McMahon Lifts Vikings Into Playoffs : Pro Football: He sparks 14-9 victory over Redskins to reach postseason play with his third team.

Jim McMahon is back in the NFL playoffs. And this time it’s the Minnesota Vikings he’s taking with him.

McMahon’s 11-yard touchdown pass to Anthony Carter was just enough to beat the Washington Redskins, 14-9, Friday and assure the Vikings a playoff spot for the second consecutive year under Coach Dennis Green.

“Jim is the guy who somehow finds the way to get the job done,” Green said. “They did a great deal of blitzing. When they’re pressuring you a lot, you’re not going to make a lot of great plays, but he had some nice throws.”

The Vikings (9-7) will likely face the loser of Sunday’s Dallas-New York Giants game in a wild-card matchup. A loss Friday would have given New Orleans or Philadelphia a chance of taking the berth away from Minnesota.

The 34-year-old quarterback, who took Chicago to the playoffs three times in the ‘80s and went there with Philadelphia three years ago, was 19 of 32 for 225 yards, enabling the Vikings to close the regular season with three consecutive victories for the first time since 1974.

“It’s a good feeling, a lot of people counted us out,” Carter said. “You want to play your best football in December. Hopefully, we can keep this going.”

For the Redskins (4-12), it was a sorry end to their most dismal season in three decades. For the third time in four games, they failed to score a touchdown. The only question left is whether rookie Coach Richie Petitbon will keep his job a second year.

The Redskins’ only scores were on field goals of 37, 35 and 34 yards by Chip Lohmiller, who missed on two other attempts from 35 and 53 yards. The sole bright note for Washington was rookie running back Reggie Brooks, who rushed for 68 yards, giving him 1,063 for the season.

McMahon found Carter open in the end zone with less than a minute remaining in the third quarter for what proved to be the winning touchdown after putting the Vikings into scoring position four plays earlier with a 30-yard pass to Cris Carter at the Redskin one.

“I missed some open guys . . . . but I really felt like we made the big plays when we had to,” McMahon said. “Of course they had eight or nine guys on the line every play. Now it’s a one-game season and anything can happen.”

The two Carters combined with McMahon for a total of 176 yards on 13 completions after the Redskins shut down the Vikings’ running game, holding Scottie Graham to 37 yards in 20 carries.

“It’s nice to have him back there,” Cris Carter said of McMahon, who has thrown six touchdown passes in the Vikings’ last three games. “He doesn’t get flustered. He came out in the third quarter and put together a good drive that put us up by more than a touchdown.”

Cris Carter caught a 24-yard pass at Washington’s one in the second quarter to set up Minnesota’s first touchdown.

The Vikings went into a hurry-up offense 90 seconds before the half, but it backfired when McMahon, throwing from his 33 for Steve Jordan, was intercepted by Redskin linebacker Monte Coleman. A 14-yard return by Coleman set up Lohmiller’s first field goal.