Thursday marks the third anniversary of the Minnesota Vikings pulling off an improbable upset over the New Orleans Saints in the 2019 playoffs.
Despite winning 10 games during the regular season and having their offense and defense both rank among the NFL’s top-10 units, no one expected the Minnesota Vikings to defeat the New Orleans Saints during the opening round of the 2019 playoffs. But that’s exactly what the Vikings did.
The Saints were a 7.5-point favorite in the matchup, but that clearly didn’t matter to Minnesota. In another classic postseason battle between the two non-divisional rivals, the Vikings crushed the championship dreams of New Orleans.
Now, as is the case with most of the games between these two franchises, the result did come with some controversy. But Minnesota was the team that came out on top with the 26-20 win, so we’ll just have to side with the refs on the call they didn’t make at the end of the contest.
Dalvin Cook leads Minnesota Vikings to an upset over the New Orleans Saints in the 2019 playoffs
Dealing with a shoulder injury that caused him to miss the final two games of the 2019 regular season, Vikings running back Dalvin Cook had a performance to remember in the playoffs against the Saints.
Cook wound up scoring two touchdowns and gaining 130 total yards on 31 touches. Minnesota utilized their running back as much as possible against New Orleans, and the strategy resulted in an unexpected victory for the purple and gold.
The game-winning touchdown pass from Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins to tight end Kyle Rudolph in overtime is the play that likely stands out to most people from this game. But that score probably wouldn’t have even been possible if not for the work put in by Cook out on the field throughout the entire matchup.
Speaking of Cousins, this win over the Saints is still the only playoff victory for the quarterback in his NFL career. It was certainly a matchup to remember, but he would definitely like to add some more postseason success to his resume.
Perhaps Cousins can help Minnesota earn a few playoff wins this year when the postseason begins next week?