A locker room that had been so joyous for so much of the season fell into a solemn hush on Sunday night, now that there was no escape from the cold finality so many Vikings players hoped they would not have to face.
Players talked barely above a whisper, about the plays they could have made in the Vikings' 31-24 loss to the Giants and the uncertainty the wild-card defeat injected into their futures. Kevin O'Connell, the first-year coach who wove themes of togetherness through 13 victory speeches this season, made an emotional valedictory speech to players who were almost certainly sharing the home locker room at U.S. Bank Stadium for the final time.
"It's one of the closest connected groups in the entire NFL," O'Connell said. "There's real tears in there. There's real guys that expected to really have a chance to win a world championship."
The Vikings believed they might get that chance, that an esprit de corps might be enough to transcend yearlong flaws on defense, that an 11-0 record in one-score games had equipped them with the resourcefulness they'd need in the playoffs. But in their first, and final, one-score loss of the season, the Vikings fell for reasons that were crushingly simple.
They had no answer for Giants quarterback Daniel Jones, who became the first quarterback in NFL history with 300 passing yards, two passing touchdowns and 70 rushing yards in a playoff game. After Kirk Cousins completed four passes to Justin Jefferson on a game-opening touchdown drive that sent U.S. Bank Stadium into a frenzy, the NFL's leading receiver caught just three passes the rest of the way and wasn't targeted once in the fourth quarter, as the Giants quieted him with the double teams and press coverage techniques that became commonplace late in the season.
A defense that gave up big plays for much of the year allowed five of 20 yards or more. A pass rush that too often went quiet managed only four hits on Jones, while the Giants hit Cousins 11 times. New York went 7-for-13 on third downs; Minnesota was four of 10, including a puzzling first-quarter Jefferson-to-Cousins throwback pass that lost 2 yards on a third-and-1. The Vikings had a chance to tie the score with a touchdown drive in the final two minutes; their season ended when Cousins, feeling he was about to be sacked, threw short to T.J. Hockenson on fourth-and-8.
"This is probably the toughest loss I've had in my career," said Cousins, who completed 31 of his 39 passes for 273 yards and two touchdowns. "It hurts. It hurts."
A pent-up crowd, which had waited five years for a home playoff game, stewed for an extra 10 minutes as the NFL delayed kickoff so the Bills-Dolphins game could finish. When given the OK to start their pregame production, the Vikings accentuated their typical bombast with some new touches.
Hall of Fame defensive tackle John Randle was the first person out of the Vikings' tunnel, microphone in hand. The Vikings had right tackle Brian O'Neill, out for the season because of a partially torn Achilles, blow the Gjallarhorn with his right foot in a walking boot. And a clinical opening march, capped by a Cousins quarterback sneak for a touchdown, further whipped the crowd into a frenzy.
When the Giants came out for their first drive, the U.S. Bank Stadium video board displayed Giants guard Nick Gates' quote from last week about how Midwestern people were too nice to be loud alongside a noise meter that touched 123 decibels.
Jones made sure the noise would rarely reach those levels again.
After a holding penalty wiped out a Barkley run on the first play, Jones led the Giants 85 yards in the next five plays, scrambling for 22 of those yards and finding Richie James and Darius Slayton for completions over the middle. The Giants tied the score on a pitch to Barkley that the running back took 28 yards for a touchdown.
The Vikings approached midfield on their next drive when officials marked Alexander Mattison a yard short of a first down the Vikings initially believed he'd reached. O'Connell called for Jefferson's throwback to Cousins on third-and-1, dialing up a play the Vikings had worked on last week with a belief it could yield a big play. But the Giants didn't present the look the Vikings wanted, and when Minnesota stuck with the play, New York tackled Cousins for a 2-yard loss.
"That's part of taking risks," O'Connell said. "No different than a fake punt. No different than some things in that situation. They defended the play well, and you've got to give them credit. Not a play call that I particularly loved, but it's easy to say that when it does not work."
The Giants scored four plays later. They finished the first quarter with 166 yards of offense; Jones threw for 100 yards while completing all five of his passes.
They stretched their lead to 17-7 in the second quarter with a 20-play, 85-yard drive that took 10:52 off the clock. Jones carried seven times on the drive, tormenting a Vikings defense that crashed his handoffs and left space open on the backside for him to keep the ball on zone read plays.
The Vikings spent the rest of the day frantically trying to catch up. They pulled within three on a Cousins-to-K.J. Osborn touchdown before halftime; the Giants took five plays to drive for a touchdown at the beginning of the third quarter. Cousins hit Irv Smith Jr. for a 3-yard touchdown that put the Vikings within a field goal, and one of defensive coordinator Ed Donatell's few blitzes of the day gave them the ball with a chance to take the lead.
But early in the fourth quarter, left tackle Christian Darrisaw, who'd been penalized only three times all season, committed a false start from the Giants' 15 before Cousins' fourth-down sneak, and the Vikings had to settle for a game-tying field goal instead of driving for a go-ahead touchdown.
The Giants marched 75 yards in 12 plays for the decisive touchdown — a 2-yard Barkley run — on the next drive. The Vikings went three-and out on their next possession.
The Vikings got the ball again with 2:56 left. But Cousins' final pass on fourth-and-8, on a play where he'd hoped to hit Jefferson up the seam, went to Hockenson after the Giants' double team made it so Cousins "didn't feel good" about trying the receiver downfield. O'Connell went to console the quarterback on the sideline, which led to an animated discussion.
"I just felt like I was about to get sacked and I felt like I've got to put the ball in play," Cousins said. "I can't go down with a sack, so I thought I'd kick it out to T.J. I had thrown short of the sticks on a few occasions in the game. It's obviously tight coverage, so [he] didn't have the chance to pull away."
The quarterback and head coach will have a long offseason to ponder what could have been, after a season few expected would produce 13 wins and the first home playoff game since the Minneapolis Miracle.
A Vikings team that has specialized in unforgettable finishes seemed like a worthy heir to that one. Playoff football, though, sometimes has a cruel way of treating dreamers.
"It is most likely the last time this whole team plays together as one," Jefferson said. "It is really just about who is in this locker room, the amount of memories we had together. It's tough that it had to end this way."
