Sunday Wild-Card Open Game Discussion

Smart move by the officials to overlook the false start on the Thielen fumble review. These fans have been through enough.

Diggs would've been much better-served to throw the ball away rather than take a 7-yard loss, but I guess he can't be faulted too much, given how rarely he has to make that decision.

A bit of a non-sequitur, but the resemblance of the Vikings' shoulder stripes to a viking ship is my favorite uniform detail in the league.

“Cruel Summer” outro? Um, OK.

The Vikings' front-7 had a terrific 1st quarter, there's a good chance for an upset if they can keep it up.

#38 for the Vikings got under the pads of a Saints' gunner and absolutely launched him on that last punt. I'm hoping they'll show a replay of it after the commercials.

Is there a more versatile player in the league than Taysom Hill? He's what Tim Tebow could, and probably should, have been.

All those plays where Hill swapped in for Brees are maybe beginning to make sense now.

Only Sean Payton would draw up and call a Taysom Hill to Deonte Harris bomb play.

So was that weird, how the refs stopped the game forever, giving the NO defense a breather? Or was that standard and normal?

Where no pass attempt was done. Run into a wall several times and you don't break through, try something else.

Trey Hendrickson has made a few terrific plays this game, I'm glad Aikman singled him out for praise in that goalline stand.

Strange play from Brees there going hurry-up on 3rd & 7 right before the two minute warning, then throwing a bomb into double coverage. Shouldn't judge solely on the outcome, but I would have thought clock control was the order of the day there.

I'm rooting for the Saints this afternoon, but I was hoping the last 20 seconds of the half would be less eventful because the puck was just dropped for the 3rd period of the Capitals-Sharks game.

Vikings lead at the half 13-10. Saints had a chance to tie but missed a field goal after a big KO return.

Now that 3rd & 1 touch pass was perhaps an example of Payton getting a little too cute, when a run up inside (plus possibly another on 4th down) could have easily gotten the job done.

Was that Thielen lined up as a FB for the Vikings on the 1st and 16?

Still a long way to go but if the Saints don't come back the third and fourth ranked teams by DVOA will have lost in consecutive games. Meanwhile the sixth ranked team didn't even make the playoffs.

Things getting a little desperate for the Saints, their regular offense has gotten absolutely nothing going tonight.

Wow big time throw from Cousins

Davis for the Saints is everywhere. Vikings offense has been good, I expect the Saints to make a comeback

That td looked to me like it didnt touch the goal line. Thoughts?

Tough call for the Saints on that TD, I think the call on the field would have to stand no matter what the call on the field was. Given their performance at the goalline throughtout the game, it's plausible that they actually would've held up with the ball at the 1-inch line.

The Saints are in real trouble now!

Saints convert a fake punt, only to have it called back because one of their players wasn't set at the snap. That's a shame, because who doesn't want to see more successful fake punts?

While engaged with a blocker, Demarrio Davis rips the ball out of Cook's hands as he's trying to catch a screen pass. That was a heckuva play.

I usually hate give-up draws, but I don't mind that one on 3rd & 17 for the Vikings with the offense seeming in disarray this set of downs.

That should have been a catch by Williams

Add my voice to the "Ok, I get Taysom Hill now" chorus. Wow.

Why would Payton put in this gimmicky package with Brees when their regular offense with Hill is moving the ball so well?

J/k, of course :-)

Ouch Brees fumbles (more like drops the ball) and the vikes recover

Oh wow, that might be the game there. Brees's pocket awareness has seemed kind of shaky all day, but the fumble could not have come at a worse time, killing their best drive dead.

The ball pops straight up into Vonn Bell's hands as Cook is spun down, but this should be reversed on review. Kudos to the refs for letting the play go, though.

Boy, if you ever needed proof of how pointless the chain "measurement" is, they ran the dumb things clear across the field and put the "official" one clearly six inches short of the stationary one on the other side.

OMFG what is this game

UPDATE: Okay he was correctly ruled down. That would've been too awesome.

Smart play by Cousins to take the sack there. Still, not a good look for the Vikings to be driven backwards on three consecutive plays. Saints will get the ball back right after the two-minute warning with one timeout.

Was that seriously a designed QB draw with Mr. Huge Guaranteed Contract on 3rd and 19?

Presented with a tremendous opportunity to close the game out, the Vikings inevitably retreat into their offensive shells (and almost manage to cough up a turnover anyway). A run on 2nd & 17, honestly?

Overtime seems to be the new hotness...

Lutz makes up for his miss from 43 yards before halftime with a 49-yarder to send it to OT. The kick looked pretty shaky but it counts nevertheless.

That kick looked awful in the air.

Now we get to see overtime, where the rules are still bad and winning a coin flip still provides a massive advantage.

Really odd decision-making by the Saints. I didn't really get not spending the timeout to keep the 10 seconds, but even given that they did, when the Kamara screen didn't work there were still 7 seconds left, they could've tried either a shot to the endzone or a similar quick play to get it closer.

Two OT games & what would have been a 1-point win if Ryan had gone down instead of running it in

Beautiful 43-yard bomb from Cousins to Theilen to set the Vikings up at the 2... right where the Saints want them.

Vikings win in OT! Rudolph with the td catch after a huge reception inside the 5 yard line.

Crafty of Brees to avoid the criticism of his road playoff performance.

Wowwwwwwwww game appears to end on an absolutely perfectly thrown fade by Cousins to Rudolph, but now they're reviewing for OPI.

(IMO there definitely is but holy crap I can't imagine calling that at this time)

UPDATE: Well it's officially final. Saints fans are going to be livid. Maybe we'll get congressional hearings about this one too.

Vikings very nearly blew it with the repeated pitch plays for losses around the goal line.

Well, that's a one and done playoff format for you. The Saints were unlucky to even have to play this week at 13-3 but now they are out. Green Bay now gets either the banged up Seahawks or the not particularly good Eagles instead of a team significantly better than them. How lucky for the Packers.
Meanwhile Minnesota will be underdogs again, but not by as much as they were today. I would certainly pick the 49ers to win, but hey, they lost at home to Atlanta a few weeks ago so an upset wouldn't be a total shock. The 1. seed in both conferences will get a tougher opponent than the 2. seed.

Nice little pushoff that Rudolph got away with at the end there. But it seemed inevitable after that throw to Thielen. I guess Cousins is finally earning his oversized paycheck.

All of these games have been close and exciting , hopefully Seahawks eagles will give us more

The Vikings couldn’t have won. Cook didn’t rush for 100 yards.

I applaud FO for trying to measure this wacky, often unpredictable sport. I understand how sample size and the rub of the green can change a given result on a given day in given circumstances.

That said, what DVOA made FO experts conclude was:

1/ Buffalo is the better team. (To be fair, they did say neither result would surprise them

2/ They saw no way Tannehill could lead a comeback win at Foxboro and thus the Titans were bound to lose. (He didn't have to)

3/ The Vikings could only prevail in a shootout-- with 30+ points. Instead they held the Saints to 10 pts for 3 Quarters and, but for Taysom Hill, absolutely stoned Brees, Thomas, Kamara and the vaunted Saints offense.

To which I say just throw DVOA out. Baltimore, KC and the 49ers will all be big favorites next weekend-- at least a TD in two of those games, I suspect. And I full well expect to see at least one of them, if not more go down. DVOA will probably skeptical about GB against either SEA or PHILA-- as it should-- but the Packers will probably win more impressively than any of the other three.

I think this is more of a crapshoot than people are willing to acknowledge and that season-long metrics have much less value than people think, whatever their quality.

I don’t know much about referees but seems like Shawn Smith must be pretty good if he’s doing playoff games in his second year

So after the reversal of the Cook fumble, the clock was set back to where it was when his knee went down-- OK, correct-- but then the Vikings only had 25 secs to get a play off, meaning that instead of potentially burning 39 secs before they snapped the ball, they only had 24. As it was the Saints remaining TO and the 2 minute warning would probably have meant that NO got the ball back with around 2 minutes or a little less anyway, but why should the offensive team be penalized 15 seconds for the refs basically missing a call-- or in this case, being encouraged not to make a premature call by blowing the whistle and ruiling the play dead. I'm all for letting them play but if Cook was down-- as he was-- his team should have the full benefit of the play clock...

Oh man, Wentz is out ("questionable") and McCown is in. Looks like Clowney hit him helmet-to-helmet (unintentionally) which knocked his head violently into the ground.

Brandon Graham also went off, not sure how bad it was (looked like maybe he hyperextended his knee).

Nevertheless, it's still only 3-0 'hawks in the 2nd quarter.

Josh McCown was 25th in DVOA and DYAR two years ago with the Jets. That's about the best the Eagles can probably hope from him if Wentz can't come back.

If wentz cant come back this game is gonna be over quickly. Eagles missing too many players

Had a whole segment about how the top passing teams are out of the playoffs and the top running teams are in the playoffs. I was really hoping this sort of thinking had been killed. Now, however, they are trying to act as if they are on the cutting edge because most people now believe passing is more important for winning. Instead, they are just behind the times.

Honestly, that segment captures the NBC's approach to presenting a football game perfectly. It's like watching a broadcast on FOX or CBS from 20 years ago.

40-year old Josh McCown has more rushing attempts than Russell Wilson. Game playing out just as we expected.

Beast mode scores! That might the game winner if the eagles cant come back

Huge roughing the passer call gives Seattle 1st & goal from the 5 instead of 3rd & 10 from the 10. On replay it looked like Barnett might have been blocked into Wilson.

If you factor in McCown’s senior discount the Eagles are now winning.

Someone needs to tell Collinsworth how crediting Clowney’s “athleticism” when he clearly diagnosed a play call sounds in 2020.

The Eagles have done a better job of moving the ball as this game has gone along, but their inability to finish drives with TDs is keeping this game relatively uninteresting.

Romo and Collinsworth have both been awful this weekend. Booger and Aikman both did way better. WTF?

Do the Seahawks like being in 3rd and long? It's like that's their goal every possession: face 3rd and long as often as possible

Seattle looks like they are going to hold on, but this hasn't been a great performance considering who the opposing QB is. I think the Packers should be substantial favorites next week.

Oh look another possesion where the Seahawks don't gain any yards before 3rd and 10. Why even bother with 1st and 2nd down?