01-16-2018, 12:04 AM
https://scout.com/nfl/vikings/Board/1028...-113739944
In his helmet, Keenum heard the call from offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur.
“Buffalo right, 7 Heaven,” Shurmur said.
And …
“Case!” Shurmur said. “Make sure you get the ball launched!”
One-by-three formation, all sideline routes. “Buffalo right” is three receivers overloaded to the right (“B” signifies “bunch formation,” thus “Buffalo,” so the players get the “B” for bunch), close together to confuse coverage. The “7” signified the 7 Route, or corner route—where the receivers runs down the sideline and cuts out to the boundary and looks for the ball. To the left, Adam Thielen, running a 20-yard sideline-hugging route. To the right, tight end Kyle Rudolph running a six-yard out; wideout Jarius Wright running about a 20-yard out, and Stefon Diggs running about five yards deeper, also right on the sideline. The instructions were clear: Catch the ball, get out of bounds with a second or two left so kicker Kai Forbath would have prayer at a long field-goal.
The huddle broke. Keenum looked at his three wideouts.
“Guys!” he said, and they looked at him quickly. “I’m gonna give somebody a chance here!”
Shurmur doesn’t know how many times he’s called the play this year. “But we’ve practiced it probably every week,” he said.
It’s a low-percentage deal. Most teams, one Viking said, usually play this play near the end of a half designed to tackle the receiver in-bounds, so the clock can die before the Vikings can attempt a field goal. On this play, as it developed, you saw the defenders on the right tight to the wide right stripe. If the Vikings caught the pass, New Orleans was going to do its darndest for the tackle to be in-bounds, so the clock would run out and the Saints would be the team going to Philadelphia for the NFC Championship Game after a 24-23 win. But hold on.
At the snap, four receivers bolted from the line; the back stayed to help block. Thielen got blanketed by Marshon Lattimore to the left; nothing to see there. Rudolph just an emergency place-holder to the right. All along, Keenum thought he’d throw it deep and to the right, because Diggs was going to be the deepest, and if he caught it, ideally, Forbath would be left with a 52-yarder.
“The play there is to just flood the sideline,” said Shurmur.
And hope.
With seven seconds left, facing pressure up the middle from Saints defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins, Keenum let it fly. In a way, he was lucky that Rankins pressured him.
Make sure you get the ball launched!
RELATED: Meet Vikings hero, Stefon Diggs
“I remember seeing a flash of Stefon breaking towards the sideline,” Keenum told me, “and I threw it right at the back of his head, trying to put it high on the back of his head, and he jumped up and I thought, ‘Oh wow, he has a chance at this.’ I could see his gloves up in the air. I can still see the image of his gloves going up for it. He catches it, and I'm like, ‘Oh man, he caught it!’”
:05. Diggs catch at the Saints 34-yard line.
“Get out of bounds!” Keenum yelled.
“Get out of bounds!” coach Mike Zimmer, just yards away, yelled.
“Get out of bounds!’” Shurmur thought.
:04. Safety Marcus Williams of the Saints came in for the low kill shot on Diggs.
Williams whiffed.
If Williams connected with Diggs’ legs and clipped him over, Diggs would have stayed in the field of play. Game over.
“And then I see the safety fly by him!” Keenum told me.
Ding!
:04. Williams and cornerback Ken Crawley banged into each other. They fell like bowling pins.
“That was God,” Adam Thielen said. “That play right there was God.”
“I’m just waiting for someone to hit me,” Diggs said. “That’s why—did you see me?—I almost fell. I turned around to run, and I almost fell.”
“I see him put his hand down, and he didn’t go down,” Keenum said. “I’m like, ‘Oh wait. He didn’t go
