Then, Kramer was sacked and the Vikings had to punt, but Saints returner Mel Gray accidentally hit the ball while trying to avoid it and the Vikings recovered on the New Orleans 27, leading to Chuck Nelson's 42-yard field goal. New Orleans scored first after Vikings quarterback Kramer's fumble on a bad snap led to Saints quarterback Bobby Hebert's 10-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Eric Martin. Meanwhile, the Saints had the NFL's second best record at 12-3 and came into this game on a 9-game winning streak. Wade Wilson had the most starts with 7, but coach Jerry Burns decided to start Tommy Kramer, who had been through so many injuries he had only started in 5 regular season games and had not finished any of them. The Vikings had also been plagued with quarterback problems all year, starting three different quarterbacks during the season. Louis enabled them to snag the NFC's lowest postseason seed.

The Vikings would spend the rest of the day pondering their prospects until a Dallas win over St. It was a stunning victory for the underdog Vikings, who had barely made the playoffs with an 8–7 record after losing three of their last four games, including their season ending match at home against the Washington Redskins in which they blew a 10-point fourth quarter lead, costing them a chance to clinch a playoff slot. In the Saints' first playoff game (and first winning season) in history, the Vikings dominated the game by recording two sacks, forcing six turnovers, and allowing only 149 yards. MIN – Dozier 8 run (Nelson kick) MIN 44–10.MIN – Jones 44 pass from Wilson (Nelson kick) MIN 31–10.MIN – Carter 10 pass from Rice (Nelson kick) MIN 24–7.MIN – Jordan 5 pass from Wilson (Nelson kick) MIN 17–7.MIN – Carter 84 punt return (Nelson kick) MIN 10–7.NO – Martin 10 pass from Hebert (Andersen kick) NO 7-0.Wild card playoffs Sunday, Janu NFC: Minnesota Vikings 44, New Orleans Saints 10 Jack Murphy Stadium, San Diego, California In the United States, NBC broadcast the AFC playoff games, CBS televised the NFC games, and ABC covered Super Bowl XXII. Although the Super Bowl, the fourth and final round of the playoffs, was played at a neutral site, the designated home team was based on an annual rotation by conference. The two surviving teams from each conference's divisional playoff games then meet in the respective AFC and NFC Conference Championship games, hosted by the higher seed. The second round, the divisional playoffs, had a restriction where two teams from the same division could not meet: the surviving wild card team visited the division champion outside its division that had the higher seed, and the remaining two teams from that conference played each other. The three division winners were seeded 1–3 based on their overall won-lost-tied record, and received a first-round bye while the wild card teams were seeded 4 and 5, and played in the first round, dubbed the wild-card playoffs or wild-card weekend, with the fourth-seed hosting.

The NFL did not use a fixed-bracket playoff system. Within each conference, the three division winners and the two wild card teams (the top two non-division winners with the best overall regular season records) qualified for the playoffs. The postseason tournament concluded with the Washington Redskins defeating the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXII, 42–10, on January 31, at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, California.

The National Football League playoffs for the 1987 season began on January 3, 1988.

Redskins vs seahawks score