NEW ORLEANS — For a second straight year, Adam Thielen fumbled in a game against the Saints, and again it looked like the result could be costly.
The Vikings star receiver, virtually out of commission for half the season with a hamstring injury, had yet to reintegrate himself in Minnesota’s offense. And a lost fumble on the Vikings’ first drive of the NFC Wild Card game wasn’t going to help matters. The Saints scored the game’s first three points, and the Vikings bold choice to receive the kickoff was all for naught. Meanwhile, fans flashed back to Thielen’s red zone fumble in last year’s meeting with the Saints that swung momentum in a Vikings loss.
So what was Thielen’s next step?
“I was just flushing the toilet,” Thielen said. “It’s a motto that I learned in college … I’m going to go flush it down the toilet and I’m going to go to the next play.”
According to Thielen, the Mankato football team kept a prop toilet on the sideline to further the metaphor.
The Vikings had no such symbol with them Sunday at the Superdome, but Thielen found a way to repress his early gaffe and deliver a huge performance, doing a lot of his damage against arguably the Saints’ top corner Marshon Lattimore.
His biggest play, however, came one play after Lattimore left the field in overtime.
Dalvin Cook rolled up on Lattimore’s ankle during an 11-yard run in the extra session, sending backup Patrick Robinson into the game. Cousins wasted no time targeting the newcomer, dropping in his longest pass of the day to Thielen, a 43-yard bomb which set the Vikings up for the walkoff win.
No need to flush that memory.
“I knew it was man coverage, and it was a great play design for Diggs and I and there was another route as well,” Thielen recounted. “You just never know where that ball is going to go because depending on how the safety goes. It ended up being one on one with me and another guy, and Kirk just threw a great ball. It was a perfect ball that really just dropped right in the bucket. Kudos to him.”
Adam Thielen : 7 catches for 129 yards on 9 targets (43-yard catch at the 2-yard line to help set up Kirk Cousins’ game-winning 4-yard TD pass to Kyle Rudolph) pic.twitter.com/L5IkFcacsJ
— Lee Harvey (@AyeThatsLee) January 5, 2020
Thielen reeled in seven catches for 129 yards. Before his 43-yarder that put the Vikings on victory’s doorstep, his 34-yard catch in the third quarter set up Dalvin Cook’s second score.
Most remarkably, all seven of his catches went for first downs. Four of them on 3rd and 4 or longer.
Before his injury, the Vikings had no qualms about picking on Lattimore, the 2017 Defensive Rookie of the Year. Lattimore had a slightly down year after dealing with injuries — no different than Thielen — but it was the just-getting-healthy wide receiver who won the matchup by a wide margin. It wasn’t the first time Thielen got the better of Lattimore. The two faced off in the 2017 playoffs with Thielen going for six catches, 74 yards and a clutch catch over Lattimore in the closing minutes.
Lattimore appeared to be the primary coverage on four of Thielen’s catches, including the 34-yard grab on 3rd and 9 in the second half. Thielen turned Lattimore around with the subtlest of double moves to create separation.
The big play to set up the #Vikings touchdown on the previous drive was this 34-yard pass from Cousins to Thielen.pic.twitter.com/xxAEyvyr2t
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 5, 2020
Thielen was the one player to get open deep all afternoon, making the Vikings’ only two receptions longer than 20 yards.
Both were enormous.
“[Cousins] has a lot of trust in his ability and when he sees the right coverage and they give you the opportunity to take a shot,” Thielen said, “which they really didn’t the whole game because of the type of coverages they were playing. He’s a guy that we know because of all the reps we’ve had in the last two years that when he does have an opportunity to throw it deep, he’s going to give you a chance.”
The Vikings were clearly confident in Thielen’s health status after he dealt with repeated setbacks during his hamstring rehab. Thielen was held without a catch in the Vikings’ Week 16 loss versus Green Bay, leading some to question whether he was 100 percent. But Cousins targeted Thielen nine times and handed off to him once as he recorded his most touches of the season.
“He’s such a good player, it’s just a matter of time,” Cousins said. “When you’re that good, you’re eventually going to show up and produce. He was huge today. It’s great to have two, to have Diggsy and Adam who can really roll.”
It’s not quite the Moss-Carter-Reed ‘Three Deep’ trio of the late 1990s, but Thielen, Stefon Diggs and Dalvin Cook give the Vikings a three-headed attack — part ground, part air — that may test San Francisco’s defense in the divisional round next Saturday. With Thielen fully reestablished as a threat, defenses will have to debate where to devote their best resources.
