EAGAN, Minn. (AP) - In their boisterous locker room in New Orleans after the overtime victory, the Minnesota Vikings roared in celebration when coach Mike Zimmer gave the game ball to quarterback Kirk Cousins.
"How does it feel to win a playoff game?" Zimmer asked Cousins with a question that needed no answer following the 26-20 decision that ousted the favored Saints.
Cousins did his part to diffuse the skepticism about his inability to deliver a winning performance in the clutch, with an intelligent, steady, turnover-free game that easily trumped his more-accomplished peer on the other side, Drew Brees.
"With all the bad rhetoric that he gets all the time about this or that, I just felt like it was time to tell a lot of people that he's our guy," Zimmer said.
With a third-down completion to Stefon Diggs, a deep connection to Adam Thielen and the end-zone winner to Kyle Rudolph, Cousins guided the Vikings into a divisional round game Saturday at San Francisco in his signature moment in Minnesota to date.
"There's a whole lot of reasons why we won the game," Cousins said. "Does the quarterback play a role in that? Yes, but it was a team win."
Starting with Zimmer, who had his own negative outside noise to drown out Sunday with multiple national media reports during the week that an ugly defeat had the potential to prompt a firing or even a trade by the Vikings. The 63-year-old Zimmer, who raised his postseason record to 2-2 in six years with the team, couldn't hold back his feelings in a postgame NFL Network interview with his former pupil, Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders.
"Third-winningest coach in Vikings history, and I have to listen to this," Zimmer said.
Not only did Zimmer have his team fully prepared and confident to face the Saints, his defensive strategy for stopping the passing attack led by Brees and wide receiver Michael Thomas was superb. From double coverage on Thomas to frequently moving defensive ends Danielle Hunter and Everson Griffen inside to pass rush against the guards, Zimmer called one of the finest games of his career. The Vikings had two takeaways against a Saints team that set the NFL record for fewest turnovers in a season with eight.
Now they'll have to quickly regroup, with the top-seeded 49ers waiting Saturday.
"Hey, it's playoff time," Zimmer said. "It's big-boy football now."