MINNEAPOLIS — “Bring it home,” has been the Vikings’ motto for the playoffs, which speaks to the opportunity the franchise has to be the first team to play in a Super Bowl in its home venue. It turns from a catchy slogan to put on towels to an objective Sunday, when the Vikings travel to Philadelphia for the NFC Championship.
The winner will represent the conference in Super Bowl LII at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. If the Vikings need any added incentive, the chance to play for the Vince Lombardi Trophy in front of their raucous fans should provide it.
“That’s the plan,” running back Latavius Murray said. “We’ve known that all year. But we know we can’t look forward. We have to take care of one game at a time — the divisional playoffs and now the NFC Championship. I’m excited for the opportunity.”
The Vikings get the chance to reach the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1976 season thanks to what’s being called “The Minneapolis Miracle” — Stefon Diggs’ 61-yard touchdown catch-and-run on the final play of the Vikings’ 29-24 victory over the Saints on Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Don’t blame the Vikings if it takes them a couple of days to come down from cloud nine after a thrilling win.
“At times, you have to be able to celebrate an unbelievable play like this,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said. “This team is pretty well grounded. They’ll get back to what they do. They know we’re going to have a tough task in Philadelphia. Last time we played there, we didn’t play that great.”
The Vikings were unbeaten five games into the 2016 season when they traveled to Philadelphia. They were beaten 21-10 as the Eagles took advantage of a 98-yard kickoff return by Josh Huff and four turnovers by the Vikings to roll to a 21-3 lead that never was challenged. The Vikings also were watching when the top-seeded Eagles beat the Falcons 15-10 Saturday in the other NFC divisional playoff game.
“They run hard, they have a good receiving corps, running back corps, and they have great defense,” cornerback Xavier Rhodes said. “We’ll have to go down there and play hard.”
“We know how tough the atmosphere is going to be,” running back Jerick McKinnon said. “We’re going to enjoy the heck out of [beating the Saints], but we need to get everything together because it is going to be a tough one [this] week.”
It will be hard to shake the Vikings’ confidence after pulling out a game like they did Sunday. They were down 24-23 with 10 seconds left and on their own 39 when Diggs caught a pass, made a defender miss and ran untouched into the end zone. The state of Minnesota still is celebrating.
“We have a lot of faith in this locker room,” wide receiver Adam Thielen said. “We know that nobody is going to quit and nobody’s going to give up. We know that we have to fight until the end, and I think that’s something Coach Zimmer instilled in us a long time ago when he got here. Any time you have the ball in your hands, you don’t know what’s going to happen. We just took advantage of the opportunity.”
Stefon Diggs is a household name now, with the highlight of his catch going viral. T-shirts already are on sale depicting his famous catch. Diggs isn’t going to shy away from the spotlight, but knows “Bring it home” isn’t complete yet.
“We’re going to Philly, but I don’t care where we play,” he said. “I’m just happy we have another opportunity to put some good stuff on tape, clean up the mistakes and go out there and do what we’ve got to do to win. I don’t care how we do it. I just want to win.”
So does Zimmer, who is in his fourth season as the Vikings head coach.
“To get a chance to play in the NFC Championship game is pretty darn good,” he said.