49ers clinch 2 seed; Vikings to face Giants in first round
The San Francisco 49ers pulled away from the Arizona Cardinals team to win their 10th straight game and clinch the No. 2 seed in the NFC playoffs, meaning the Minnesota Vikings are now locked and loaded to face the New York Giants on Super Wild Card Weekend.
Had the 49ers lost, the Vikings would've been the No. 2 seed and hosted the Packers, Seahawks or Lions in the first round. Instead, they are locked as the No. 3 seed and will face the Giants, who were sealed as the No. 6 seed before Week 18 began.
Minnesota defeated the Giants 27-24 on Christmas Eve, though they needed Greg Joseph's 61-yard field goal as time expired to avoid going to overtime.
The rematch with the Giants gets even more interesting since Minnesota had right tackle Brian O'Neill healthy for that Dec. 24 meeting. O'Neill and left tackle Christian Darrisaw were great that Saturday, each allowing only one pressure to help keep quarterback Kirk Cousins somewhat clean. The rest of the offensive line, however, was rocked by New York's aggressive, blitz-happy defense.
Left guard Ezra Cleveland allowed four pressures (three QB hits and a sack), center Austin Schlottman allowed six pressures (one sack) and right guard Ed Ingram surrendered three pressures (one sack).
The Vikings will have to hope Garrett Bradbury starts at center after missing the past five games with a back injury, while also relying on Oli Udoh or Blake Brandel to effectively replace O'Neill, who is out for the season with a calf muscle injury and partially torn Achilles, at right tackle.
Super Wild Card Weekend is Jan. 14-16 and game days and kickoff times have not yet been announced.
The Vikings defeated the Bears 29-13 to finish the season 13-4. It is the same record as the 49ers, who won the tiebreaker due to a better conference record.
The Eagles beat the Giants to earn the No. 1 seed and a first round bye.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.