NEW ORLEANS — Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins has often been criticized for not winning games on the biggest stages. He has never won a game on “Monday Night Football,” for instance, and had never won a playoff game.
Cousins flipped the script on Sunday afternoon when he led the Vikings to an upset victory over the New Orleans Saints, 26-20, in overtime. On the opening drive of the extra period, he led the Vikings 75 yards down the field, completing two big passes — a 43-yard heave to receiver Adam Thielen and a 4-yard touchdown score to tight end Kyle Rudolph — to seal the win.
“I appreciate the question, but I’m just thrilled we won the game,” Cousins said when asked about his past failures. “There will always be people that doubt you, and that’s O.K.”
The victory vaulted the Vikings, a wild-card team, into the N.F.C. divisional round, where they will meet the top-seeded San Francisco 49ers on Saturday afternoon in Santa Clara, Calif. It also abruptly ended the season of the 13-win Saints and their attempt to return to the Super Bowl for the first time in a decade.
“You understand that these opportunities are few, so yes, it’s disappointing when you’re not the one holding up the trophy at the end of the year,” Saints quarterback Drew Brees said.
Trouble has seemed to find the Saints in the playoffs in recent years. Two seasons ago, they were bounced from the postseason by the Vikings, who scored on a last-second, 61-yard touchdown catch by Stefon Diggs that has come to be known as the Minneapolis Miracle. Last season, the Saints were eliminated by the Los Angeles Rams in the N.F.C. championship game, in part because pass interference was not called on the Rams late in regulation.
This season, the Saints finished with the same number of wins as the first- and second-seeded 49ers and Green Bay Packers, but they lost the tiebreaker among the three teams and did not earn a bye in the first round of the playoffs. That twist of fate turned out to be costly for the Saints, who were favored to win in part because they were playing at home in the Superdome, where the crowd noise reached 125 decibels during the game.
The Vikings had other plans. They ran the ball often and well, led by running back Dalvin Cook, who had 94 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Their running game helped keep the Saints’ high-powered offense off the field and created opportunities for Cousins to find open receivers, most notably Thielen, who caught seven passes for 129 yards.
At the same time, the Vikings’ defense stymied the Saints’ biggest offensive weapons. Brees completed 26 passes for 208 yards and one touchdown. But he threw an interception in the second quarter that the Vikings later turned into a touchdown, and he fumbled the ball while being sacked with under five minutes left in the fourth quarter, allowing the Vikings to burn time off the clock.
Alvin Kamara, the Saints’ explosive running back, had just 21 yards rushing and 34 yards receiving. Saints receiver Michael Thomas, who caught an N.F.L.-record 149 passes this season, had seven receptions for just 70 yards. Wil Lutz, the team’s reliable kicker, missed a 43-yard field-goal attempt just before the first half ended.
“We just fell short on offense,” Saints tight end Jared Cook said. “We didn’t do our job.”
Still, heading into the fourth quarter behind, 20-10, the Saints found life. Brees completed passes to several receivers on the team’s opening drive of the quarter. Out of the shotgun, he threw a 20-yard touchdown score to Taysom Hill, a backup quarterback who also lines up as a halfback and receiver in certain packages.
With less than two minutes remaining, Brees went to work again, completing passes to Kamara, Cook and Thomas. A false-start penalty against the Saints drained 10 seconds off the clock, forcing them to kick a game-tying field goal on second-and-15 instead of having an additional chance to try for a game-winning touchdown.
The Vikings won the coin toss in overtime, and under N.F.L. rules, if a team scores a touchdown on the opening drive, the game ends. Cousins finally had his big moment. He hit Cook and Diggs — the hero two years ago — before seeing Thielen open downfield for a 43-yard completion. On the final play, Rudolph appeared to push his defender in the end zone before catching the winning pass. No offensive pass interference was called, and a video review confirmed the call on the field.
“It’s a game of inches, and today we found those inches,” Cousins said.
After the game, Al Riveron, the N.F.L.’s head of officiating, said both players had made contact, but none of it rose to the level of an infraction.
“We’re very comfortable with what we saw,” he said.
While Vikings fans will be happy to watch the replay, Saints fans, stung once again in the postseason, may look away.
Source: Football - nytimes.com
