Should the Minnesota Vikings cut Blair Walsh

The game kicked off with a temperature of minus-6 degrees, tied for the third-coldest game in National Football League history.

The Vikings pulled themselves off the mat and marched downfield in the final two minutes of the game to put kicker Blair Walsh in position to boot a 27-yard field goal that would advance the Vikings to the divisional round of the playoffs.

What most people will not have heard was what came after the game. It was a good snap, actually….

Walsh said, “It’s all the same”. “I kind of knew right away”.

Minnesota Vikings defensive end Everson Griffen (97) tackles as Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson (3) tries to throw a pass during the second half of an NFL wild-card football game, Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016, in Minneapolis.

Rodgers turned things around in the second quarter, twice catching Washington with too many men on the field.

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer was in no mood to sugarcoat the miss for Walsh.

This was a fittingly frigid finish for Minnesota’s two-year stint outdoors at the University of Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium during construction of the new covered downtown stadium. Now they would be left to wonder what might have been heading into another long, uncertain offseason. “We don’t get an opportunity to continue to do that”.

There is a lot about Sunday’s game that the Vikings will need some time to get over.

Their defense smothered the Seahawks, their offense moved the chains and shortened the game, and the Vikings took advantage of turnovers, penalties and a special teams gaffe to build a 9-0 lead that felt nearly insurmountable.

After a shotgun snap flew over his left shoulder, Wilson chased down the ball 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage and slid to his knees to scoop it up. Doug Baldwin stared in amazement on the sideline at Jermaine Kearse.

“We’re fortunate. Very fortunate to get that”, said Russell Wilson, who was 13 for 26 for 146 yards with a touchdown and an interception. And the crowd at TCF Bank Stadium, bracing for what was about to come, became eerily quiet.

The Vikings (11-6) took the ball back with 1:42 left at their 39 and, aided by a pass interference penalty on Kam Chancellor, drove deep into Seattle’s territory.

Walsh added further field goals from 43 and 47 yards in the third quarter to give the Vikings a 9-0 lead, meaning the Seahawks needed to score twice to win the game.

After the first two went nowhere, the Vikings finally got something going in the game’s final two minutes. Seattle had 97 yards on 28 carries Sunday.

When the Vikings got the ball back, quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, who completed 17 of 24 passes for 146 yards, found Peterson on a 5-yard pass and then for an 8-yard connection for what looked to be a first down. The Vikings led by Randy Moss and Randall Cunningham went 15-1 in the regular season, and Anderson went 94 for 94 on field goals attempts and extra points, becoming the first kicker to go a full season without missing.

“It’s my fault”, Walsh said. I’m the only one who didn’t do his job. “But when he went back to his locker and sat down (and reported) he just didn’t feel it”, Carroll said.

The win in the NFC first-round game means the Packers will have a chance to avenge their humiliating 38-3 defeat to the Cardinals on December 27.

Peterson said he doesn’t view the 2015 season as a success because of the way it ended. “But that’s my first time playing in the cold like this, so I heard it but I really didn’t know how true it was”. They surely could have beaten anyone left in the NFC playoffs had the Vikings just won that game.

And remember, the Packers, still in the playoffs, have Jordy Nelson among other coming back from injury.