Look at those faces......sheer elation and/or disbelief......it's kind of how we all felt, right?
I know that's how I felt. Yesterday was enough to even wash away the cynicism and bitterness that has grown inside me over the 20 years of being a Vikings fan and enduring new ways of having our hearts broken........nay, our hearts pulled out of our chest, stomped and then thrown in a gutter to be washed down into the sewer system. Yeah, I think that about sums it up.
I hate to be this way, but it's how I've been conditioned to feel. I was driving to the Xcel Energy Center to work the Wild game. Then once there kept an eye on the game. Honestly, it played out exactly the way I thought it would. Look like absolute world beaters in the first half. Utter domination. Then, second half, just completely collapse and come unraveled. Sure, credit due to the Saints. You've seen this game. Scoring at all. Then, suddenly, it's like climbing Mount Everest to muster a field goal and, of course, with 30 some seconds on the clock, the Saints.....as if scripted by some higher power that can't stand purple....kick the sure to be game winning field goal.
Nope.
Not yesterday.
I think that's what made the "miracle" even more improbable (even though everything I just laid out is some intangible that can't be quantified or, perhaps, even legitimized) and that much sweeter. It's that some of us expect the brutal defeat. We expect a untimely interception or blocked punt. I mean, when they blocked that punt, kid you not, with one eye on the game, I paused briefly, watched the replay, nodded my head and to myself said, "yep" and moved on knowing what the outcome would be. Until it wasn't. And it was pretty damned fun.