The Vikings needed a miracle, so they called a play called “Seven Heaven.”
With the Vikings seconds away from yet another devastating postseason defeat, they came up with perhaps the most dramatic victory in team history. Stefon Diggs caught a 61-yard touchdown pass from Case Keenum on the final play for a 29-24 victory over New Orleans in a divisional playoff game Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium.
“Wow,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said. “That was a heck of a game, wasn’t it? And the good guys won.”
The Vikings advanced to play at Philadelphia next Sunday in the NFC championship game.
The Vikings, who had blown a 17-0 third-quarter lead, looked doomed when Will Lutz kicked a 43-yard field goal with 25 seconds left to put the Saints up 24-23. They faced third and 10 at their own 39 with 10 seconds remaining and no timeouts left.
That’s when Keenum lofted a pass to Diggs, who caught it along the right sideline at the New Orleans 34 while safety Marcus Williams fell lunging to make a tackle. Diggs stormed down the sideline untouched and into the end zone as the clock expired and the fans went wild.
“I hate giving out plays, but the play is called ‘Seven Heaven,’ ” said Diggs, who caught six passes for 137 yards. “As I was about to leave (the huddle, Keenum) said, ‘I’m going to give somebody a chance,’ and that somebody was me.”
Diggs was clutching the game ball afterward, which he said fellow receiver Jarius Wright “saved” for him after he let it go in the end zone and started celebrating. Diggs called it a “play that you dream about your whole life,” and said he initially was in disbelief.
So was Keenum.
“I couldn’t believe what was happening,” Keenum said. “I really couldn’t. It was awesome.”
The dramatic play conjured up memories of the “Hail Mary,” the last-second pass by Roger Staubach to Drew Pearson that enabled Dallas to defeat Minnesota 17-14 in a 1975 playoff game.
“It’s good to see the tables turn,” said hall of famer Carl Eller, who was on that Vikings team, and celebrated with the players in the locker room Sunday. “It’s great.”
Other devastating Minnesota playoff defeats have included overtime setbacks to Atlanta in the 1998 NFC championship game and to New Orleans in the 2009 NFC championship game and a loss to Seattle two years ago on Blair Walsh’s botched last-second field-goal attempt.
“This definitely does make up for them,” Wright said. “We always hadn’t had the best luck and sometimes we usually end up on the other side of those. But this time it was, Lord willing.”
Zimmer said the Vikings practice “Seven Heaven” each week. He said they were simply trying to set up kicker Kai Forbath to win the game with a long boot.
“The first thing I did was I was saying, ‘Get out of bounds,’ ” Zimmer said. “Then I looked to see if he stepped out of bounds, then I looked to see if we had any penalties, then the next thing was to look and see how much time was left. Some guys jumped on me. I don’t remember.”
Fans spilled onto the field, and television interviews began with players. The officials had to clear the field for the meaningless extra point, but Keenum simply took a knee and the stunned Saints trudged to their locker room.
“This will take awhile to get over,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. “At some point it will pass; it will just take a little bit of time.”
The Vikings blew a 17-0 halftime lead and trailed 21-20 on three touchdown passes by Saints quarterback Drew Brees. Forbath then kicked a 53-yard field goal with 1:29 left in the game to give the Vikings a 23-21 lead.
The Saints had one more chance after Forbath’s kick, which was a Minnesota record for the longest in a playoff game. Brees kept their hopes alive with a 13-yard pass to Willie Snead on fourth and 10 at the Minnesota 46, leading to Lutz’s go-ahead field goal.
The Vikings got the ball at their own 25 and were pushed back to the 20 on a false start by Mike Remmers. Keenum threw a 19-yard pass to Diggs and two incompletions before the winning toss to Diggs.
“At that point, you’re just a kid throwing a football to another big kid, and he just runs and scores,” Keenum said.
The throw put a dramatic cap on Keenum’s first postseason game. He completed 25 of 40 passes for 318 yards.
Keenum, though, tossed what he called a “bonehead” interception late in the third quarter that could have proved quite costly. Keenum threw a ball up for grabs that was intercepted by Williams and returned 12 yards to the Minnesota 30 with 1:09 left in the quarter.
That led to Brees’ 3-yard touchdown pass to Michael Thomas with 13:09 left in the game that cut the deficit to 17-14. Forbath then booted a 49-yard field goal with 10:17 remaining to increase Minnesota’s lead to 20-14.
The Saints took a 21-20 lead on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Brees to Alvin Kamara with 3:01 left in the game. That was set up by a blocked punt by George Johnson.
“If we would have done things better, I think the score wouldn’t have been this close and we wouldn’t have had to throw that last pass,” Zimmer said. “But everything works out in the end.”
The Vikings looked bound for a rout when they took a 17-0 lead early in the second quarter. Minnesota got a 14-yard touchdown run by Jerick McKinnon early in the first quarter, a 20-yard field goal by Forbath later in the quarter and a 1-yard run by Latavius Murray early in the second quarter.
The Saints finally got on the board on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Brees to Thomas late in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 17-7.
Brees completed 25 of 40 passes for 294 yards but threw interceptions in the first half to Andrew Sendejo and Anthony Barr. He bounced back in the second half but it wasn’t enough.
“This one will be tough,” Brees said. “I think we are all still a little shell shocked at what happened there at the end.”
