Purple Reign

Vikings-Ravens: Pass the Defense, Please; and Other Observations

An embarrassing final period. An epic near-collapse. A defensive meltdown worse than any other in the Brad Childress era.

With wins like this, who needs a loss?

Minnesota should take many emotions away from Sunday’s escape from disaster—shock, confusion, chagrin—but relief isn’t one of them.

To be sure, there’s nothing wrong with a close victory over a quality opponent like Baltimore. There’s nothing wrong with another stellar day from Brett Favre (21-of-29, 278 yards, three touchdowns). There’s nothing wrong with 143 yards on 22 carries from Adrian Peterson.

But there’s something very wrong with a defense that has allowed 400 yards or more in three consecutive games—after letting opponents reach that mark just three times in defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier’s first 35 games at the helm.  

The 1,272 yards Minnesota has given up over the past three weeks are the most surrendered in any three-game stretch of Frazier’s tenure. The 448 yards gained by the Ravens were the most by any Vikings opponent since 2005.

Wins in all three of those games have kept most critics quiet, but in the long run, that kind of generosity is unsustainable.

So what’s the problem? Opponents are starting to figure out that the Vikings are stout on the ground, but prone to lapses in defending the pass.

This is not a new phenomenon. Last season, Minnesota’s pass defense was the definition of average. The Vikes ranked 16th in the league in both completion percentage allowed (61.1 percent) and opponent passer rating (81.5), and 18th in passing yards allowed.

A strong pass rush covers up plenty of shortcomings, and Minnesota’s front four do plenty of covering: The team finished fourth in the NFL in sacks last year, and currently leads the league with 16.

But when Jared Allen & Co. aren’t getting to the quarterback, the secondary is far from airtight. In fact, this year, it’s gone from middling to frightening. Consider that the Vikings have allowed:

• The ninth-best opposing passer rating (91.0) in the league.
• The seventh-highest completion percentage (64.9 percent).
• The seventh-most yards passing (1,490).
• The second-most pass plays of 20 yards or longer (24).

Timely turnovers have limited the damage, and it’s fair to point Minnesota’s defensive numbers are skewed by late slippage in games that were well in hand. But as the Ravens came oh-so-close to proving yesterday, one of those slips is going to knock this team on it’s butt before all is said and done.

I can hear the objections already: Why should we care about any of this if they’re 6-0? Two reasons:

• The Vikings are dangerously close to reverting to the Denny Green-era habit of trading points like penny stocks (and we all know how that worked out).
• If you want to beat New York, New Orleans, Atlanta, or just about anybody else in the NFC playoff chase, you need to stop the pass.

Any extended absence by Pro Bowl corner Antoine Winfield, who left in the first half with a sprained foot, won’t help matters. If the Vikings don’t have the personnel to stick with receivers in coverage, they might want to consider dialing up a few more blitzes that bring the linebackers—who have just 2.5 sacks on the year—into the backfield. If they’re relying on one strength to disrupt the pass, they might as well play it up.

Whatever needs to happen, it needs to happen soon: The Vikes are in Pittsburgh on Sunday, and Ben Roethlisberger currently ranks first in yards passing, second in completion percentage and fourth in passer rating.

If the secondary still has holes at that point, he’s going to find them.

In other news…


Never Tell Me the Odds

Brett Favre thought Ravens kicker Steven Hauschka was going to make his 44-yard game-winning attempt as time expired. Brad Childress told Adrian Peterson Hauschka was going to miss it.

Childress was right, but he’d be well advised not to bet the mortgage on that call going forward.

NFL kickers have attempted 96 field goals between 40 and 50 yards this season. They’ve connected on 67 of those, a 69 percent rate of success. I can’t say how being in a dome full of screaming Vikings fans impacts those odds, but it’s safe to say the Men of Chilly got lucky.

The miss was reminiscent over Minnesota’s 28-27 win over Green Bay at the Dome last December, in which Packers kicker Mason Crosby couldn’t connect on a 52-yarder with 26 seconds to go. Much like Hauschka’s kick, that attempt wasn’t wide by much.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with a little “you can’t kick here in the clutch” mystique, so if the Vikes are building credibility in that department, more power to them.


Are We a Powerhouse Yet?

Before the season started, more than a few pundits predicted the rise of the NFC North as the conference’s new elite division.

Six weeks in, the jury’s still out.

On one hand, the Vikings are certainly carving out a place as one of the NFC’s legitimate contenders. The Bears are playing everybody tough, and the Packers are coming off a 26-0 blowout.

On the other, Green Bay’s win came at the expense of another North team—the Lions, who look as bad as ever in the wake of injuries to Matthew Stafford and Calvin Johnson. If those two aren’t back soon, Detroit could flirt with 2008-level misery.

Three of the North’s four teams have winning records, but in the top-heavy NFC, 10 teams can say that much. All of those clubs probably have the talent to contend for a playoff spot (and if the Panthers beat Atlanta next week to climb back to .500, they’ll be in the mix as well, believe it or not).

In a field packed so tightly, those head-to-head matchups will loom large in the final standings—and go a long way toward determining which division reigns supreme.


Is Chilly Going to Grow That Chia Pet on His Face Until They Lose?

If so, I’m tempted to root for the Steelers this week, just so we can move on.

For more on the NFL, follow Marino on Twitter @MarinoEccher.

Vikings-Rams: When "Balls Out" Is a Bad Strategy; and Other Observations

Minnesota gave the Rams plenty of chances to make this a game.

The Vikings gave up 400 yards of offense in St. Louis on Sunday. They gave up 27 first downs. They gave up four trips to the red zone.

But as the defense giveth, Jared Allen and the Williams Wall taketh away.

When the Rams drove to the Vikings’ 35 in the first quarter, Allen snatched up a Kevin Williams-induced fumble and hustled 52 yards for a 14-0 lead.

When the Rams forged their way all the way to the Vikings’ one-yard line in the second quarter, Allen dove on a ball jarred loose by Pat Williams to stop the drive in its tracks.

Allen, the NFC’s leader in sacks after last week’s romp against the Packers, didn’t get to Kyle Boller or Marc Bulger. In fact, Minnesota recorded just one sack on the afternoon—and only managed that many because Boller’s fumble came behind the line of scrimmage.

From the get-go, St. Louis figured out the formula that eluded Green Bay: If you can keep your quarterback upright against the Vikings (admittedly easier said than done), you can gain ground through the air against the Minnesota secondary.

Against this defense, however, moving the ball and keeping the ball are two different things.

Boller engineered two first-and-goal situations that were snuffed out by fumbles. He put together a 15-play drive that ended with a pick in the end zone on 4th-and-6 from the Minnesota nine.

For those of you keeping score at home, that’s three trips inside the opponent’s 10, with zero points to show for it.

By the time Bulger stepped in to go 7-of-7 for 88 yards and a touchdown, the Rams were simply saving face.

It’s difficult to say how Vikings defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier will feel about his unit’s showing in this one. On one hand, he can’t be thrilled about letting one of the two or three worst offenses in the league march up and down the field all day.

The Vikings allowed 400 yards for just the fifth time in Frazier’s 37-game stint as coordinator. They gave up 424 to the Packers the week before. That’s a bad trend.

On the other, Frazier has to admire his team’s relentless nose for the football. One turnover might be a lucky break for a defense; four are a product of coaching and determination.  If the Vikings combine their ball-hawking ways with the stingy habits that held their first three opponents to an average of 259 yards, they’ll measure up as one of the elite defenses in the NFC.

Until then, Frazier should be grateful to have the kind of playmakers who can rip a big drive right out of an opponent’s hands.

In other news…


A Whole Flock of Ugly Ducklings

If misery loves company, the Rams must have made all kinds of friends on an afternoon that featured the widest selection of crap-tastic football in recent memory.

Six of Sunday’s 12 games were bona fide blowouts. The Jags managed just 10 first downs in a 41-doughnut massacre in Seattle. The Raiders collected just nine in a 44-7 beat-down in Jersey in which the Giants pulled Eli Manning before the end of the first half.  The Niners took a 35-10 deficit into intermission against the Falcons at home.

The Browns were held to nine first downs, 193 yards of offense, and two complete passes in 17 attempts—and won.

Even photo finishes in Kansas City, Denver, and Arizona couldn’t salvage the day. If the league had a quality control department, Roger Goodell would be busting some heads tomorrow morning.

As it is, all he can do is call a few of the offending clubs and kindly ask them not to suck so much.


Yo, Adrian

After two frustrating weeks in a row, Adrian Peterson got the chance to remind us why Brett Favre called him the best running back he’s ever played with.

The monster yardage still wasn’t there—and it won’t be until Peterson, who has broken just one run of longer than 15 yards in the past three weeks, starts hitting home runs again.

But AP found the end zone twice to tie for the NFL lead with seven scores on the year. In other words, Peterson has scored more touchdowns on the season than the Panthers, Browns, Raiders, or Rams. He’s scored as many or more points on the year as the last two teams on that list.

Peterson also sat out a couple of late-game series once the win was well in hand. That probably cost him a third TD on the day.

The 2,000-yard campaign AP covets may not be in the cards, but a scoring title is a possibility, and a second straight rushing crown isn’t far-fetched, either.

But Where Will We Get Our Super Bowl XLIII 1/2?

Everybody geared up for next week’s clash of the 5-0 Giants and 4-0 Saints in New Orleans?

Good, because we won’t get another showdown of that caliber for a while this season—if we get another one at all.

If the Saints come out on top, they won’t face another unbeaten opponent all year (although they may face a pair of winless ones when they travel to St. Louis in Week 10 and Tampa Bay in Week 11).

If the Giants win, they won’t have the chance to take down another perfect team until they come to Minnesota in Week 17. And I have a funny feeling neither the G-Men nor the Vikes will be sitting on 15-0 at that point in the year.

On the other side of the bracket, the Colts and Broncos, both 5-0 after today, will get a crack at each other in Week 14.

If that game turns out to be a battle of the 12-0 juggernauts, mine won’t be the only eyebrows raised.

For more on the NFL, follow Marino on Twitter @MarinoEccher.

After Two Heart-Pounding Weeks, the Vikings Are Due for a Break

Whenever the Bears come to Minnesota to play the Vikings, my priest likes to tell a story about Goldilocks and the Three Bears:

After the events of the fairy tale, the Three Bears ran into some marital troubles (evidently, Papa Bear doesn’t cope well when you mess with his porridge).

Things went from bad to worse, Mama and Papa decided it was time for a divorce (a terrible shame, my priest would say, as but in a post-Vatican II world, what can you do?)

As usual, the real victim here was the kid, and before long, Baby Bear was in front of a judge, who wanted to know which parent he’d like to move in with.

“Don’t send me to my Papa,” pleaded Baby. “He beats me.”

All right, said the judge, Mama it is.

“Don’t send me to my Mama,” Baby said. “She beats me.”

Well then, asked the judge, where could Baby go?

“Send me to the Chicago Bears. They don’t beat anybody.”

What does any of this have to do with the Vikings this week?

Well, the Rams are on the agenda for Sunday. And right now, the Rams don’t beat anybody.

After two high-powered hype-fests in a row—a mini-showdown with 2-0 San Francisco and a mega-showdown with The Opponent Formerly Known as Brett Favre’s Team—the Vikes could use a break. They could use a layup.

Chances are they’re going to get one.

It’s a bad sign for any team when “0-4” is the most optimistic description available, but that’s the position St. Louis finds itself in right now. Go beyond the record, and the numbers are downright depressing.

The Rams have put up 24 points on the year. The next-lowest scoring team in the league, Carolina, has put up 37—and the Panthers have played one fewer game. St. Louis' pace would shatter the record for fewest points scored in a 16-game season—currently 143 by the 1991 Colts—by nearly seven touchdowns.

The Rams are sitting on a minus-84 point differential. They're a serious threat to post a worse differential than the minus-249 debacle in Detroit last year. The next-worst mark this year belongs to the Browns, at minus-69. And if you’ve watched the Browns, they aren’t setting the bar all that high.

It’s enough to make you think NFL quarterback guru Rush Limbaugh, the man trying to buy this mess, is a few tacos short of a combination platter. And who would ever think that about Rush?

It's enough to make you wonder if last year's Lions were really that bad. Simply put, St. Louis has the makings of an historically team.

The Rams were down 23-7 to the Packers after 28 minutes. They were down 35-0 to the Niners after 46 minutes.

With that in mind, the Vikings had better hope the transitive property holds some weight here. They need this game as a cushion to soften the blows lurking just around the bend.

Baltimore comes to town in Week Six, and the Vikes make the hike to Pittsburgh in Week Seven. After that, it's on to Lambeau to face a team out for revenge and a crowd out for blood.

I'm not saying Minnesota is due for a loss somewhere in that stretch. I'm just saying I wouldn't get too attached to that "0" in the loss column just yet.

If I believed in trap games in the NFL, I'd say the Rams matchup was about as classic an example as they come. As it is, I'm not particularly concerned that the Vikings won't show up at the Edward Jones Dome ready to play. But with a couple of bruisers on the horizon, it's imperative for Minnesota walk out of this one with five wins in hand.

So while half the product on the field may be putrid, Vikings fans, enjoy this one. Enjoy the sight of an unshackled Adrian Peterson. Enjoy Bernard Berrian's newfound fantasy value. Enjoy Tarvaris Jackson's upcoming appearance as a human victory cigar.

We might not get another romp like this for some time. At least not until the Bears come to town, that is. And we all know how that one goes.

Vikings-Packers: A Homer and a Hater Debate Minnesota's Win

Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

Four hours after watching the Vikings put away the Packers in the latest, greatest edition of the Aaron Rodgers whack-a-thon (nee: The Brett Favre Bowl), I still have no idea what I just saw.

I don’t know if I saw a juggernaut in action, or a team that can’t close to save its soul.

I don’t know if I saw three quarters of heart-stopping football, or one quarter of mind-numbing timidity.

And I don’t know if I’ll wake up tomorrow feeling like a Vikings homer or a Vikings hater.

So to sort things out, we’re going to hear a bit from both.

We teed up a handful of salient topics from the aftermath of Monday night’s game. My inner homer and inner hater lined up to take their best swings—the former waxing poetic about all that went right in Minnesota’s win, and the latter bemoaning all that went wrong.

Here’s what they had to say about:
 

Adrian Peterson

The Homer Says: Complain all you like about AP’s modest stat line—55 yards rushing on 25 carries—but Peterson did three things very, very right in this game:

1) He willed the Vikings down the field on their first possession. Peterson was responsible for seven of the 12 plays that made up Minnesota’s mammoth opening drive. He bullied his way to two first downs along the way, including a 4th-and-1 pickup, and set the stage for the game’s first score by hauling the rock to the Green Bay one-yard line.

2) He put the ball in the end zone. If you think that’s easy, just ask the Packers, whose inability to punch it in from a yard out in the fourth quarter wound up being mighty costly.

3) He got the Packers to commit about 14 guy to stopping the run. They stopped it all right, but effectively abandoned the pass rush in the process. Peterson may not have put up the kind of eye-popping numbers we’re used to seeing, but his loss was Brett Favre’s gain.

Peterson won’t get credit for what the offense did to the Packers, but his presence on the field was no small part of the end result.

 
The Hater Says: Somebody get the Bears on the phone—we need to find out how they managed to swap our Adrian Peterson for their own.

How else do you explain “All Day’s” all-night no-show?

The numbers were bad, especially when you figure that for a 6’1” back, 2.2 yards per carry is about as much as you’d gain if you simply ran up to the line of scrimmage, held the ball out, and fell forward.

The context was worse: In the previous two weeks, the Packers gave up 141 yards rushing to Cedric Benson, and 117 to Steven Jackson, even though Jackson was the only Ram who remotely resembled playmaker.

This wasn’t exactly the Steel Curtain here. But Peterson got stuffed four times for negative yardage. He was stopped for no gain another four times.

And about that fumble…

As ESPN commentator Ron Jaworksi asked, how does a man with such monstrously strong hands lose so many balls?

You’re better than that, AP, and you know it.


The Minnesota Defense

The Homer Says: Before the game, when Mike Tirico said the Vikings sport “the best defensive line in the NFL,” I thought he was going a little overboard.

Afterwards, I wondered why he didn’t use a few more superlatives.

Jared Allen spent most of the game doing things to Aaron Rodgers that are illegal in most states. The mulleted maniac racked up 4.5 of the team’s eight (eight!) sacks, delivered five quarterback hits, registered four tackles for loss, and nailed Rodgers in the end zone for a safety that stretched Minnesota’s lead to 30-14.

A little further back, Antoine Winfield led the Vikings with 10 tackles, including a vicious hit on Ryan Grant at the goal line to set up Allen’s safety. Winfield also snuck around Greg Jennings to pick off Rodgers and kill what would have been a go-ahead drive for the Packers in the second quarter.

And how about that goal-line stand to kill an eight-and-a-half-minute, 14-play Green Bay drive at the one?

Rodgers took the Pack 81 yards to set up 1st-and-goal from the Minnesota five-yard line. Spectacular stops from E.J. Henderson, Chad Greenway, and Ben Leber on the next three downs forced the Packers to throw on 4th-and-1, and a lucky drop by Donald Lee ended the threat.

If the Packers had any aspirations of matching Favre blow-for-blow, the Vikings snuffed them out right then and there.

The Hater Says: How do you terrorize a quarterback to a degree he’s never seen in his career, down multiple punts inside the five-yard line, force a safety, kill two scoring drives with turnovers, and still let the other guys put 23 points on the board?

By giving up a whole bunch of big plays in between.

The Vikings allowed Rodgers to complete six passes of 20 yards or more, including touchdown throws of 33 and 62 yards. In fact, when they weren’t busy giving the Packers QB turf burns, they were relatively powerless to stop him from picking their secondary apart to the tune of 384 yards passing in a 26-of-37 performance.

Tight end Jermichael Finley came into the game with 11 career receptions for 136 yards. He caught six passes for 128 yards on the night. Donald Driver chipped in four catches for 55 yards and way too many first downs. Jordy “Doofy White Guy” Nelson caught three balls for 47 yards and a score.

Even with Greg Jennings limited to 31 yards on three catches, the Green Bay passing attack was in business.

Ryan Grant led a running game that banged out a surprisingly potent 82 yards on 17 attempts, for 4.8 yards per carry. If the Packers hadn’t been playing from behind for most of the night, he might have posed a legitimate problem.

At the end of the night, the Vikings let the Packers collect 19 first downs, including seven third-down conversions in 13 tries. If Green Bay hadn’t blown a chance at points on the goal line, Rodgers’ fervent drive in the game’s final two minutes might have cost Minnesota dearly.



Brett Favre and the Passing Game

The Homer Says: This was one of those nights when you’d love to spend a little quality time with one of those Packer fans who insists on calling his fallen idol “Brent.”

Through three quarters, Favre was 20-of-24 with three touchdowns. If the Vikings hadn’t put the passing game on ice in the final period, he almost certainly would have topped 300 yards passing for the second straight week, and would have been a decent bet to pick up another score or two.

As it was, he had to settle for 271 yards, a 135.3 passer rating, and the satisfaction of being the best quarterback on the field.

Bernard Berrian looked like a legitimate weapon for the first time all season, catching six balls for 75 yards and a touchdown. When Sidney Rice wasn’t busy plucking on-side kicks out of the air, he managed to haul in five passes for 70 yards and find the end zone himself. Visanthe Shiancoe delivered in the red zone.

The best part of the passing attack? The Packers didn’t lay a finger on Favre all night. At one point in the third quarter, Green Bay brought just three rushers, giving Favre seven eternal seconds to sit back in the pocket as the defenders bounced haplessly off the O-Line. He hit tight end Jeff Dugan for a cool 25-yard pickup on the play.

Favre insists tonight wasn’t about sticking it to the Pack. But if it was, well, consider it stuck.

The Vikings beat a division rival in their first real showdown of the year. They looked fantastic at times in doing so. They’re 4-0. You can’t ask for much more than that.

The Hater Says: Favre was indeed unstoppable for much of the game—until the Minnesota coaching staff decided to stop him.

He was throwing to whomever he wanted, whenever he wanted—until Brad Childress decided to stop throwing.

Bold move there, Chilly.

Listen, we get that you had a 16-point lead and wanted to run down the clock. We get that you didn’t want to put Favre in a position to commit a game-changing turnover.

We get that part of being an NFL head coach these days means checking your cojones at the door, and that in choosing to kneecap your heretofore-dazzling offense in the fourth quarter, you were just living up to that expectation.

But how many zero-yard runs was it going to take before you figured out you weren’t fooling anybody out there? How many times did you plan to run a minute and a half off the clock via three-and-out in the closing stanza, anyway?

For that matter, how many times did you see the Packers stop Favre and the passing offense in the first three quarters? I’ll field that one for you: Once. They stopped him once. Your other five possessions during that stretch ended in one bizarre turnover and four touchdowns. 

This bears repeating: Your quarterback was 20-of-freaking-24. He had more time to throw than Usain Bolt needs to run the 100-meter-dash. He was shredding the Green Bay secondary like an Enron intern on a Friday.

So why take your foot off the gas? Why leave points on the field and let the Packers make a few desperate plays to claw their way back into the game? Why not go for the kill?

They used to say the only person who could stop Michael Jordan in college was Dean Smith. On Monday night, the only person who could stop Brett Favre was Brad Childress.

And people wonder why I don’t trust this team.

 
For more on the NFL, follow Marino on Twitter @MarinoEccher.

A Look at the Greatest Vikings-Packers Games of the Past Decade

If you’re an ESPN executive, the most exciting sentence in the English language right now probably goes a little something like this:

Brett Favre takes on the Green Bay Packers on Monday Night Football.

Combine a bitter rivalry with a hugely polarizing star, stick it in the most popular timeslot of the most popular sport in America, and what do you get? 

One seriously popular product, that’s what. Dolphins-Colts drew nearly 15 million viewers a few weeks ago on Monday night. It's hard to imagine Vikings-Packers won't blow that number out of the water. Whatever the final score, the "Worldwide Leader" is poised to put up some seriously crooked numbers.

The craziest part? Monday night's game isn't even the most exciting showdown between the two teams this season. That won't come until Nov. 1, when Favre takes the stage in front of 72,000 of his scorned admirers at Lambeau Field. As Samuel L. Jackson might tell us, "Hold on to your butts."

On the eve of the opening act of one of most riveting regular-season dramas we can remember, we're compelled to look back at a handful of the classic Minnesota-Green Bay clashes that have paved the way.

Here, we highlight four such games. Our guess is that before the season is over, we'll have a strong candidate to round out the top five.

Oct. 5, 1998, Lambeau Field: Vikings 37, Packers 24

Between Sept. 3, 1995 and Oct. 5, 1998, the Packers played 25 regular-season games at Lambeau.

They won all of them.

That's a three-year stretch of dominance that rivals the length of the average NFL career. In other words, a whole generation of players came and went without seeing the Packers lose at home.

Then Randy Moss made his way into the league, and everything changed.

Moss made an impact from Week One of his rookie campaign, but this game served as his coming-out party: Five catches, 190 yards, two touchdowns, and one shattered winning streak.

Randall Cunningham threw for 442 yards and four scores on the day. Favre tossed three picks before getting the hook in favor of Doug Pederson, and a young Ryan Longwell kicked a field goal and three PATs in a losing effort.

Some Packer fans will tell you this game was the beginning of the end of the Holmgren era. For Vikings fans getting caught up in the magical 1998 season, it was the beginning of something special.

Nov. 6, 2000, Lambeau Field: Packers 26, Vikings 20 (OT)

If you read the box score, it looked simple: Antonio Freeman caught a 43-yard pass from Brett Favre to win the game.

If you remember the play that went down as "The Improbable Bobble," it was anything but.

On a messy night in Green Bay, Daunte Culpepper and the Vikings spent four quarters matching the Pack blow-for-blow. Both offenses were pass-happy, and neither moved the ball well in the rain. 

The Vikings nearly won the game in regulation, but as Gary Anderson lined up for a 33-yard field goal with seven seconds to play, Mitch Berger muffed the snap, then chucked up an ill-advised pass attempt that was picked off to send the game into overtime.

On 3rd-and-4 during Green Bay's first possession of OT, Minnesota pressured Favre into a long lob to Antonio Freeman. Vikings corner Chris Dishman broke it up.

Or so he thought.

Dishman whacked the ball out of the air and off of his body. Freeman, face-down on the ground, somehow came up with the ricochet on the fly.

Dishman didn't notice that Freeman wasn't down, and Freeman waltzed Scot-free into the endzone for the win.

As Favre tells it, he mobbed Freeman during the ensuing celebration before asking in a whisper, "Did you catch it?"

Freeman's reply: "Hell yeah, I got it."

Jan. 9, 2005, Lambeau Field: Vikings 31, Packers 14

In many respects, Minnesota's 2004 season was an affair to forget.

The Vikings started 5-1 and finished 8-8. Mike Tice was nailed for running a Super Bowl ticket scalping operation a few months after the season ended. Randy Moss ruffled plenty of feathers when he headed to the locker room with a few seconds left on the clock at the end of a Week 17 loss in Washington.

But this particular night in Green Bay was one to remember.

The first and only playoff meeting between the Vikings and Packers was a tale of two quarterbacks. Culpepper racked up 284 yards passing and two touchdowns; Favre threw for 216 yards, a touchdown, and four interceptions.

Moss, allegedly nursing a hamstring injury, caught four balls for 70 yards and two scores. He punctuated his second trip to the end zone by giving Packer fans—notorious for mooning the visiting team's bus as it approaches and leaves the stadium—a little taste of their own medicine.

If you ask me, the league's $10,000 fine for the stunt was a small price to pay for making the ever-obnoxious Joe Buck freak out on the air about an act he deemed "disgusting." Evidently, Buck was unaware that Moss had in fact kept his pants on.

The Vikings went on to get pasted by the Eagles the following week, but if there was ever a win to validate a long, ugly season, this was it.

Nov. 9, 2008, the Metrodome: Minnesota Vikings 28, Green Bay Packers 27

When Lovie Smith took over as the Bears head coach, his first stated goal was clear: Beat the Packers.

When Brad Childress took the Vikings job, he never went public with a similar intention. Considering Minnesota kicked off his tenure with an 0-5 skid against Green Bay, that's probably a good thing.

Heading into this game, Childress had plenty to worry about besides that streak. The Vikings were 4-4 and a tied for third place. In their last divisional game, they'd turned the ball over five times and given up 48 points in a loss to the Bears. The high-profile acquisitions they'd made in the offseason (Jared Allen, Bernard Berrian) hadn't vaulted them into contention.

In other words, they needed a win here.

To get one, Childress put the ball in the hands of Adrian Peterson.

As Sam Adams would say, always a good decision.

Peterson ripped off 192 yards rushing on 30 carries, including a 29-yard rumble for a touchdown in the fourth quarter to stop a 17-0 Green Bay run. The PAT gave the Vikings a one-point lead with a little more than two minutes to play.

Aaron Rodgers brought the Pack to the outskirts of field goal range, but Mason Crosby pushed the go-ahead kick a few feet wide of the upright from 52 yards out, giving Childress his first win over his biggest rival.

Vikings fans can only hope that it won't be his last.

For more on the NFL, follow Marino on Twitter @MarinoEccher.

Catch Him if You Can: Brett Favre and His Receivers Still Have Issues To Resolve

Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

If you’re a defensive coordinator taking on the Vikings these days, your game plan isn’t complicated:

Take away Adrian Peterson, and make Brett Favre throw big to beat you.

It didn’t work for Cleveland or Detroit. Peterson rushed for 272 yards through Minnesota’s first two games, at a clip of 6.8 yards per carry. Favre was content to dink and dunk his way around the field to the tune of 133 yards per game.

It almost worked for San Francisco. The 49ers held Petersen to 85 yards on 19 carries in Week Three, forcing Favre shoulder a heavier burden in Week Three than he had in the previous two weeks combined.

His pass attempts leapt from 48 to 95. His yardage spiked from 265 to 606. Frankly, he did more work than the Vikings would prefer him to do.

In the end, Minnesota got the job done, but the win was neither pretty nor probable. Sunday’s win was a thrill, but if Greg Lewis’ foot had come down a few centimeters further back, Favre have would completed fewer than 50 percent of his throws on the day, and we’d be discussing his performance in a far more critical light this week.

The Niners won’t be the last team to put Favre on the spot this season, and if the Vikings don’t smooth over a few wrinkles in the passing game, it’s going to cost them one of these days.

The biggest problem? Favre and his wide receivers still aren’t quite on the same page.

They’ve made strides since training camp, to be sure. Given that Favre is still a bit of a Johnny-come-lately in Minnesota, maybe they’re as far along as we can expect. 

But through three weeks, the team’s No. 1 pass-catcher is still a backup running back. Chester Taylor leads all Vikings in both receptions (15) and targets (18). He caught seven balls against the Niners; nobody else on the team caught more than four.

We’re not knocking Taylor’s production, but we’re also hard-pressed to envision an endless stream of checkdown throws as the lynchpin of Brad Childress’ “kick-ass offense.”

Four-yard lobs behind the line of scrimmage are great for Favre’s QB rating, but they’re not going to keep defenses honest about loading up on Peterson. If the Vikings want to win a couple games through the air, they need to their receivers.

They certainly tried against San Francisco: Favre directed a total of 25 throws to Bernard Berrian, Percy Harvin, and Sidney Rice. But those three came down with just 12 catches.

Berrian looked lost at times. He misfired badly on a few routes, dropped at least one first-down catch, and lost a handle on another that bounced into Shawntae Spencer’s arms for an interception.

Harvin let a few third-down passes slip away himself. And between the end of the first half and the final drive of the game, Rice didn’t catch a pass.

Meanwhile, Visanthe Shiancoe, who was supposed to benefit big-time from Favre’s fondness of the tight end, remains missing in action. Shiancoe caught two of the five balls thrown his way on Sunday, raising his reception total on the season to six.

After watching the receiving corps carve up the Browns and Lions with ease, perhaps we’ve set the bar too high. But coming through against a shaky opponent when the running game in working is one thing. Coming through against a contender when the running game stalls is something else altogether.

Truth be told, we’re more likely to see the former than the latter this week. After bottling up Matt Forte in Week One, Green Bay has coughed up 141 yards rushing to Cedric Benson and 127 to Steven Jackson. If Minnesota has to rely on the passing game to move the ball Monday night, I’ll be surprised.

But sooner or later, somebody—Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Chicago, New York—is going to make the Vikings throw to win. If Favre and his receivers want to hold up their end of the bargain, they’ve got some work to do.

For more on the NFL, follow Marino on Twitter @MarinoEccher.

What is Brett Favre's $12 Million Buying? A Win

Eighty-nine seconds to play, eighty yards to go, no timeouts, and down by four.

Does Sage Rosenfels get the job done in that situation? I don’t know.

Does Tarvaris Jackson dance away from the pass rush and throw a perfect strike to Greg Lewis in the back of the end zone? I have my doubts.

But Brett Favre sure does.

If you were wondering why the Vikings are paying Favre $12 million to hand off to Adrian Peterson, you got your answer Sunday.

The 49ers had Peterson under control, limiting Minnesota to a whopping two first downs on the ground. They had Favre on the run, sacking him twice for a loss of 18 yards and knocking him down on a number of other occasions (including the moment after he delivered his final pass).

San Francisco had already slammed the door on one comeback drive minutes earlier, capitalizing on an illegal forward pass penalty to force a turnover on downs at midfield.

The Niners just needed a first down to put the game on ice. But they didn’t get one. Instead, they put Favre in position to hold on and engineer a miracle comeback: Throw it, move the chains, spike it, rinse and repeat.

Favre got off seven plays and two spikes in the game’s final 1:09. He completed six passes to five different receivers, and eluded a spirited pass rush twice.

The Associated Press write-up will tell you that, “Until the end, Favre was being outplayed by Shaun Hill.”

Don’t believe everything you read.

Favre kept the Vikings in this game from wire to wire. He threw for 14 of the team’s 19 first downs. His third-quarter interception—the first he’s thrown all year—ricocheted out of Bernard Berrian’s hands.

And while the climactic throw to Lewis will go in the books as a 32-yard pass, Favre launched that bad boy from the 38-yard line to a target waiting 10 yards deep in the end zone.

A 48-yard frozen rope to win the game with two seconds left on the clock—how many quarterbacks can make that play happen?

I don’t know. But I know Brett Favre can.

In other news…

Who do we have to stop to catch a break in this town, anyway?

Lost in the hysteria surrounding Minnesota’s breathtaking comeback- is the curious question of how the Vikings found themselves down in the first place- after a defensive performance that should have stopped the Niners cold.

The Vikes held San Francisco to 246 yards of total offense. They forced nine punts. They didn’t allow the Niners to convert a single third down in 11 tries.

So where the heck did those 24 points come from?

A blocked field goal that Nate Clements ran back for a touchdown was one of the culprits. Penalties were another: San Francisco’s two TD drives involved a grand total of four first downs gained via actual plays.

San Francisco also took advantage of strong field position more than once, driving for a touchdown from its own 43 and a field goal from its own 39.

We’ve been beating this drum for a while for the Vikings, but we’ll say it again: It’s tough to keep points off the board when the other team only needs to go 30 yards to get in range for a kick.

A perfect day to be a Midwesterner

All four members of the NFC North got to hoist the “W” flag yesterday. How long has it been since we saw that happen? Four years.

On Nov. 13, 2005, the Vikings edged the Giants, the Packers beat Michael Vick and the Falcons, the Bears beat the Niners, and the Lions topped the Cardinals. Until yesterday, the quartet hadn’t posted an undefeated week since then.

We don’t want to point fingers for the drought, but a certain franchise—we’ll call it “Detroit”—didn’t exactly help matters by winning a total of 15 games in those four seasons.

Still, the Lions held up their end of the bargain for the first time in 20 games, and the rest of the North followed suit in impressive fashion.

Maybe that whole “powerhouse” label has some legs after all.

Lovie Smith, Jedi Master?

Speaking of good fortune for the NFC North, it seems the Bears have mastered a new defensive wrinkle: The art of getting your opponent to miss field goals.

Two weeks ago, Chicago took advantage of two Jeff Reed misfires to steal a win from the Steelers. Yesterday, the Bears got two more clunkers off the foot of Olindo Mare—who started the game 2-of-2—en route to a 25-19 win in Seattle.

Maybe Lovie Smith has a Voodoo doll hidden behind that clipboard. Maybe he’s using the force to nudge the ball off course. Maybe Chicago’s special-teams unit has come up with some truly distracting one-liners regarding opposing kickers’ sister's.

Or maybe it’s just better to be lucky than good.

Whatever the case, I don’t think the Bears are complaining.

Am I thrilled to see Percy Harvin take a kickoff return to the house…

....or annoyed that my fantasy league’s scoring system didn’t give me any points for his trouble?

Life’s full of little trade-offs.

In the Race for Quarterback Supremacy, the NFC is Closing Fast

Not so long ago, the gulf in quality between AFC and NFC quarterbacks was about as wide as Peyton Manning's forehead.

In the past decade, we've seen Super Bowls that pitted Manning against Rex Grossman, Rich Gannon against Brad Johnson, and John Elway against Chris Chandler. We've seen two AFC passers set the single-season touchdown record.

As recently as 2007, four of the top five passer ratings in the league belonged to AFC teams. Even last year, two NFC teams—Minnesota and Carolina—won their respective divisions with quarterbacks who are either out of football (Gus Frerotte) or circling the drain (Jake Delhomme).

But as is typical in the NFL, the times, they are a-changin'.

We saw hints of an NFC comeback last season. Kurt Warner partied like it was 1999. Drew Brees made a run at Dan Marino's passing yardage record, and became the first NFC quarterback to lead the league in touchdown throws since 2003.

Early in 2009, the senior circuit has built on that progress to mount an earnest challenge in the inter-conference arms race.

Brees has come close to hanging half a C-Note on consecutive opponents, including an allegedly elite Philadelphia defense. Matt Ryan looks like he's making a Carson Palmer-esque leap in his sophomore campaign. Eli Manning (finally) looks like a franchise quarterback.

Just how good were NFC quarterbacks last weekend? Brett Favre's 23-of-27 performance wasn't even the conference's most accurate showing. That distinction went to Warner, whose 24-of-26 outing in Carolina set an NFL record for completion percentage in a game with 20 or more attempts.

And the NFC's hot streak has come without much help from a handful of the conference's most accomplished passers. Matt Hasselbeck and Donovan McNabb are banged up. Tony Romo and Aaron Rodgers are struggling.

If some or all of those QBs right the ship, we could be looking at a crop of top-flight NFC quarterbacks that runs nine or 10 deep.

Moreover, the conference boasts just a few legitimate clunkers from top to bottom. Delhomme, Matthew Stafford, and Marc Bulger are most likely candidates to stink up the joint from wire to wire. And remember that once upon a time, Delhomme and Bulger were Pro Bowl quarterbacks. Their ineptitude is not a foregone conclusion.

Swapping out Jay Cutler for Kyle Orton has helped the NFC gain some footing in the quarterback department. So has the return of a thus far-effective Brett Favre.

The AFC isn't bankrupt of talent at the position, of course. Peyton Manning continues to shine. Mark Sanchez is the new Joe Flacco—and Flacco is the new Drew Bledsoe, in a good way.

Ben Roethlisberger is still an elite passer (albeit one trapped behind a nightmare of an O-Line). Sooner or later, Tom Brady will be, too. Philip Rivers is still the best quarterback taken in the 2004 Draft.

But in the middle and lower tiers of the conference, the situation devolves rapidly.

Kerry Collins and Orton are serviceable. David Garrard, Brady Quinn and Matt Cassel are shaky. We can't print the adjective that best describes JaMarcus Russell, but as Sean Connery might tell Alex Trebek, it begins with a bloody "S".

I'm not saying those guys won't produce a few pleasant surprises. I'm just saying I wouldn't want to handcuff my playoff hopes to most of them.

We'll have a number of opportunities throughout the year to watch top passers from each conference go head-to-head. Ryan and Brady square off this weekend. So do Peyton Manning and Warner.

In Week Four, we'll see Sanchez test his mettle against Brees. And we've got a season's worth of NFC North/AFC North clashes waiting in the wings.

We won't be able to pass definitive judgment on the outcome of the big-picture quarterback derby for a few months. In the meantime, it's nice to have two conferences in the race again.

For more on the NFL, follow Marino on Twitter @MarinoEccher.

Something about these Vikings still makes us a little nervous

If the Vikings were any other Super Bowl contender, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

We wouldn't be getting antsy about taking the Lions seriously. We wouldn't flirt with the idea of putting our money on Detroit plus 10.5. And we certainly wouldn't be wondering why Peter King picked Minnesota to lose.

With any other contender, we'd be counting up Adrian Peterson's touchdowns in advance. We'd be debating whether Brett Favre qualifies as an elite fantasy option this week. We'd be game-planning for San Francisco.

But we're not. We're working up a "wait-and-see" attitude that speaks volumes about how far these Vikings have to go to win our trust.

You'd think a 17-3 mark against the Lions over the past decade would earn Minnesota a little slack here. And you'd think a 45-27 beatdown in New Orleans last week would keep Detroit's stock down heading into tomorrow's game.

Look past the Vikings' daunting head-to-head edge, however, and you'll see a long list of close calls. Over the past 10 years, 11 of Minnesota's wins in the series have been single-possession affairs. Factor in Detroit's three wins, and the final margin 14 of the past 20 Vikings-Lions games has been seven points or less.

Last season, the Vikings outscored Detroit by a total of six points in two wins, and trailed entering the fourth quarter in both games. Against a Lions team that lost 13 games by at least a touchdown in 2008, that practically constitutes defeat. 

History aside, the consternation over a potential upset tomorrow sheds light on a lack of faith in Minnesota's ability to dictate the course of the game against an inferior opponent.

We're not sure if we trust the passing offense to shred Detroit's dismal secondary. We're not sure if we trust the defense to bottle up Calvin Johnson and Kevin Smith.

And we're not sure if we trust Brad Childress to go for the kill early rather than letting the Lions linger into the second half, as the Browns did last week.

Indeed, at the heart of the lingering unease that surrounds Sunday's game is the sense (fair or otherwise) that Childress' Vikings squads have a knack for underachieving. Fans wanted the playoffs in 2007; they got 8-8. They wanted a Super Bowl berth last year and got a first-round loss at home. In some circles, Childress is seen as a coach who can't seem to maximize the sum of his team's talented parts.

If the Vikings want to make the leap from good to great, they need to put those doubts to rest. They need to stamp out any trace of hope Detroit might have.

At halftime, we shouldn't be asking if the Vikings are going to pull this one out. We should be asking when they're going to call off the dogs.

For the record, I don't expect an upset, or even a squeaker. If the Vikes can drop 34 points on a middle-of-the-pack Browns defense, I don't see why they can't hang at least that many on Detroit. I don't see Matthew Stafford will stay upright against Minnesota's front four. Frankly, I don't see how the Lions will stay within single digits.

If we were talking about any other contender, these things would go without saying.

But we're talking about the Vikings. And even against the Lions, this is one bunch of Super Bowl hopefuls with plenty left to prove.

For more on the NFL, follow Marino on Twitter @MarinoEccher.

Don't Let the NFL Raise Your Kids, Folks

Booze, babes, Viagra, and football.

If you ask me, that sounds like a heck of a party.

But if you ask one media watchdog group, the combination is making NFL telecasts unfit for family consumption.

Concerned parents want to keep sexed-up advertisements for beer away from their kids. Concerned congressmen want to relegate promotions for little blue "life enhancement" pills to nighttime programming.

Concerned league officials want to...well, they probably want to keep selling ads to the highest bidder, salacious or otherwise. But one imagines they'll at least pretend to listen.

I can sympathize a bit with Mom and Pop here. If I were in their shoes, I wouldn't want to tear myself away from The Drive to give little Jimmy The Talk. And I certainly wouldn't want my sons and daughters growing up with the impression that it's cool to drink anything that tastes like Bud Light Lime.

But if you're looking to the NFL as a source of good old-fashioned family values, you're probably looking in the wrong place.

Sure, plopping down in front of the plasma with the kids on Sunday afternoon can be a great way to teach a few life lessons. You can point out Drew Brees and talk about overcoming adversity and labels. You can give a nod to Tony Dungy and talk about living a life of service.

But if your children are keen on following professional football, they're going to learn more than that.

They're going to learn why Michael Vick was taking a break from football. They’re going to see Albert Haynesworth’s foot getting cozy with Andre Gurode’s face. They’re going to wonder why Mark Chmura was so fond of hot-tub parties.

Whether those kids read ESPN.com, watch SportsCenter, or talk about football with their friends at school, they're going to hear about substance abuse. And domestic violence. And sex scandals. 

The league is just like any other collection of people: There are really good guys, and there are really, really bad ones. If your kids are into football, they're going to learn about both.

You can explain that advertisers are willing to say and show absurd things to sell a product, that commercials depict a fantasy world. But you're also going to have to explain the absurd (and sometimes terrible) things that NFL players do in the real world.

You're going to have to explain how Travis Henry actually fathered 11 children. You're going to have to explain how Pacman Jones actually incited a strip-club shooting. You're going to have to explain how Donte Stallworth actually killed a man. 

In a few years, you might have to explain how football is on hold for a while because a collection of the world's richest men can't agree on how to get richer.

It's enough to make an awkward question or two about erectile dysfunction seem like a breeze.

This doesn't mean you should block the NFL Network and bar your children from fan-dom until they turn 18. Growing up with a team to cheer for is one of the joys of the American experience, and I'm not suggesting you pull the plug on it.

If your kids can grasp the concept of a fair catch, they can grasp the idea that some products aren't appropriate for them. With a bit of guidance, they can handle the fact that some people do bad things.

If you can convince them that they shouldn't follow in the footsteps of Jared Allen and sack their buddies on the playground, you can convince them that they shouldn't follow in the footsteps on the game's less savory stars—and if you want them to have a positive experience following football, you're going to need to do just that.

You might still squirm a bit when that Viagra commercial rolls around. Just remember: If you're hoping the NFL will send a wholesome message to your kids, that commercial is the least of your concerns.