MINNEAPOLIS — About a half-hour after securing the most improbable victory of the N.F.L. playoffs with the most improbable pass of his improbable season, Case Keenum sat facing his stall in the Minnesota Vikings locker room. Still wearing his uniform, eye-black smeared on his face, Keenum dropped his head to his hands.
He lifted it, then dropped it again, went to stand, then sat back down, as though he needed another second, or three, to continue processing it: Vikings 29, Saints 24, a mind-bending affair that immediately joined Games 6 and 7 of the 1991 World Series among the most famous and emotionally draining in Minnesota lore.