They did appear in couple of NFCCGs after Bud Grant's retirement in 1985, they made a Cinderella run in 1987(beating us decisively and then San Francisco, in what almost was Bill Walsh's last game as Niners HC(he was nearly fired by 49ers owner Eddie Debartolo after the season and some NFL experts, pundits, even Bay Area fans believed then that the 1988 season would be Montana's last in San Francisco), and it took an inspired performance by Redskins to defeat Vikings and Darrell Green to knock away what might've a potential game-tying TD from Wade Wilson to Darrin Nelson. Some NFL historians believe that if Vikings hadn't decided on such a one-sided, historically bad, "Great Trade Robbery", with Dallas in exchange for Herschel Walker in 1989, they might've been a SB dynasty because by the late 1980's, Minnesota had one of the best, fiercest, most intimidating D-lines in the NFL.