Vikings Defense Struggles to Contain Giants in Wild Card Loss

The Giants went for it, and Jones ran up the middle on a sneak for a gain of two and a first down.

Jones’ next pass fell incomplete, but a defensive holding penalty on cornerback Patrick Peterson awarded the Giants a first-and-goal from the Vikings two-yard line. The next play, Barkley found the end zone to bring it to 31-24 with 7:47 remaining.

The go-ahead drive included three conversions of second-and-10s.

Minnesota quickly went three-and-out, but got a crucial sack from linebacker Eric Kendricks on second-and-10 from the Giants 46 to force a New York punt and give the ball back to the Vikings with 2:56 remaining.

But Minnesota couldn’t take advantage on the potential game-tying drive, as a short pass from Cousins to T.J. Hockenson on fourth-and-8 with 1:51 remaining resulted in a turnover on downs, and the Giants ran out the clock to seal the win.

Bynum said it was an extremely disappointing ending to a successful season.

“It’s always frustrating,” Bynum said. “Regardless of how it happened, that doesn’t really matter to us, the fact that we didn’t go out there and deliver for this organization, for this city, for everybody [is frustrating]. We came out there and lost the game. It’s never acceptable.”