zimmer called “Houdini” during the week darted right and found Tyler Lockett wide open for a 35-yard completion to set up the score to Baldwin.
Walsh stood and answered every question at his locker. The temperature at kick-off was -6 degrees, making it the third coldest game in National Football League history. And away we go with what likely will be a popular offseason story line. He didn’t blame the snapper or the holder, even though the laces were definitely in. Walsh would have none of it.
“It’s my fault”, Walsh said.
“All I know is that we work to do the best that we can to get the situation ideal”, Gostkowski said.
The kick that could have given the Vikings a win over Seattle in the wild-card playoff game Sunday. They did muster up a total of 180 yards of offense in a home playoff game. It also had the lowest wind chill (minus-25) in Vikings history. “He’s looked really good”, Carroll said after the final practice of the week and before the team departed for Minnesota.
The 88-year-old Grant got a roar of approval from the crowd, most of which was dressed in as many layers as those purple replica jerseys would allow. Especially on the sideline with the heated benches and everything. “It didn’t affect us at all”.
“Just being more versatile”, he said.
Carroll said that Lynch didn’t suffer a setback in his recovery, he just didn’t feel he was going to be able to play after going through the week of practice. “It was a very fortunate victory for us”, Carroll admitted.
For a team that lost four Super Bowls in the 1960s and ’70s, a divisional playoff game on a desperation pass from Roger Staubach to Drew Pearson in 1975, an NFC title game in 1999 in part because of Gary Anderson’s first miss of the season and the 2010 NFC title game after Brett Favre threw an interception in Saints territory late in the game, this was far from the team’s most gut-wrenching defeats.
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TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: The Seahawks burned all three of their first-half timeouts early in the game, the result of some miscommunication and difficulties getting the plays into Wilson. So instead of moving on to play the Panthers, the Vikings are done for the year. His ability to get into the backfield in an instant freed up defensive end Cliff Avril, defensive tackle Ahtyba Rubin and linebackers Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright to finish off running back Adrian Peterson or pressure quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. “Seeing Bud out there early in the shirt-sleeves thing and everything, that was a great start to the game”, Carroll, who was an assistant coach under Grant with the Vikings in 1985, said Monday at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center.
