When the NFL playoff bracket came out last week, Anthony Carter noticed something familiar.

The former Minnesota receiver saw the Vikings would open the postseason as underdogs at New Orleans, and if they pulled an upset would be underdogs at San Francisco.

“I said to my wife (Kimberly) then, ‘I hope they can take the same path that we did in 1987,’ ” Carter said Monday.

The Vikings are halfway there.

Minnesota upset the Saints, 26-20, in overtime on Sunday to earn the right to play the NFC’s top-seeded team on Saturday in Santa Clara, Calif.

In the 1987 playoffs, the Vikings were seeded last in the NFC at No. 5 and won a wild-card game 44-10 at No. 4 seed New Orleans after being a 6½-point underdog. An 11-point underdog the following week, the Vikings beat the top-seeded 49ers, 36-24, at Candlestick Park.

The sixth and last seed, the Vikings, who went 10-6 in the regular season, were 7½-point underdogs Sunday to the third-seeded Saints, who went 13-3. Minnesota is now a 6½-point underdog to the 49ers (13-3).

“The timing is pretty much the same as it was back then, and now they get a chance to go to San Francisco,” Carter said. “It’s a lot of fun. I hope everything works out.”

Carter will watch Saturday’s game at his home in Lake Worth, Fla., and won’t be surprised if he sees some highlights from his team’s upset of the 49ers on Jan. 9, 1988. Many could be of him. Carter had 10 receptions for a then-playoff record 227 yards. He also had 30-yard run.

“I was just on fire that day,” said Carter, who played for the Vikings from 1985-93. “Nobody gave us a chance in that game and we went out and shocked the world.”

The Vikings had gone 8-7 in a season that was shortened a game because of a strike (Minnesota’s replacement team went 0-3). The 49ers, who had won Super Bowls after the 1981 and 1984 seasons — and would add championships after the 1988, 1989 and 1994 seasons — had gone 13-2.

San Francisco featured future hall of famers in head coach Bill Walsh, quarterbacks Joe Montana and Steve Young, wide receiver Jerry Rice, safety Ronnie Lott and defensive end Charles Haley.

“Nobody thought we could beat them, including them, and I think we caught them off guard a little bit,” said Keith Millard, then a Vikings defensive tackle. “But we came into the game thinking we had nothing to lose, and I think that made us loose.”

Minnesota stunned the 49ers by taking a 20-3 halftime lead and continued to pour it on. Quarterback Wade Wilson, who completed 20 of 34 passes for 298 yards, found Carter throughout the game. Cornerback Najee Mustafaa picked off a Montana pass late in the first half and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown.

In the second half, Montana was benched in favor of Young, who had a pass intercepted by cornerback Carl Lee. Lee played tight coverage all afternoon on Rice, who finished with just three catches for 28 yards.

“People still talk about that game with me to this day, and I think there is going to be a lot of talk now about it this week,’’ said Lee, who played with the Vikings from 1983-93.

Lee said after Vikings upset the Saints on Sunday, he got a text from Vencie Glenn, a Minnesota safety from 1992-94.

“He said, ‘I guarantee you they’re going to be playing a lot of clips from that ’87 game with San Francisco now because it’s the same situation you guys were in before,’’’ Lee said.

Lee, Carter and Millard are hoping the Vikings can make history repeat at San Francisco.

“As soon as they beat the Saints, I was thinking, ‘Oh, boy, here we go again,’ ” said Millard, who lives near San Francisco in Dublin, Calif. “I think 49ers fans are thinking they’re going to take it all the way to the Super Bowl, and don’t think people are giving us a whole lot of credit — the same way they weren’t giving us a lot of credit in 1987.” Related Articles Vikings place Pat Elflein on IR; Cameron Dantzler misses second straight practice

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Millard, who played for Minnesota from 1985-91, will attend a team function in the San Francisco Bay Area on Friday night and on Saturday, by choice, will watch the game at home on television. If the Vikings pull an upset, Millard will then root for them to do even more than the 1987 team.

The week after the win at San Francisco, the Vikings lost 17-10 at Washington in the NFC Championship Game. Washington went on to crush Denver, 42-10, in Super Bowl XXII.

“That loss was really disappointing because of the way we had played in those first two games,” Millard said. “The two teams that we played before them were better than the Redskins. I don’t know, maybe we went in with a little too much confidence.”

Carter agrees that the 1987 Vikings “didn’t finish the job.” For now, he’ll be pulling hard for them on Saturday.

“Hopefully, they will shock the world again,” he said.