MINNEAPOLIS — The purple clad ranks were still in their seats, although for what no one was quite sure. A couple plays earlier they’d tried to muster up a “Skol” clap and chant but it petered out. Then there was a “Let’s Go Vikings” but it didn’t last.

The scoreboard read New Orleans 24, Minnesota 23 with 10 seconds left. The Vikings had blown leads of 17-0 and, most painfully, 23-21, and now Case Keenum was trying to orchestrate some kind of miracle but he was mostly throwing ducks around U.S. Bank Stadium. The Vikings were at their own 39. Too far for a Hail Mary, let alone a field goal. This is what failure in progress seemingly looked like.

If 66,000 or so Vikings fans seemed resolved to defeat, no one could blame them. They remained anyway. Maybe because it was cold outside. Maybe because this had been such a likeable team. Maybe because this is what you do as a Minnesota fan, you watch disasters unfold. Might as well face reality. It’ll toughen the heart, or something.

Maybe a few still believed, still believed the Vikings could deliver some long pass play, get out of bounds and boot a field goal to advance to the NFC championship game against Philadelphia. Maybe.

There was no earthly reason to do so, though.

In the huddle Keenum called “Seven Heaven,” which they’d already run twice that game and once that possession. Only this time, with a big chunk needed, he assumed he’d need to throw it to the high receiver, in this case a daring throw to Stefon Diggs.

View photos Vikings wide receiver Stefon Diggs (14) makes a catch over Saints free safety Marcus Williams (43) on his way to the game-winning touchdown Sunday in Minneapolis. The Vikings defeated the Saints 29-24. (AP) More

The Vikings have practiced Seven Heaven “a million times” this year, receiver Jarius Wright said. That was the good news. The bad? How often does Diggs catch it when it’s thrown to him?

“Never,” Wright said. “He never gets it.”

Keenum is an undrafted, twice-waived, once-traded former practice player who began his career by going 0-8 as a starter. Diggs is an undersized former fifth-round pick who wasn’t even activated for the first three games of his career. They play for a franchise where “people say we are going to blow it,” Diggs said.

And they were blowing it. At that point, what the heck, right? There were no good options. The Saints were in outside zone coverage, “protecting the sidelines,” coach Sean Payton said.

Keenum saw the play develop and saw a sliver of daylight for Diggs along the right sideline. It wasn’t much.

He stepped up in the pocket and threw it from his own 31. It went 35 yards in the air. The ball was high but Diggs rose up for it. There was, for an instant, a hush, like everyone was calculating time and distance. Diggs was going to catch it. He was going to land at about the Saints 34. That alone would be incredible. Even then he needed to get out of bounds to stop the clock. And doing that would still require a 51-yard field goal. Anything else and the game is over, though. Vikings lose. Again.

Stefon Diggs knew it. He also knew, or thought he knew, he was about to get clocked by Saints safety Marcus Williams.

“I was preparing for contact,” Diggs said. He was trying to figure out how he could somehow contort his body and land out of bounds.

Only there was no contact. “Nobody touched me,” Diggs said.

Williams didn’t want to commit pass interference is how the Saints explained it. He mistimed and read the throw and thought hitting Diggs might cause that. As such, he went both low and then to the side, which was the worst possible decision. Had he either blasted him or just sat back, let Diggs land, and then wrapped him up, the Saints win. Instead he avoided Diggs altogether.

“I knew the situation,” Williams said. “You have to make sure you make the play.”

He didn’t make the play. He didn’t make any play, actually.

“The play happened how it happened,” Williams said. “You all saw it.”

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