The Minnesota Vikings and the New York Giants faced off this year on Christmas Eve, and they provided us with the gift of a thrilling football game. Now, they’re set to face off in the first round of the 2023 NFL Playoffs with a trip to the divisional round on the line.
The Vikings, champions of the NFC North and the third seed in this year’s NFC playoffs, will host the sixth-seeded Giants on Wild Card Weekend.
These two teams met in Week 16 in a back-and-forth affair that ended with Greg Joseph draining a franchise-record 61-yard field goal at the final gun to give the Vikings a 27-24 victory in Minneapolis in Week 16. The Giants secured a Wild Card berth a week later, giving them an opportunity to get even with Minnesota in the postseason.
This will be the fourth time that the Vikings and Giants have met in the playoffs, but the first time it will be taking place in Minneapolis. The Vikings lost to the Giants in the Wild Card round in 1994 by a score of 17-10 and in the NFC Championship Game in 2000, the infamous “41-donut” game.
Minnesota’s lone playoff victory over the Giants came on Wild Card Weekend in 1997, as the Vikings overcame a 16-point halftime deficit and a nine-point disadvantage in the fourth quarter to sneak past the Giants by a score of 23-22 at the Meadowlands.
This will be just the second playoff game played at U.S. Bank Stadium, and the first one in five years. The only other playoff game in the Vikings’ beautiful home took place in the Divisional Round against the New Orleans Saints back in January of 2018, a game that ended with the “Minneapolis Miracle” sending the Vikings to the NFC Championship Game.
The folks at the DK Sportsbook have established the Vikings as an early 3-point favorite in this game. The over/under for this one has not yet been established.
Kickoff for this one is slated for 3:30 PM Central time on Sunday afternoon, 15 January. Leading up to Sunday’s game, this will be the one place where we’ll have all of our stories relating to this game collected so you can more easily find them.