Their minds still racing with childlike exuberance over the stunning last-snap victory that sent them to the NFC championship game
C.J. Uzomah Jersey , many of the Minnesota Vikings remained awake several hours past midnight.
Cornerback Xavier Rhodes replayed the video clip of the winning touchdown ”about a thousand times” at home, searing the image of Stefon Diggs leaping to catch the pass from Case Keenum and sprinting for the end zone into his memory forever so the details of the sequence that beat New Orleans were no longer foggy.
Ten seconds left.
Trailing by one point.
Sixty-one yards to go.
The outcome that produced the 29-24 victory was so improbable that the Vikings were predictably continuing to process their status as the first team in NFL history to score a winning touchdown on the final play of regulation in a postseason game.
”The Minneapolis Miracle”, as it was dubbed in trending on social media, was as unfathomable as the name sounds.
”We still can’t believe it in the locker room,” wide receiver Adam Thielen said. ”I woke up this morning and made sure it wasn’t a dream.”
The Vikings were about a field-goal favorite on the early betting lines to beat the Eagles on Sunday and become the first team to play a Super Bowl on home turf.
”I believe anything is possible at any moment, as you can see what happened yesterday,” Rhodes said.
Such an emotional ending carries the potential to distract from preparation for and focus on the next game at Philadelphia, when the winner’s high will be worn off and the Vikings will be in an unfriendly stadium without the advantages and comforts of their own place.
They wouldn’t have advanced this far without an unassuming attitude, though, so they were quick on Monday to dismiss the danger of savoring the moment too long.
”I think it took a little bit longer yesterday to probably get over it, but, no, today I think guys are ready,” Thielen said. ”We know how tough this game’s going to be for us, and we know that we still have a long ways to go.”
For those anxiously and impatiently long-waiting fans of one of the NFL’s most agonized franchises
Vincent Rey Jersey , the victory on Sunday was evidence that whatever curse existed in their minds might no longer be relevant.
Sure, most of these players endured the missed 27-yard field-goal try by Blair Walsh in the closing seconds of the wild-card round defeat two years ago against Seattle.
Defensive end Brian Robison, at least, was on the 2009 team that lost in overtime at New Orleans in the NFC championship game.
Except for Thielen and the handful of Minnesota natives on the roster, though, those crushing losses of the past that helped shape Vikings lore have not been a part of this team’s experience, let alone the lives of most of the players.
”We’re not playing to make up for anything,” Thielen said. ”We’re just playing to win football games.”
To beat the Eagles, the Vikings have some more work to do. They won’t have the crowd noise or the fast surface, for one.
They’ll have to face a defense just as strong if not stronger than the Saints. That’s why coach Mike Zimmer, who let his guard down during an uncharacteristically playful postgame news conference , was all business at the podium inside the team’s practice facility on Monday.
”We can’t make these mistakes in playoff games or we’ll be going home,” Zimmer said. ”There’s always good and always bad in some of the games, but we made some critical errors in that game that could have gotten us beat.”
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A show of power helped take the edge off the Colorado Rockies‘ recent pitching problems.
Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story and Ian Desmond homered in succession during a six-run third inning
Authentic Albert Wilson Jersey , German Marquez pitched effectively for six innings and Colorado snapped an eight-game home losing streak by beating the New York Mets 10-8 on Tuesday night.
Carlos Gonzalez also went deep for the Rockies, who won at home for the first time since May 29. Arenado finished a triple shy of the cycle with four RBIs in a game that was delayed 1 hour, 20 minutes because of heavy rain.
”I think that just kind of shows the resilience of our team,” Story said. ”We know things aren’t always going to go our way and we’re not going to win every time we score a lot of runs. That’s just how it is. But sometimes it’s kind of contagious. We’re just trying to hit the ball hard and few of them went out tonight.”
Marquez (5-7) allowed four runs on six hits in picking up his first win in nearly a month. He struck out four and walked two and helped himself with a pair of hits, scoring a run and driving in another to help build a big enough cushion to outlast the Mets. Colorado, which had lost eight of 10 coming into the game, had seen its bullpen go 0-7 collectively with two saves in seven chances this month.
”The greater majority of games over the last couple of weeks, we’re scoring enough runs,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. ”(Jacob) deGrom shut us down last night. But the offense is picking up, the averages are climbing. The situational hitting is better. We got 16 hits, a lot of contributions across the board, our pitcher included.”
Jason Vargas (2-6) allowed seven runs on nine hits in a season-low 2 1/3 innings and became the first Mets pitcher since Bartolo Colon in 2014 against the Los Angeles Angels to surrender homers to three batters in a row.
The game was tied at 2 when the Rockies went up with their big inning during which they sent 11 batters to the plate against two Mets pitchers.
Charlie Blackmon singled off Vargas to start the third and Arenado followed by homering into the left field bleachers. Story then drove a 1-0 offering from Vargas into the same general area before Desmond went the opposite way with a drive into the right field seats. It was the eighth time in franchise history that three Rockies hitters had gone deep in succession.
”They were just bad pitches and they all got hammered,” Vargas said.
After Vargas issued a one-out walk, Hansel Robles relieved and gave up run-scoring hits to Noel Cuevas and Marquez as Colorado pulled out to an 8-2 lead.
Gonzalez tacked on another run when he homered off Robles in the fourth and Arenado added an RBI single in the fifth.
”When you come to Coors Field, you tell your pitchers to not worry about what happens here and you move on
Authentic Daniel Kilgore Jersey ,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway said. ”Forget about it.”
The Mets got an RBI single from pinch-hitter Jose Bautista and subsequently loaded the bases with one out in the seventh, adding a second run on a two-out passed ball to pull to within 10-6. But Adam Ottavino induced an inning-ending groundout and struck out the side in the eighth to help fend off the Mets.
The Mets added a pair of runs on RBI groundouts in the ninth before Wade Davis fanned Michael Conforto for the final out.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Mets: RHP AJ Ramos will have season-ending surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder, the team announced. Ramos had a 6.41 ERA in 28 appearances this season. … OF Jay Bruce, who missed four of the previous five games because of right hip soreness, has been placed on the 10-day disabled list. ”He was really hurting,” manager Mickey Callaway said. ”So we made the decision to go ahead and put him on the DL so we can get him right so he can be the impactful player that he can be.” Callaway said Bruce was headed back to New York to be evaluated by team doctors and undergo an MRI. ”We’ll go from there, see what’s going on exactly.”
Rockies: RHP Scott Oberg threw a side session Tuesday for the first time since going on the 10-day DL earlier this month because of a back strain. Oberg is eligible for reinstatement Wednesday, though there’s no timetable yet for his return.
UP NEXT
Mets: RHP Seth Lugo (2-2, 2.49 ERA) has gone 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA in his three starts this season.
Rockies: RHP Chad Bettis (5-1, 4.65 ERA) makes his 15th start of the season and the seventh at home, where he has no decisions in six previous outings.
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