Blair Walsh was a gimme putt away. A layup. A bunt.
And he missed.
Walsh hooked a last-second, 27-yard field goal, leaving the Minnesota Vikings one point shy of the Seattle Seahawks in Sunday’s NFC Wild Card game. It would have been Walsh’s fourth field goal of the game.
It allowed Seattle to win with a 10-point fourth quarter, which led Seattle to advance to Carolina next week.
Sunday’s game was the third-coldest game in NFL playoff history, with temperatures at minus-6 when the game began. It would have finished warm enough for the Vikings, however, if they had finished their last drive. The Vikings went 52 yards before Baldwin kicked into the laces.
Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson, who led the league in rushing, carried only 23 times for 45 yards.
In all, the Vikings had only 58 yards rushing, Seattle had only 97.
Neither Russell Wilson nor Teddy Bridgewater had great days throwing the ball in the elements. Bridgewater had only 146 yards throwing and Wilson had 142. But Wilson had a 3-yard scoring pass to Doug Baldwin with 11:37 left to play, and Steven Haushka kicked the winning 46-yard field goal with 8:09 left to play.
