After beating the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, the Minnesota Vikings now head to San Francisco with a very good shot at beating the No. 1 seed 49ers.
With the biggest spread of the four Wild Card Round games, no one gave the Minnesota Vikings much chance to beat the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. But Kirk Cousins got the big game monkey off his back, with a couple of clutch throws on the game-winning drive capped by a touchdown to Kyle Rudolph to give Minnesota a 26-20 overtime win.
After being banged up down the stretch of the regular season and missing the final two games, Vikings running back Dalvin Cook looked fresh and more like his early-season self with 130 total yards on 31 touches (28 carries) with two rushing touchdowns against the Saints. And most surprisingly, Cousins (19-for-31, 242 yards, one touchdown, 7.8 yards per attempt, 96.4 passer rating) outperformed Drew Brees (26-for-33 for 208 yards, one touchdown, 6.3 yards per attempt, 90.4 passer rating).
The Vikings will move on to take on the No. 1 seed San Francisco 49ers in the Divisional Round next Saturday. There was a strong argument for the Saints as the best team in the NFC, with their home field advantage being as strong as any in the league added in. So going to San Francisco (or Santa Clara, to be technical) against a team led by Jimmy Garoppolo as opposed to Brees is an automatic drop in mystique/challenge of the opponent.
San Francisco had one of the top defenses in the NFL this season, finishing second in total defense (281.8 yards allowed per game) and eighth in points allowed (19.4 per game). But the unit looked vulnerable late, as they allowed 46, 29 and 31 points in their three games from Week 14-Week 16 while allowing over 345 yards of offense in three of their final four regular-season games overall.
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan has familiarity with Cousins from the pair’s time together in Washington, so any lingering insight he has will definitely be passed on to defensive coordinator Robert Saleh. But he interviewed for the Cleveland Browns head coaching job on Saturday, and will presumably get lined up for more looks, so will his entire focus be on game-planning for the Divisional Round? Hard to say for sure, but if Saleh’s mind is a bit elsewhere this coming week he can only be called a human.
Everything was lined up against the Vikings on Sunday. A road game, with a quarterback who tends to shrink in big games and moments. An injury-depleted cornerback group, going against a Saints’ offense that was rolling as well as any in the NFL over the last handful of weeks or so.
But the defense stepped up, holding New Orleans to little of note that wasn’t generated by gadget plays involving Taysom Hill. A 50-yard pass, a 28-yard run and a 20-yard catch from Hill accounted for 98 of the Saints’ 324 total yards. The offense went turnover-free after the first drive of the game, as Cook ran well to tilt the time of possession battle (36:56 to 27:24) and the Saints didn’t really harass Cousins (two sacks, five hits).
Off the high of the franchise’s first road playoff win since January of 2005, the Vikings will have to come back down to reality and get ready for another road game against a tough team. But it will be a very winnable game, with the toughest game they could have had now behind them. Despite what the Vegas spread might say, the Vikings beating the 49ers in the Divisional Round will not be a real upset.