Vikings send Green Bay packing

By: Larry Fitzgerald
Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder
Originally posted 01/11/2005

 

 

 Green Bay, Wisconsin — Anything is possible in the NFL. A record 732 touchdown passes were thrown this season. Scoring was up, and 24 players scored at least 10 touchdowns. There was a record number of 100-yard rushers (179), and quarterbacks threw for 300 yards or more 81 times.

 For the first time ever, the Minnesota Vikings met their bitter border rival from Wisconsin in the playoffs — yes, the Green Bay Packers, champions of the NFC North — in what has to be the biggest game ever played between the two organizations.

Green Bay has won an NFL record 12 World Championships, and the Vikings have won zero. But today, thanks to the Vikings, Minnesota has bragging rights, because sports is about now, not yesterday.

 Green Bay had swept the regular season meetings by identical 34-31 margins, leaving the purple with a nasty taste in their mouths.

 The Vikings, after losing seven of their last 10 games, became the first team in the 72-year history of the NFL playoffs to still qualify for the playoffs. The stumbling regular-season Vikings, with a new life in the playoffs, went into cold, historic Lambeau Field and dominated the Packers 31-17.

 Vikings Head Coach Mike Tice joins Bud Grant and Jerry Burns as the only Vikings head coaches to win playoff games after qualifying for the playoffs with just eight regular-season wins.

 It was not close; it required that the Vikings, a group that has been labeled dysfunctional for 17 games, play with fire in their eyes and figure out how to play together as a team.

 Quarterback Daunte Culpepper has played at an MVP level all season long. All he did Sunday was do it again. Only this time, his teammates decided that they would let their hair hang out, literally, and play like there was no tomorrow. Most of the Vikings players with Afros pulled out their picks and Afro Sheen and looked like a group of brothers from the ‘70s. It was the Vikings Mod Squad vs. the Packers.

 It must have worked, because they put fear into the stumbling mistake-prone Packers, who allowed this group of Vikings to score the game’s first 17 points. Culpepper was the star of this show, throwing four touchdown passes — two to Randy Moss, who stuck around this time and played the entire 60 minutes.

 Moss has now scored eight touchdowns in the playoffs, tying Cris Carter for the most in Vikings playoff history.

 Yes, the Vikings established that they can be consistent. For the third time they scored 31 points on the Packers, only this time Defensive Coordinator Ted Cottrell’s defensive unit played tough, hard-nosed, in-your-face defense, forcing the legendary Brett Favre into costly mistakes. Favre was simply awful, throwing four interceptions against a defensive unit that intercepted only 11 passes all season. The four interceptions tied a Vikings team playoff record.

 “It’s tough to battle that guy," said cornerback Antoine Winfield, whose first-quarter interception set the tone for the defense. He’s [Favre] been in a lot of big games. We wanted to put some people in his face and make him throw the ball up there."

 Culpepper is a complete quarterback now. He is willing to take the check downs. Now, when Moss is doubled, he does not force the issue. “We can go out and make plays anytime, anywhere," said Culpepper. Our record has not shown that for the last 16 games, but I think we have an opportunity to change that. If we can do that one game at a time."

 Culpepper is much more than a gifted athlete; he is a gifted athlete who just happens to be a quarterback, and who has not gotten the attention he has earned this year. He has been sensational, and his numbers are remarkable. Culpepper said, “Moss came out with an attitude of getting it done."

 Moss added to his growing list of controversies by doing what he did Sunday, which was to play great, then score the game-clinching touchdown and take the football in a celebration jog to the goalpost and pretend to bend over, pull his pants down like he’s taking a dump, drop the football and appear to wipe his butt with the goal post. For that, Moss will certainly be fined by the league. Moss said what he did after the touchdown was “just having fun."

 Moss seemed surprised after the game when he was told by a number of national reporters covering the game in Green Bay that, because of the interview he did with Andrea Kremer of ESPN last week where he did not endorse Tice as head coach, Tice would probably have been fired had the Vikings lost to Green Bay.

 For the Vikings, they are having fun also after becoming only the second team in league history to finish 8-8 and win a road playoff game. St. Louis was the other, beating Seattle on Saturday. All bets are off.

 Philadelphia is next for the Vikings. On a Monday night back in September, the Eagles beat the Vikings 28-17. In that game the Vikings blew two great chances in the red zone to score early.

 The Eagles are the number-one NFC seed going 13-3, but they do not have Terrell Owens now. They will be rested and at home, but this is a different Vikings team that appears to have found its nitch. It’s Donovan McNabb vs. Culpepper, two Pro Bowl quarterbacks. Can Culpepper deliver again?