The 2010 NFL season didn't have a lot of positive memories for the Minnesota Vikings, what with the team falling apart fairly early in the season, and the team's stadium falling apart later on. One of the more unusual occurrences came during Week 16 of the season. As the Philadelphia Eagles were still in the thick of the NFC playoff hunt, competing for a first-round bye, their game with the Vikings got flexed into the Sunday night prime time slot.
Well, the weather in Philadelphia turned out to be terrible on Sunday night, so the game got moved to Monday night. Then, the weather managed to be even more terrible on Monday night, so the NFL got ready for their first Tuesday night game since 1946. I'm not going to lie. . .I was expecting a butt-kicking of biblical proportions that night. Thanks to injuries to Brett Favre and Tarvaris Jackson, the Vikings were being led by rookie Joe Webb, the Eagles looked like one of the NFC's stronger team, and everything was conspiring to make things a long night for the Vikings.
But Vikings' defensive coordinator Fred Pagac had a brilliant defensive plan. His plan was "I'm going to line Antoine Winfield up in the slot and send him after Michael Vick on pretty much every damn play until the Eagles do something about it." The funny thing was. . .they never did. And it cost them just before halftime.
So, the Vikings went into the locker room at halftime tied with the Eagles at 7. They took the lead in the second half on a Ryan Longwell field goal, and extended that lead thanks to an amazing play by the young quarterback.
(We now have the proper play isolated. Big props to izziefans for cutting it up for us!)
Thanks to Webb's amazing athletic ability, and the tenacity of Antoine Winfield, the Vikings pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the 2010 season by a final score of 24-14. Like I said, there wasn't much to cheer about in 2010 for the Beloved Purple, but that one certainly was something.