He finished the season with an 8 – 2 record, and led the Vikings into the postseason once again, with an overall team record of 10 – 6.

The most common postseason rival for the Saints are the Minnesota Vikings.

The Saints and the Vikings have played each other three times in the postseason, with the most recent being the 2009 NFC Championship Game.

| Minnesota Vikings || 9 || 18 || 0 ||. 333 || W 42 – 20 || December 18, 2011 || Minneapolis, MN || 1 – 2 postseason

The Vikings were making their second Super Bowl appearance after also finishing the regular season with a 12-2 record, and posting postseason victories over the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys.

Category: Minnesota Vikings postseason

The Cowboys, with their offense and " flex " defense, became the first NFC wild-card team to advance to the Super Bowl after posting a 10-4 regular season record and postseason victories over the Minnesota Vikings and the Los Angeles Rams.

The Eagles were making their first Super Bowl appearance after posting a 12-4 regular season record and postseason victories over the Minnesota Vikings and the Dallas Cowboys

Meanwhile, San Francisco started out their postseason by blowing out the Minnesota Vikings, 41 – 13.

Most notably, however, was the fact that the Vikings swept the De Anza League competition outright, posting an 18-0 record in league play, which included the postseason league tournament.

Dallas ended their playoff run after a hard divisional playoff loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

The Vikings entered the decade by winning the divisional championship and an appearance in the NFC Championship game, but struggled the following season by posting a 5 – 11 record in 2001.

In the divisional round, the Vikings were defeated by the eventual NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles.

The Vikings played the Dallas Cowboys in the divisional round on January 17, 2010, and won the game by a score of 34 – 3, advancing the Vikings to the NFC Championship game, the ninth in franchise history.

The Vikings then went on to face their other divisional rival the Chicago Bears, but were defeated, and then went on to be blown out 31 – 3 in a rematch with the Packers the following game.

The Vikings ' other loss was in week 12 to the Cincinnati Bengals, whom the Dolphins defeated in the AFC divisional playoffs.

Although the AFC teams quickly decided on a divisional alignment, the 13 NFC owners had trouble deciding which teams would play in which divisions, as most teams were attempting to avoid placement in a division with the Cowboys and / or the Vikings, and were trying to angle their way into the same division as the Saints, the weakest team in professional football at the time.

The 1987 Redskins made the playoffs and again defeated the Chicago Bears 21 – 17 on the road in the divisional round, then beat the Minnesota Vikings 17 – 10 at home in the NFC Championship Game, then at Super Bowl XXII, they rode on the arm of quarterback Doug Williams to blow out the Denver Broncos 42 – 10.

In the divisional round of the playoffs, the Saints routed the Arizona Cardinals 45 – 14 to advance to the NFC Championship, where they defeated the Minnesota Vikings 31 – 28 in overtime.

In 1968, the defense led the Vikings to their first divisional title.

In 1976, The Vikings would win yet another divisional title and would make it to their third Super Bowl in four years and fourth overall.

Improving from 1987, the 1988 Vikings finished 11-5 and advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs.

In a divisional playoff game against the Vikings on January 16, 2005, Mitchell caught a two-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter and celebrated by feigning to pull his pants up, a reference to the touchdown celebration by Vikings ' wide receiver Randy Moss, who pretended to pull his pants down to moon Green Bay fans the week before and was heavily criticized for doing so.

Their opponent in the NFC championship game was the Minnesota Vikings, led by 11-time Pro Bowl quarterback Brett Favre, who had thrown four touchdown passes in their divisional round win over the Dallas Cowboys.

In 1967, 1969, and 1973, Los Angeles lost the divisional round to the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, and Dallas Cowboys, respectively, in the 1967 NFL playoffs, the 1969 NFL playoffs, and the 1973-74 NFL playoffs.

The following year, the Rams beat the Cowboys in the divisional round of the 1976-77 NFL playoffs, thanks in part to 120 rushing yards, Mack playing well against Larry Cole, but lost the NFC championship for the third consecutive year, to the Vikings, as in 1974.

The Vikings eliminated them from the playoffs for the fourth time since 1969 and second year in a row in the divisional round of the 1977-78 NFL playoffs.

In Mack's final year, the Rams beat the Vikings at last in the divisional round of the 1978-79 NFL playoffs, as Mack pulverized James White ( American football ) at defensive right tackle, the team gaining 200 yards on the ground, but lost the NFC championship game to the Cowboys for the second time ( 1975, 1978 ).

Gailey led the team to two playoff appearances with a 10 – 6 record in 1998 and an NFC East championship, but the Cowboys were defeated in the playoffs by the Arizona Cardinals 20-7 ; after an 8 – 8 season in 1999 ( during which Irvin suffered a career-ending spinal injury in a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles ) ending in another playoff loss ( this time to the Minnesota Vikings 27-10 ), he was fired and became the first Cowboys coach who did not take the team to a Super Bowl.

In, that stingy defense earned the Vikings their first Central Division title and their first playoff berth.

There was no more playoff magic as the Rams finally defeated the Vikings, 34 – 10 in Los Angeles after having lost in their previous four playoff matchups ( in 1969, ' 74, ' 76 and ' 77 ).

In his 10 seasons as the coach of the Vikings, Green won four NFC Central division titles, had eight playoff appearances, two NFC Championship game appearances and an all-time record of 97 – 62.

But the Vikings were humiliated by the Giants 41 – 0, the worst playoff loss in franchise history.

In the wild card game, the Vikings defeated the rival Green Bay Packers in their first-ever playoff meeting, 31 – 17.

In doing so, the Vikings became the second team in NFL history to have a. 500 record ( 8 – 8 ) in the regular season and win a playoff game ( The St. Louis Rams did the same thing only a day earlier ).

On January 4, 2009, the NFC North champion Vikings hosted the Philadelphia Eagles for the Wild Card round, their first home playoff game in eight years.

In his first year, he took the team to the 2001 playoffs but lost to the Minnesota Vikings a week after beating the St. Louis Rams for the team's first ever playoff win.

The Giants won their first playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles, 20 – 10, and defeated the Minnesota Vikings 41 – 0 in the NFC Championship game.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys marched to the Super Bowl with playoff wins over the Minnesota Vikings, 20 – 12 in the NFC Divisional Playoffs, and the San Francisco 49ers, 14 – 3 in the NFC Championship Game, only giving up one touchdown in the two games.

Meanwhile, Minnesota allowed only a combined 24 points in their playoff wins against the St. Louis Cardinals, 30-14, and their narrow defeat of the Los Angeles Rams, 14-10, after their defense stopped an attempted comeback touchdown drive from the Rams on the Vikings ' own 2-yard line.

The Vikings were making their fourth Super Bowl appearance, and seeking their first Super Bowl title, after posting an 11-2-1 regular season record and playoff victories over the Washington Redskins and the Los Angeles Rams.

Led by Staubach and the Doomsday Defense, Dallas advanced to their second Super Bowl after posting a 12-2 record season record and playoff victories over the Chicago Bears and the Minnesota Vikings.

After losing two straight games in November ( one to the rival Dallas Cowboys ), they finished off the regular season winning their remaining five games, including dominating wins over playoff teams Denver Broncos, 41 – 6, and Minnesota Vikings, 38 – 10.

Playing in his first ever NFL playoff game, Warner threw for 395 yards and 5 touchdowns, with 1 interception, as the Rams defeated the Minnesota Vikings, 49 – 37, by scoring 35 unanswered points in the second half.

On January 15, 1983, during the second round of the playoffs against the Minnesota Vikings, John Riggins rushed for a Redskins playoff record 185 yards, leading Washington to a 21 – 7 win and a place in the NFC Championship Game against Dallas, whom they beat 31 to 17.

The " Gridbirds " made only three playoff appearances during that stretch, losing at the Minnesota Vikings in 1974, Los Angeles Rams in 1975 and Green Bay Packers in 1982.

On January 9, 1983, the Vikings defeated the Atlanta Falcons, 30-24, in a 1st-round game that was the first playoff game at the Metrodome.

The Vikings played 10 playoff games at the Met and lost only three of them.

This memorable pass earned the Vikings a playoff berth.