Every Thursday for the rest of the NFL season, BringMeTheNews will have a little flashback in the history of the Vikings against that week’s opponent.
One reason is that it will give us a chance to report some Viking victories this season – even if they are from seasons past. The other reason is that there are great games that were great moments at the time, and have been lost to the fickle memory of history.
So, we’ve chosen one of the best forgotten moments in Vikings history, at a time when Jim McMahon was quarterbacking the purple. Yes, that really happened – here he is about to get creamed by Lawrence Taylor:
On September 26, 1993, in a week-three division showdown, the Vikings trailed the visiting Packers 13-12 with no timeouts and less than two minutes remaining on the clock.
Needing a big play on 4th and 8 from their own 19, McMahon found Cris Carter for a 19-yard gain to keep the Vikings’ drive alive.
A couple more completions, mixed with three incomplete passes, set up a third-and-10 from mid-field with 14 seconds left. McMahon rolled right to avoid the rush, when suddenly he spotted rookie wide receiver (and completely anonymous) Eric Guliford, who was wide open by 20 yards. McMahon hit him for 45 yards with 6 seconds left to play when Guliford was pushed out of bounds.
That would set up the great Fuad Reveiz’s fifth (!) field goal of the game, lifting the Minnesota Vikings to a 15-13 victory and a 2-1 record to start the season. It was Guliford’s only catch in his two seasons with the Vikings.
Winning ugly? Heck yes! Skol! Here’s the box score to prove it.
Here’s how PackersNews put it: The plan was for Guilford, who split wide right, to clear out an area for Cris Carter by going deep and taking as many Green Bay defenders with him. The problem was nobody went with him.
Video of the game itself (and great running commentary by Dennis Green) starts around the two-minute mark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-84B9BeLks
