Philadelphia Eagles 38, Minnesota Vikings 7: Vikings crash and burn in Philly

When most fans of the Minnesota Vikings woke up on Sunday morning, they had to think that their favorite football team had a shot to host a Super Bowl on their home field for the first time in NFL history.

It looked promising for about five minutes. . .and was pretty much all downhill after that.

The Vikings spent the 2017 NFC Championship Game getting their collective rear ends kicked up one side of Lincoln Financial Field and down the other for fifty-five of the game’s sixty minutes, falling to the Philadelphia Eagles by a final score of

Minnesota got on the board first in this one, as they took the opening kickoff and marched it right down the field against the Philadelphia defense. After some very good running from the duo of Latavius Murray and Jerick McKinnon, the drive concluded with Case Keenum lofting a beautiful pass to Kyle Rudolph for a 25-yard touchdown. Kai Forbath added the extra point, and the purple had staked themselves to an early 7-0 lead.

Philadelphia then got on the board via the defense, as Keenum was hit on a pass he was attempting to get to Adam Thielen, and the ball floated to Eagles’ cornerback Patrick Robinson. Robinson weaved his way through Minnesota’s offense and avoided tacklers on his way into the end zone for a 50-yard interception return. Jake Elliott added the extra point, and we were tied at 7-7.

The Eagles added another touchdown to start the second quarter, as LeGarrette Blount took a handoff from 11 yards out and ran through Andrew Sendejo on his way to the end zone. Elliott added the extra point, and the home team was ahead for the first time in the contest by a score of 14-7.

Philadelphia put the next score on the board late in the second quarter, as Foles managed to avoid a sack by Everson Griffen and lofted one to a wide open Alshon Jeffery for a 53-yard touchdown. With a minute remaining in the quarter, the Vikings found themselves trailing by a score of 21-7.

The Eagles managed to squeeze in a few more points at the end of the first half, as more defensive lapses by the Vikings allowed the Eagles to get into position for a 38-yard field goal by Elliott to make it 24-7 at the half.

Philadelphia continued pouring it on at the start of the second half, scoring a touchdown off of the old flea flicker play. Foles handed the ball to Corey Clement, who flipped it back to Foles, and Foles then launched it deep for Torrey Smith, who hauled it in for a 41-yard touchdown. That made it 31-7, and it was pretty much all over but the crying at that point.

The Eagles tacked on another touchdown early in the fourth quarter, as Foles found Jeffery for the second time on the evening, this time from five yards out to make it 38-7. That closed out the scoring in this one, as the Vikings went down to their worst postseason loss since their 41-0 thrashing at the hands of the New York Giants in the 2000 NFC Championship Game.

I won’t bore you with the statistical rundown, since it really doesn’t matter. The Vikings got destroyed in pretty much every facet of the game in this one. . .offensively, defensively, everywhere.

The Eagles advance to take on the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII in two weeks at U.S. Bank Stadium. The Vikings’ season ends with a final record of 14-4 and a lot of questions that will need to be answered this offseason.

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