"It's a chip shot," said Minnesota Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer. "He's got to make it." That about sums up Vikings kicker Blair Walsh's 27-yard field goal that hooked left and handed the Seattle Seahawks a 10-9 win with 22 seconds remaining in their wild-card round playoff game on Sunday. Minnesota star Adrian Peterson, whose fourth-quarter fumble set up Seattle's go-ahead field goal, attempted to take the blame, as did placeholder Jeff Locke for his Dan Marino-esque "laces out" mistake. "I've got to spin it," Locke told reporters in the aftermath. "Simple as that." But Walsh knew where the blame would ultimately lie. Nearly a quarter-century after the release of "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective," there's a reason we remember fictional field goal kicker Ray Finkle's name. Give him credit, though, a teary-eyed Walsh answered every reporter's query with remarkable perspective. "It's so quick that I don't know what happened," said Walsh. "You have to go back and look at the film, but I can tell you this: It's my fault. I don't care whether you give me a watermelon hold, I should be able to put that one through. Jeff did his job, (long snapper) Kevin (McDermott) did his job; I'm the only one who didn't do his job. That's on me." Undoubtedly, Walsh's miss ranks among the 10 worst in NFL playoff history. The only question is where. 10. 2009 AFC divisional round : Jets 17, San Diego Chargers 14. While he never actually had a field goal attempt to win the game, Nate Kaeding's three misses still sealed San Diego's fate. Granted, his second miss as time expired on the first half came from 57 yards, but Kaeding sandwiched misses from 36 and 40 yards around it — either of which would have at least given a heavily-favored Chargers team a chance to reach its second conference title game in three years. 9. 2002 NFC wild-card round : San Francisco 49ers 39, New York Giants 38. With six seconds remaining, a 41-year-old Trey Junkin — signed by the Giants as a replacement long snapper off the street that week — botched his snap to placeholder Matt Allen before Matt Bryant ever got a chance to kick a 40-yarder, and New York couldn't erase a blown 24-point lead against the 49ers. 8. 2006 NFC wild-card round : Seattle Seahawks 21, Dallas Cowboys 20. Oh, no, Tony Romo. The Cowboys quarterback, serving as a placeholder on Martin Gramatica's 19-yard field goal attempt with 1:19 remaining, couldn't corral L.P. Ladoceur's snap and took off running for the end zone, only to be barely tripped up by Seahawks safety Jordan Babineaux at the 2-yard line. 7. 2015 NFC wild-card round : Seahawks 10, Vikings 9. On one of the coldest days in NFL history, Walsh iced himself. "It's just ridiculous," he said Sunday. "You have to do much better than that and I didn't." At least the stakes weren't even higher, and at least he didn't miss multiple attempts to win the game. Those are the only things that kept him low on this list. 6. 2005 AFC divisional round : Pittsburgh Steelers 21, Indianapolis Colts 18. In a wild final five minutes, when the Steelers seemingly had the game won before a Jerome Bettis fumble gave Peyton Manning one final opportunity, Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt missed a game-tying attempt from 46 yards out with 21 seconds left. He hadn't missed in the RCA Dome since October. A few days later, Vanderjagt — who Manning was called the " idiot kicker " — appearend on David Letterman, successfully kicking a 46-yard field goal outside the studio as Letterman held. Vanderjagt was soon cut. 5. 2004 AFC divisional round : Steelers 20, New York Jets 17 (OT). Jets kicker Doug Brien's misses from 47 and 43 yards in the final two minutes of regulation — the latter of which came with four seconds left — resulted in this quote from Steelers linebacker Larry Foote after an overtime win: "I've never seen anything like it. I'm not going to say it was a miracle, because that's crippled people getting up and walking, the blind seeing. But that's the closest thing to it I've ever seen." 4. 1995 AFC divisional round : Colts 10, Kansas City Chiefs 7. Chiefs kicker Lin Elliott pulled a Kaeding, only worse. The Chiefs, owners of the AFC's No. 1 seed and an undefeated home record, survived Elliott misses from 35 yards in the second quarter and 39 yards with 10:36 remaining in the fourth quarter, setting him up for a third-time's-a-charm attempt from 42 yards to tie the game with 42 seconds left. Strike three. Elliott was out, as K.C. waived him shortly thereafter. 3. 2011 AFC championship : New England Patriots 23, Baltimore Ravens 20. Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff didn't just miss a game-tying field goal attempt from 32 yards with 11 seconds left. He might've missed it by 32 yards, sending the Patriots to the Super Bowl. A year removed from his Pro Bowl selection, the Ravens released Cundiff that offseason. They won the Super Bowl the next year. 2. Super Bowl XXV : New York Giants 20, Buffalo Bills 19. Arguably the inspiration for Finkle, Scott Norwood's 1991 miss with eight seconds left against the Giants is certainly the most memorable of all field goal follies, and Buffalo's four straight Super Bowl losses didn't help erase the memory. But was his wide-right miss the worst in NFL history? It definitely had the most riding on it, but considering his leg strength, Norwood's miss from 47 yards was hardly a sure thing. 1. 1998 NFC championship : Atlanta Falcons 30, Vikings 27 (OT). Speaking of sure things, hello, Gary Anderson. The Vikings were sporting a 16-1 record and a 27-20 lead with 2:07 remaining, when Anderson and his perfect season (39-39 FGs, 67-67 extra points) lined up for a 38-yard field goal to put the game on ice and send Minnesota to the Super Bowl. Only Anderson missed it. The Falcons tied the game on their ensuing possession, and Morten Andersen made his 38-yarder for Atlanta in overtime. At least Walsh can take solace in the thought that his miss wasn't even the worst in Vikings history, even if that's not much consolation for Minnesotans who sat through the frigid cold for another tough loss. - - - - - - - Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don't Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
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