• Dave Lagarde wrote in the Times-Picayune that Minnesota crawfished into their manna-from-heaven wild card playoff berth without so much as making a tackle or scoring a touchdown on Sunday. The Vikings lost three of their last four, including a Saturday defeat at the hands of the Redskins after leading by 10 with five minutes to play. But Dallas beat St. Louis on Sunday to give the 8-7 Vikings the last playoff berth in the NFC.
• Second-year Minnesota coach Jerry Burns set the we-don't-get-respect tone on Monday. You bleepers come in here and say we don't belong in the playoffs. The 10 best bleeping teams go to the playoffs. Period. You guys can say all the bleep you want - how we backed into the playoffs and all that bleep. We started out the season to get in the playoffs, and we're in. Who gives a bleep how we got here? We're here. Burns also reminded the press that three of his club's seven losses came during the strike, making Minnesota the only play­off team that lost all their replacement games. I told them (his players) not to believe all that b.s. they read in the papers. No team has had to overcome the adversity that this team has had to overcome this season, but all you guys want to write about is how we bleeping backed in.
• DT Keith Millard started backpedaling from remarks he made after Satur­day's loss that questioned whether his team was playoff-worthy based on their blowing Q4 leads against Chicago, Green Bay, and Washington. That was my emotion talking. Whatever happened last Saturday, or the week before, or the week before that, doesn't matter now. It's a one-game season, and we got as good a chance as anyone if we play like we're capable of playing. I think we're a better team than the Saints, but we've got to come out stormin'. We were lucky (to get in), and we've got to take advantage.
• OT Tim Irvin didn't care how the Vikings made the playoffs. Sure, we would have liked to beat the Redskins, but we didn't. But I'm not ashamed how we got here. We're a good football team. We don't have to take a back seat to anyone. I can look every NFL player in the eye and not be ashamed. We are here, and 18 teams aren't.
• Minnesota Star-Tribune columnist Dan Barreiro compared the Vikings to the '87 Minnesota Twins, who made the American League playoffs as a divisional winner with only 85 victories only to win the World Series. Say this for the Twins. If they entered the playoffs whimpering, they went out roaring. The Vikings have been given the same opportunity and challenge. Unfortunately, if things go according to recent form, they will back away.
• NT Henry Thomas (from LSU) relished the underdog role. Let the Saints take us lightly. I hope they do. Please, tell them for me that we're still down from losing to the Redskins. I hope they don't take us seriously, because then we can go down there and sneak up on them.

The Saints could play the No Respect card also.

• Despite compiling the second-best record in the NFL, New Orleans got only one player on the Associated Press All-NFL team - K Morten Andersen. Of particular surprise was the absence of the entire "Dome Patrol" LB corps from the elite squad.
• The Saints could prove the naysayers wrong by winning at least one playoff game.
• Minnesota boasted two All-Stars: OT Gary Zimmerman and S Joey Brown­er.

The Saints' most recent two contests against Minnesota didn't provide fodder for optimism.

• The Norsemen roared to a 30-3 halftime lead on their way to a 33-17 victory in the final game of the 1986 season. That game's still fresh in my mind, said OT Stan Brock. They sure have given us fits, added DB Johnnie Poe.
• The real worry warts remembered the first 1987 exhibition game when Min­nesota jumped out to a 17-3 first half lead, outgaining NO 265-93 before non-starters flooded the field.
• Noting that his team had fallen behind 24-3 and 14-3 in their last two regular season games before rallying, Coach Mora warned, We better get with it from Play 1 and not halfway through the second quarter next week.
• The Saints had defeated Minnesota in their last two meetings prior to '86 (17-16 in '83 at home and 30-23 in Minneapolis in '85) but overall the former Ain'ts were just 4-9 against their visitors from the top of the Mississippi River.

The bruising final game against Green Bay had taken its toll on the Saints.

• LB Alvin Toles - hyperextended left knee that caused him to watch the second half on crutches but would play against Minnesota.
• DB Toi Cook - partially torn tendon in his left shoulder; SS Antonio Gibson, out with a broken arm since November 22, would replace him.
• LB Vaughn Johnson - bruised ribs; will play.
• OL Brad Edelman - swollen left knee; will play.
• QB Bobby Hebert - sprained right knee still not 100%; will play after getting fluid drained.

Times-Picayune Saints Beat writer Jimmy Smith pointed out that the strike still divided some Saints.

Offensive players who honored the 24-day walkout don't converse off the field with offensive players who crossed picket lines.
Defensive players who honored the 24-day walkout don't converse off the field with defensive players who crossed picket lines.
That's to be expected, but you'd have thought winning would have healed a few old wounds.
It evidently hasn't.
But things are now becoming petty. Tailback Rueben Mayes plans to buy personally engraved shotguns for the offensive linemen, tight ends and fullbacks who blocked for him this year, players who are starters.
But Mayes isn't including strike-breakers Steve Korte, James Campen and Daren Gilbert on his gift list.
It has nothing to do with the fact those three players crossed union picket lines, Mayes said Monday. Just coincidence. ...
Non-strikers have been left off invitation lists to a couple of Christmas parties. Non-strikers received no Pro Bowl votes from the Saints and, in some cases, were not placed in nomination. ...
"I thank God this team didn't have to vote for me," said non-striker Tony Elliott, a first alternate (for the Pro Bowl) along with non-striker Bruce Clark. ... Players can't vote for members of their team in Pro Bowl bal­loting.
Elliott, one of the most outspoken Saints, makes a valid point regarding this selective blackballing.
"It's an intangible we shouldn't have to worry about at this time of year," Elliott said. "We can eliminate the possibility of that intangible being a factor if our players can unify for one common goal: to be the best.
"All those other things are not important. The longer we hold on to these things, our odds are decreasing of possibly winning it all."

Still, the team had just completed "the most magical two months in Saints history" (to quote Christian Serpas) with nine wins to close the regular season. So how big could the rift in the team be? Finks didn't seem too concerned.

Anytime you have a bunch of football players, they're not all going to be Boy Scouts and they can't all love each other. As I said during the strike, people who made excuses about the strike dividing them ... were just setting themselves up for failure. Whether the players love each other is not an issue at all. ... This doesn't impress me at all, as long as they're performing on the field, and I haven't seen any signs of that. I dont like to see that kind of stuff, but I think time heals all wounds.

On Tuesday, Burns surprised most observers by naming Tommy Kramer as his starting QB for the wild card game.

• The 11-year veteran had been bothered by an assortment of injuries during the season, most recently a pinched nerve in his neck that kept him on the shelf for the last two games of the regular season.
• Jerry refused to go into detail on why he chose Kramer over Wade Wilson, who had started seven non-strike games to Kramer's five. But the Vikings head man added, I expect that both of them will play. We'll do whatever it takes to win. If (Kramer) isn't moving the team, I won't hesitate to make a change.
• Wilson had thrown an INT at the goal line in the 27-24 OT loss to Washington in Game 15. All-Pro CB Barry Wilburn ran back the pick 100y for a TD.
• Wade had led the team in rushing the last two games - a first for the fran­chise since Fran Tarkenton in 1961. Being able to run is a plus on my side, said Wilson, but not being able to get us in the end zone inside the 20 is a negative.
• Jim Mora shrugged off the announcement, saying the Saints design a game plan to stop an offensive scheme, not a QB. Both Wilson and Kramer can run, but Kramer is more of a dropback passer. They're both very similar QBs.

Mora's team refused to be drawn into the playoff hysteria gripping the Crescent City.

• TE Hoby Brenner: It's great making it here, because you finally see the finish line. But the Super Bowl is the ultimate finish line. If we don't win the rest of our games, we'll still end the season on a sour note.
• OT Stan Brock: It's just a regular game for us. We'll prepare the same way. It's nice to be in, but you want to do better than just getting there.
• When the club clinched the post-season berth with a victory over Tampa Bay in Game 12, they didn't celebrate wildly because they hoped for the division crown. QB Bobby Hebert: The excitement's kind of worn off. I really haven't thought about it that much. When we beat Tampa Bay, I don't think you had people on this team saying, "Wow, we're in the playoffs."

Many observers felt the Vikings were a better team than their record and recent play showed.

• Mora: You can't look in and say, "Well, we got to shut this down, or we got to shut that down." They can do so many things well. There's no one guy you can zero in on. They've got so many weapons. They're a very tough team to the defend.
• RB Darrin Nelson rushed for 642y, an impressive total considering he played only nine games because of the strike and injuries. D. J. Dozier added 257y while FB Alfred Anderson gained 319. Wilson pitched in 263, a substantial amount for a QB. Overall, the Vikes averaged 165.3 yards per game on the ground.
• WR Anthony Carter led the NFL in average-yards-per-catch (24.3 on 38 re­ceptions for 922y). Another wideout, Leo Lewis, snagged 24 aerials for 383. The Saints couldn't neglect TE Steve Jordan, the target of 35 completions for 490y. Kramer: These guys make my job a lot easier. If they're trying to stop one person, then there's always somebody else you can go to.
• Minnesota closed their Wednesday practice to the media after 15 minutes. The previous week, a local TV station aired footage of a practice that showed them working on a HB option. Former coach Bud Grant saw the telecast and called GM Mike Lynn, who told Burns not to use the play.

Former Chiefs and Saints coach Hank Stram, an analyst for CBS radio, sized up to the opposing QBs.

• On Hebert: I just don't think that Bobby Hebert gets the credit that he de­serves. I saw him play in the USFL, and I was very impressed with him. It doesn't make any difference what your system is as long as you have a phi­losophy, exercise the philosophy, and win the game. That's what he does. They want to run the ball, and that's a great philosophy. He's very deliberate and reads defenses extremely well. He's getting the ball to the right people. He has a lot of cool and confidence.
• On Kramer and Wilson: I think that (quarterbacking) and their kicking game have been their Achilles' heel. They have not been on a par with the rest of their team. They've had people open and just overthrown them. They're both fine quarterbacks except they just never caught up with the situation since the strike. They're still a very dangerous team because of the lightning they have at the skill positions. It's funny. In the past, they've had a good situation at QB and didn't have the supporting cast, and the QBs have not been as sharp as they'd like them to be.

The Saints entered the fray favored by 7 points.

• Mora's team led the NFL in possession time, averaging 28 minutes per game.
• NO sat atop the league in takeaway ratio as well, 48 to 28 for a +20 advan­tage.
• Another category the Saints topped was interceptions with 30.
• They were tied for first for throwing the fewest interceptions, 12. Hebert had a personal streak snapped when he threw a pick in the final game against Green Bay, his first after 104 error-free passes.
• Punt returner Mel Gray led the league with 352y in 24 attempts for a 14.7 average, two yards per return better than the next man on the list.
• Against common opponents, the Saints were 6-0, the Vikings were 3-5.
• Burns saw no weaknesses in the Saints. Everything about them is impressive.

The teams' offensive statistics looked strikingly similar.

• They ranked exactly in the middle of the league in total offense: 4,964 for the Saints (#14) to 4,809 for Minnesota (#15).
• Both ran the ball better than they passed.
  Saints #3 in rushing (2,190y), Vikings #11 (1,983).
  Minnesota #20 in passing yards (2,826), with New Orleans next with 2,774.

Both clubs ranked higher on defense.

• Saints #4 in yards allowed (4,350), Vikings #10 (4,824).
• New Orleans #6 in passing yards given up (an even 2,800), Vikings #16 (an even 3,100).
• Both ranked higher against the run: Saints #3 (1550y), Vikes #11 (1724).

The Times-Picayune felt the Saints would win if:

• the left side of the O-line kept DE Chris Doleman (11 sacks, tied for 6th in the NFL after shifting from LB to DE) away from Hebert;
• TB Rueben Mayes ended his streak on non-100y games rushing;
• the Saints' D kept the opposing QB in the pocket.

The TP pegged the Saints to lose if:

• The Vikings got three or more sacks;
• Hebert threw more than one INT;
• the Saints fail to gain 100y rushing;
• the Minnesota QBs exploited the secondary with deep passes.

Saints fans, giddy over a 12-3 season and supremely confident the Vikings would be the first victim on the road to the Super Bowl, packed the Dome to the tune of 68,127. However, the visitors refused to play the role of the Christian martyrs against the lions in the Roman Colosseum.

Randy Galloway of the Dallas Morning News started his syndicated article on the game for Monday's newspapers this way.

It wasn't supposed to happen this way.
The Minnesota Vikings came to this town to face the sizzling New Orleans Saints in front of all those ragin' Cajuns in the Superdome.
The Vikings were supposed to be shucked like oysters at Felix's in the French Quarter. For the Saints, this was going to be easier than squeezing the head off a crayfish.
It was all over by halftime ...

If ever there was a time when an opponent beat a team at its own game, this was it.

• Q1: The Saints started quickly. Kramer was sacked on the first play from scrimmage. Then he fumbled the second snap, and LB Vaughn Johnson recovered on the 11. Three plays later, Hebert flicked a 10y scoring pass to Eric Martin. Saints 7 Vikings 0 (13:37)
  CBS had a noise monitor on the sideline that measured the crowd noise at 106 decibels - about as loud as a jet plane.
  The Black and Gold defense returned to the field and, aided by a sack and another Kramer fumble which he recovered, soon forced a Bucky Scribner punt. The game looked like it would turn into the rout the home crowd ex­pected. Mel Gray had been a potent weapon for the Saints all season. A good return would continue the momentum. He signaled a fair catch and ran up under the ball. But at the last moment, he tried to back away from the pigskin. It glanced off his chest toward the right sideline where Joey Brown­er recovered for Minnesota at the 27. It was the first of six Saints turnovers on the afternoon.
  Wade Wilson came in for Kramer, who reinjured his neck diving on the fum­bled snap - the 20th time in the last 21 games that Tommy didn't play a complete game. After three plays gained only 7, Chuck Nelson booted a 42y FG - the first time in eight games that the embattled kicker had made his first attempt. Saints 7 Vikings 3 (8:01)
  Playing a straight zone defense instead of mixing in the usual man-to-man, the Vikes seemed to confuse Hebert and his receivers. Doleman crashed into Bobby as he threw to force an INT by Isaac Holt.
  But nothing came of the turnover.
  Then it was DT Keith Millard's turn to hammer Hebert on a 3rd-down pass that fell incomplete. As the Saints prepared to kick, who should trot onto the field as the deep man but Anthony "AC" Carter, who had returned but three punts all season. He caught the ball on his 16, meandered through the cov­erage with the help of a crunching block by Holt until he saw an opening. By the time he reached the 40, was in the clear. "He's gone. Forget about it," declared Pat Summerall, announcing the game for CBS with former Oakland coach John Madden. Vikings 10 Saints 7 (3:03)
  The 84y return set an NFL playoff record, breaking the old mark of 31y set by Chicago's Hugh Gallarneau against the Packers in 1941.
  It was a "man block," Carter said afterwards, a right return. Everybody got a good block, and I saw some daylight. Once I was in the clear, I was gone, just coasting. ... The coaches told me on Thursday I'd be back there. Carter had given Coach Burns a Christmas present two weeks earlier, a picture of him­self returning a punt in college at Michigan, complete with career statistics. Michigan is also a graduate of Michigan and had seen the picture on a poster in Ann Arbor, Michigan Carter. I knew he admired it. So I arranged for him to get one. I suppose the picture helped him make the decision to put me back there on punts.
  G Brad Edelman committed the first of his three holding penalties on Millard on the next possession.
  Doleman yelled to Hebert, We're killing your offensive line. So Bobby started yelling at his protectors.
  Millard on dominating Edelman : Hey, I voted for Edelman to go to the Pro Bowl. I'd vote for him again, too. It's just that I wanted to prove I was that cal­iber of player too. I would have gotten there this year if I hadn't been hurt. I studied a lot of film this year and read his stance. You can tell if he's lining up for a heavy or a light block. Then, since I can line up against either guard, I went over to the other one (rookie Steve Trapilo). When I found out that could work, then we ended up doing whatever we wanted to.

• Q2: Early in the period, Johnnie Poe appeared to intercept a Wade Wilson pass at the NO 15 when he leaped high, caught it, then lost the ball as he hit the turf. But the replay official ruled Poe never had possession.
  Poe: I felt I had the ball until I hit the ground, and the rules say the ground can't cause a fumble. That was a big play.
  On 3rd-10 from 38, Wilson threw a pass in the right flat to Darren Nelson who wiggled down the sideline in front of the Saints bench, then broke back toward the middle leaving six potential tacklers in his wake. Finally, Poe saved a TD by pulling Nelson down at the 1' line. NT Tony Elliott knocked D. J. Dozier back for a yard loss as he tried to score over LT. Then Frank War­ren jumped offside before the next snap to move the ball half the distance to the goal. Nelson then leaped into the EZ but LT Gary Zimmerman had moved prematurely. On 2nd-and-goal from the 6, Wilson tried a QB draw, but Jim Wilks stopped him after a 1y gain. Wade then fired a fastball down the middle to TE Steve Jordan in the midst of two crossing LBs, Sam Mills and Johnson. Vikings 17 Saints 7 (11:47)
  On their next possession, Minnesota moved smartly to a first and goal from the ten. For their 31st offensive play as opposed to just 12 for the Saints, offensive coordinator Bob Schnelker decided to pull out the HB pass that had been shelved for the Redskins game. Allen Rice took a pitch to the right, stopped, and threw a strike to Carter racing through the EZ just behind FS Brett Maxie. Anthony had lined up at RE with Dave Waymer just across the line of scrimmage from him. But right before the snap, Dave backed off toward the sideline. That left Carter free to run through the secondary unchecked. Vikings 24 Saints 7 (6:10)
  Rice: AC is supposed to run down and look like he's going to block the safety, and I just prayed to the Lord and threw the ball high toward the goal posts and hoped the defensive back wouldn't get in the way.
  Hebert led the Saints to the 23 before the drive stalled thanks to a third down incompletion on which the locals thought the visitors committed pass interference. So Morten Andersen booted a 40y FG. Vikings 24 Saints 10 (3:06)
  Late in the half,a sack sent Wilson to the sidelines with his head spinning. Kramer replaced him. As the final seconds mercifully ticked down to end the first half nightmare, the Vikings were content to run out the clock. The Saints smothered Darrin Nelson at the NO 49, and the clock read 0:00. But not so fast, my friend. The Saints were called for having 12 men on the field be­cause a late substitution didn't give the departing player enough time to get off the field. Since the half can't end on a defensive penalty, that gave Min­nesota a free play from the 44. The Saints stationed three defenders across the goal line. as the offense lined up three WRs to the left - Carter, Hassan Jones, and Leo Lewis. Since sore-armed Kramer couldn't throw the ball to the EZ, a groggy Wilson came back in and lofted a "Hail Mary" pass. Jones knocked the ball away from Reggie Sutton and pulled it into his right arm as he tumbled backward into the EZ. The nearest official had to unsort the pile like a basketball ref on a held ball before throwing up his hands to signal TD. The replay official reviewed the play and let the call stand. "That may be the play that kills the Saints," said Madden, probably to the chagrin of CBS exec­utives hoping to keep the audience for the second half. Vikings 31 Vikings 7 (0:00)
  Wilson on his sack before returning for the Hail Mary: I was so woozy, I started going to the wrong bench. Then I saw all the black shirts and decided to head to our bench. I got myself together a little bit; then people started telling me to go in the game.
  Jones on the Hail Mary: We call it "Squadron Left," and we all just run down and pray. I kind of bobbled the ball to myself and came down with it.
  After the game, Mora and D-coordinator Steve Sidwell both accepted blame for the Hail Mary. The players going in failed to communicate, but it's not their fault, said Mora. It's my fault. ... How critical was that? It was very critical. To have that happen then was a real downer.
  But Sidwell said he tried to call an alignment called "Saint" that utilized sev­en defensive backs. I screwed up the substitution. I called for a specific thing, and we did not get it communicated. We were supposed to get an extra DB on the field, and we ended up having too many linemen on the field.
  Poe assessed the performance of the WRs on the Hail Mary thusly: It looked like one of them was going for the ball, and the other two were running into the defensive backs. I saw one of our defensive backs get a hand on the ball. Then I pulled Hassan Jones down, and he had it.
  Despite the disaster, the Saints still felt they could come back in the second half. Trapillo: The Hail Mary hurt, but we had come back from things like that before. We were ready to do it again.

• Q3: With the Saints ground game taken out of the picture by the 21-point deficit, the Vikings front, worthy successors to the famous Purple People Eaters, pinned back their ears and pressured the QB. Edelman could not stop Millard, who also knocked Rueben Mayes out of the game late in the first half with sprained knee ligaments. The success of the Front Four allowed the Vikings to drop seven men in coverage, something that almost no Saints' opponent had been able to do all season. Carl Smith's offense would manage just 66y the second half.
  Hebert didn't survive the third period, going out with an eye injury after Hen­ry Thomas gouged his eye at the bottom of a pileup. Bobby hit just 9-of-19 passes for 84y.
  I tried to bite his fingers, recalled Hebert. I said, "Henry, you're a homeboy, you SOB. He said, "I'm just trying to get you out of the game."
  Bobby tried to run the next play, a pitchout to RB Dalton Hilliard. Hebert saw two Hilliards. I just hoped I pitched to the right one.
  Dave Wilson tried to steer the ship around the Viking shoals the rest of the way without success. He engineered a drive to the Minnesota 28. Then he threw a pass that was tipped by TE Hoby Brenner and caught by CB Reggie Rutland.
  With Wade Wilson out with a mild concussion, Kramer piloted Minnesota to the only score of the quarter. Carter ate up the Saints with down-and-out patterns, catching three passes for 12, 16, and 17y on a drive that led to Chuck Nelson's 32y FG. Vikings 34 Saints 10 (1:15)
  
  Two of Carter's receptions were reviewed by the playoff official in that era when the NFL system presaged the one that the NCAA would adopt 18 years later. All five reviews in the playoff game went the Vikings' way.
  After an INT, the Vikings started a long drive that carried into the final quar­ter.

• Q4: The eight-minute-29 second drive ended with Nelson's 19y FG. Vikings 37 Saints 10
  During the timeout for the two-minute warning, the fans that remained gave their boys a loud cheer to celebrate what was by far the best season in Saints history.
  Rookie QB Rich Gannon took over the Minnesota offense in the last minutes and led them 52y to a 1st-and-goal from the 8. On the next play, Dozier ran straight up the middle through multiple tacklers into the EZ. Vikings 44 Saints 10 (1:46)
  When the game ended, owner Tom Benson boogied across the field as if the team had won. He said he did it just to thank the fans for their support and acknowledge that, hey, we've had a great year.

• Total yardage: Vikings 417, Saints 149
• Time of possession: Vikings 41:18 minutes, Saints 18:42.
• Carter had almost as many yards on punt returns (143) as New Orleans did in offense. The talented WR also had six catches for 79y.
• The Saints ran the ball just 14 times, two of which came when Hebert was chased from the pocket.
• The 45 offensive plays were the fewest in Mora's two years as head coach.

Postgame Comments

New Orleans

• NT Tony Elliott assessed the shipwreck better than any media analyst could. Normally, our defense is great against the run, but today they ran all over us. Normally, our offense moves the ball and controls the clock. Today, the other team moved the ball and controlled the clock. Normally, our special teams are the best in the business. And right off the bat, that guy goes 84 yards on a punt. So to pinpoint where we broke down, there's offense, defense, and special teams. And that's all there is.
• Mora: I want to start out by giving a lot of credit to the Minnesota Vikings. They played extremely well and manhandled us pretty good. They soundly beat us. ... We got hurt early with the punt that hit Mel and then the punt return for the touchdown. Those were two big plays for them. ... When there were three or four minutes left, I thought we still had a slight chance. I never give up on this team. ... The loss was disappointing, but I'm not at all disappointed in our team. We had the second-best record in the National Football League. We had a lot of good times, and we did some things for this organization and this city and this state that have never been done before. We just picked a bad day here to play poorly. ... We need to get better in some areas. If we continue to work in the off-season, we can be a good team again next year.
• Asked if the lack of playoff experience - not one Saints player had ever been in a playoff game before - caused his club to be overwhelmed, Mora replied: That doesn't amount to a hill of beans. Reacting to the same question, LB Ricky Jackson said, I don't think it was that, but it was sure something. The 12 wins and the great regular season mean nothing. Not when it ends like this. We got our butts kicked. OT Stan Brock echoed those sentiments. No way. We were ready to play this game. This was our shot at it. They just beat us. They have a great football team, and they just stuck it to us. It's hard to talk about what a great year we had after getting beat that bad. We had a lot of dreams riding on this game, and they were shattered at one time. Shattered big. This was our shot. We didn't take advantage of it. Reflecting on his rookie season when the Saints went 1-15, Stan said, This hurts but not as bad as 1980.
• Dave Wilson: Nobody took the Vikings lightly. You've got to give Minnesota credit. They have a heck of a team, and they played well. The main thing the Vikings did differently today was play a lot of zone. ... Their pass rush was ... the major factor. They put a lot of heat on us back there.
• Waymer: You just have to give those guys credit. They played the type of ball that we played over the last nine weeks.
• Edelman: You get in trouble when you're down by 10 or 20 points to a good pass rushing team. They knew we'd pass, and they just came after us.
• Mills on the Vikings: They aren't very consistent. One week, they're the best team in the NFL. The next, they play like they're in the lower third of the league.
• Sidwell: The big problem we had in the second half was we could not stop the run or the pass. You're always in trouble when that happens.
• Jackson: This game was for the whole city. They supported us, and it was our turn to support them. But we didn't do it. Today, we went out and let the people down. ... We played like crap.
• Poe: I'll remember the good times. This will always be in the back of my head. But I'll do my best to remember the good times.

Minnesota

• Carter: Who dat goin' home for six months. ... We had a lot of negativism dis­played by the Minnesota fans in letters and remarks by the press. This game gave us the opportunity to prove the fans and the press wrong.
• Burns on the 5'11" 174 lb Carter: This game was a one-game shootout, and AC is a big-play guy. He's handled punts before. He's got nerves of steel. There's nothing about football he doesn't know. I always said the good lord expected AC to do everything in football. He judt didn't give him the body. ... Anthony Carter is a big-game player. We'll use him on punt returns again next week. We didn't use him on them during the season because we didn't want to wear him out. He is a special person, on and off the field.
• Jordan: We'd seen something in the papers where the Saints said they didn't think they'd have to double-cover AC. That's ridiculous. ... Everybody said ... we shouldn't even be in the playoffs ... Now we're rolling into Frisco like gangbus­ters. And you know what? They can be beat too.
• OT Tim Irwin: I'm from the South. So I've heard "Who dat?" before. I think they know "who dat?" is now.
• Nelson: This game was the best complete game of the season for us. ... This game shows that we deserve to be here. The (Minnesota) fans sent us letters saying that we didn't deserve to be here. But we showed them.
• Millard: It got to the ponit where he (Edelman) had to hold me to block me. I don't want to take anything away from him. He's a good player and is in the Pro Bowl. But I hadn't played in three weeks, and nobody could have blocked me today. ... We had something to prove. They said we backed into the playoffs. We had to show that we were a playoff team and that we deserved to be here. ... The pressure was on us (the last games of the regular season), and we kept blowing it. ... Today all the pressure was on the Saints. Nobody thought we'd win, but we knew we had a better team. We knew they liked to play conservative - Jim Mora's teams were always that way in the USFL (where Millard also played, along with 11 of the 1987 Pro Bowlers). Once we got ahead, they couldn't do that anymore.
• Doleman, who had a sack and a fumble recovery: Our defense really got going, and we didn't let the Saints settle down and do the things they normally do. We didn't let them think they were in control. We had to do three things: one, take the crowd out of the game; two, stop their running game; three, make them throw the long ball. Mission accomplished. Football is basically 11 fistfights. Win 10 of them, you can win the game. We won 11 of them today.
• OG David Huffman adopted a different tone. I really don't know why we were able to come in here and do what we did today. What happened in the second half did enough to take the crowd out of the game. But, after what happened the last month of the season and what happened today, I'd give everyone on this team a drug test. ... I don't think they took us lightly. I mean, they didn't think we were a bunch of geeks. Things just happened right for us all day.
• Burns laughed when informed of Huffman's comment. Maybe so, but that's not what happened. This was the best game we've played all season. Everybody did what they were supposed to do. We put everything together ... That's what happened, and it hadn't happened all season like that. We just picked the right time to do it.
• D-coordinator Floyd Peters: The plan was to stop the run. It was kinda funny, but the offense really helped us do that. The further the game went along, the less likely the Saints would run. We had just too many points on the board for them to use the things they like to do - that's run the ball down your throat and take a lot of time doing it ... then dink and dunk passes down the field and beat your defense to death. Stopping the run is football's first rule, and we knew if we couldn't handle the Saints' run we'd be in trouble. The linebackers did that and allowed the linemen to take over and pressure the QB. That great line pressure is what forced the four interceptions.
• Kramer: We came into the game with the attitude that we have nothing to lose. We made the big plays and, being so far ahead in the game, we came out in the second half doing pretty much what we wanted.
• Jones on the Hail Mary: Those things are not going to work very often. But every now and then they do.