MINNEAPOLIS — It was the best playoff quarterback duel ever seen by many of those who watched. It was a devastating loss for those whose season ended.

The Giants, who visit the Vikings on Sunday, are in the playoffs for the first time since 2016, but a subsection of the team is back just 12 months after having a sideline view as the Bills and Chiefs combined for 31 points and four lead changes in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter, plus overtime, in the 2021 AFC divisional round.

Center Jon Feliciano, third-string quarterback Davis Webb, running back Matt Breida, receiver Isaiah Hodgins, cornerback Nick McCloud, punter Jamie Gillan, head coach Brian Daboll, offensive line coach Bobby Johnson and quarterbacks coach Shea Tierney were part of the Bills’ premature celebration, after they had taken the lead with 13 seconds remaining only to lose, 42-36, in overtime. Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka was part of the winning Chiefs.

“Imagine having a really-high high and then hitting rock bottom,” Johnson said. “The hardest part was looking in those kids’ eyes. I had a group that played its rear ends off and basically thought, ‘We are advancing,’ with 13 seconds left. And that’s the last time they touched the field. That’s a hard pill to swallow. But you learn from it. It taught me that, no matter what is going on, keep talking on the sideline, keep coaching, keep preparing for a situation that could come up.”

A quick refresher: After the teams combined for three touchdowns in 101 seconds — capped by a 19-yard, go-ahead strike to Gabe Davis — Josh Allen and the Bills led 36-33. A touchback and two completions covering 44 yards by Patrick Mahomes set up the game-tying field goal as time expired, and the Chiefs won the overtime coin toss and scored a touchdown without a possession for the equally unstoppable Bills.

“What sticks with me is when we scored the first touchdown with under two minutes, I didn’t celebrate,” said Webb, a former teammate of both quarterbacks (he played with Mahomes at Texas Tech). “That’s far too much time for Pat. But, when we scored the next one, I celebrated like we won the state championship in high school.

“I thought we were going to the Super Bowl. I had already done the Cincinnati prep and felt good about that [AFC Championship] matchup. It was jaw-dropping, teammate-wise, seeing Josh play literally the best game he possibly could play and still lose.”

Only Feliciano actually played in the game. All of the six players except for Webb will play bigger roles for the Giants against the Vikings.

“That one hurt more [than the typical playoff loss] because you think you had the game a couple times,” Feliciano said. “Now, I feel privileged to be part of a historic game. Two years ago, watching them celebrate after the AFC Championship game stung, too, but after last year’s game, we just ran in the locker room pissed. It was a different feeling.”

No matter how far the Giants go, it won’t change history. But maybe history can help the Giants go further.

“It definitely stays with you,” Hodgins said. “It’s a good learning experience to know that the playoffs are crazy and anything can happen. It’s just all about momentum swings and playing the next down. There are going to be times where the other team is going to score two or three touchdowns in a row and you are like, ‘Oh man’ and fans might be down, but then you go on a run. It’s good to know that you can never count a team out.”

The game led to an NFL rule change so that both teams get the ball in overtime. If the score is still tied after one possession each — including trading touchdowns — then it becomes sudden death, which brings in new strategy wrinkles that Daboll prepared for with his analytics advisers this week. Asked to break his focus on the present and “humor” the media by reflecting on the Chiefs-Bills game for one minute, Daboll winced as if the pain was fresh.

“I’m not very funny,” he quipped. “Can’t humor you.”