burns retired from coaching at the end of the 1991 season, and the vikings turned to stanford cardinal head coach dennis green as his successor, making green the first african-american head coach in franchise history. in the first nine years of green's tenure with the vikings, the closest he came to a losing record was an 8–8 record in 1995, the only season in which his team missed the playoffs. three years later, green's team played out the best season in franchise history, losing only to the tampa bay buccaneers on the way to a 15–1 record. the team received a bye to the divisional playoffs, in which they beat the arizona cardinals to set up a conference championship game against the atlanta falcons. with six minutes left in the fourth quarter and the vikings in the lead at 27–20, they drove down the field to set up a 38-yard field goal for kicker gary anderson, who had not missed a single kick all season. a successful kick would have given the vikings a two-score lead with just over two minutes left to play, but anderson hooked his kick wide left, allowing the falcons to take the ball back downfield for a game-tying touchdown. they followed this with a field goal in overtime, denying the vikings a fifth super bowl appearance.