The NFL season is moving along quickly, entering week 14 already. This week, we honed in on a matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and Atlanta Falcons, who meet on this week’s schedule, to find a game to highlight for Throwback Thursday. It was the NFC Championship game for the 1998 season, played on January 7, 1999. It was a fairy tale regular season for coach Dennis Green’s Vikings, who were near perfect in finishing 15-1. Atlanta wasn’t far behind at 14-2, so that made for an evenly-matched contest in the title game. The first quarter was a wash as both teams scored, the Falcons on a short 5 yard pass from Chris Chandler to back Jamal Anderson, and the Vikings on a 31 yard Randall Cunningham to Randy Moss throw.
Minnesota, behind their raucous home crowd at the Hubert Humphrey Metrodome, took over the game in the second stanza. Gary Anderson sandwiched field goals around a 1 yard Cunningham QB sneak to pull ahead 20-7. Atlanta salvaged the period by cobbling together a drive that ended with Chandler finding Terance Mathis for a 14 yard score with 59 seconds left, shortening the deficit to 20-14. Morten Andersen, Atlanta’s kicker, provided the only third quarter scoring with a field goal, but in the final quarter Cunningham widened his team’s lead to 27-17 with a touchdown pass of 5 yards to Matthew Hatchette. Morten Andersen kicked another field goal to keep the game close, but with just a few minutes remaining, the Vikings had a chance to salt the game away when Gary Anderson entered to attempt a 38 yard field goal. Anderson had been perfect on every one of his three point tries in ’98, so this seemed to be a lock.
Of course Anderson missed the kick. This fueled the Falcons to drive to a tying touchdown with 57 seconds left on another Chandler to Mathis pass of 16 yards, almost mirroring the TD they scored with less than a minute left in the first half. The touchdown sent the game into overtime, where, after failed possessions by both teams, Morten Andersen booted a 38 yard field goal to send Atlanta on to the Super Bowl. A huge disappointing end and a lost opportunity for Minnesota, a franchise that bears the burden of also losing the Super Bowl 4 different times.
Gary Anderson watches his missed field goal