Laces Out, ‘Hawks In

There is only one lace, threaded through 16 holes, on an official N.F.L. game ball. When a holder sets the ball for a kicker, the rule of thumb is “laces out” — meaning the holder should rotate the ball to put the lace on the side facing the goal posts. Something about the way that white strip meets the kicker’s foot can make the ball fly in unpredictable directions.

On Sunday, the lacing was facing in on a crucial Vikings kick, and now Minnesota is out of the playoffs. A chip-shot field-goal attempt by Minnesota’s Blair Walsh with 22 seconds remaining drifted left of the uprights, giving the Seattle Seahawks a 10-9 victory in the third-coldest game in N.F.L. history.

“I know Jeff did his job and Kevin did his job,” Walsh said, referring to his holder, Jeff Locke, and the long snapper, Kevin McDermott. “I’m the only one who didn’t do my job, so it’s on me.”

The former Vikings coach Bud Grant, 88, the day’s honorary captain, shed his winter coat and walked out for the coin toss in a sleeveless Vikings golf shirt and matching purple cap. The crowd approved. The teams, however, did not show as well in an N.F.C. wild-card game.

About a month after Seattle had routed Minnesota on the same field, the Seahawks, the two-time defending N.F.C. champions, used a Russell Wilson-led fourth-quarter rally to advance to next week’s divisional round against Carolina.

“Honestly, I don’t believe in luck,” Seattle wide receiver Doug Baldwin said. “If you had to categorize it, I’d say luck was on our side today.”

The right-footed Walsh, who led the N.F.L. with 34 field goals, connected from 22, 43 and 47 yards to give Minnesota a 9-0 lead entering the fourth quarter. But he pulled the potential winning 27-yarder outside the left upright. Walsh wept in the locker room as teammates tried to console him.

“It didn’t feel good off my foot, and I kind of knew right away,” Walsh said. “It is just ridiculous, and you have to do better than that, and I didn’t.”

The Seahawks, who beat Minnesota, 38-7, here on Dec. 6, won without running back Marshawn Lynch (abdominal surgery), who practiced last week but decided Friday that he was not ready to play his first game since mid-November. Wilson completed 13 of 26 passes for 142 yards and a touchdown, while Seattle held Adrian Peterson, the N.F.L.’s leading rusher, to 45 yards on 23 carries.

For most of the afternoon, the Seahawks struggled, and the Vikings seemed poised for a surprise victory. Seattle misplays — a mishandled snap by punter Jon Ryan and a Wilson interception — preceded Walsh’s first two field goals, and two major penalties on the Seahawks pushed the Vikings closer for Walsh’s third. Twice in the first half, Seattle burned timeouts because Wilson could not hear play calls on his helmet headset.

But it was Wilson’s remarkable improvisation on another misplay early in the fourth quarter that got the Seahawks back into the game.

From the Vikings’ 39-yard line, Wilson was trying to change a play call when center Patrick Lewis snapped the ball past him. Wilson chased it down, ran to his right with Vikings in pursuit and found wideout Tyler Lockett alone in the middle of the field. Lockett ran to the Vikings’ 4, and two plays later, Wilson tossed to Baldwin for a 3-yard touchdown.

“It was a good snap, actually,” Russell said. “As soon as I got the ball, I kind of looked back and said, ‘Uh-oh.’ It seemed like a whole bunch of bears chasing you, and I was just trying to get away.”

Then Seattle safety Kam Chancellor ripped the ball from Peterson on a reception, with defensive tackle Ahtyba Rubin recovering at the Minnesota 40. Peterson had trouble holding on to the ball in the regular season, fumbling seven times. Wilson drove the Seahawks to the Vikings’ 28, and Steven Hauschka kicked a 46-yard field goal with 8 minutes 4 seconds to play for Seattle’s first lead of the day.

“My mentality is to try to scratch for extra yards, and that was one of those times when I should have double-arm-wrapped it,” Peterson said. “That’s something that will haunt me throughout this off-season.”

Seattle, whose defense allowed the fewest points in the N.F.L. for four seasons running, forced the Vikings to punt on their next two possessions. Minnesota got the ball back on its 39-yard line with 1:42 to play after a punt. A pass-interference call on Chancellor and a 24-yard catch and run by tight end Kyle Rudolph put Walsh in position for his final attempt.

Midweek forecasts predicting conditions among the 10 coldest in N.F.L. history held true, though falling short of the record minus-13 temperature and minus-48 wind chill for the 1967 N.F.L. championship game between Green Bay and Dallas, long nicknamed the Ice Bowl.

It easily eclipsed the coldest game in Seahawks history, 16 degrees at Denver on Dec. 3, 2006. Before Sunday, the Vikings had hosted two of the 10 coldest, minus- 2 and zero on consecutive weekends in December 1972. (Minnesota played outdoors at Metropolitan Stadium before moving to the Metrodome in 1982.)

The cold even affected the Vikings’ renowned Gjallarhorn, an enormous curved Norse horn traditionally blown in pregame festivities; it shattered two hours before kickoff. (The team had a spare, which the injured tight end Rhett Ellison sounded.)

To help fans cope, the Vikings passed out free hand warmers at the gates and negotiated to use Mariucci Arena across the street, home of the University of Minnesota men’s hockey team, as a warming house. Perhaps only in Minnesota would people go to a hockey rink to get warm.

“It was all good until my eyelashes froze,” Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman said. “I went out to warm up before everybody came up, took a jog, and my contact lenses almost froze over. You can’t prepare for that kind of weather or that kind of cold. It’s like sitting in a freezer.”