For more than a month we've voiced concern over Minnesota's fatal flaw, the glaring weakness that would keep it from winning the Super Bowl this year, no matter how well BrettFavre or Jared Allen performed.

 

That weakness was, and is, one of the worst pass defenses in football, now a dreadful No. 28 in Defensive Passer Rating (93.7).

 

We saw that weak link snap like Joe Theismann's leg Monday night, not against one of the great prolific passers the Favrkings will face in the playoffs (Kurt Warner, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Donovan McNabb), but against one of the most mistake-prone and underachieving quarterbacks in the NFL in 2009: Jay Cutler, he of the league-leading 26 INTs Cutlers.

 

Chicago's widely criticized signal-caller threw four touchdown passes, including the game-winner in overtime (39 yards to Devin Aromashodu), as the Bears thwarted a furious BrettFavre-led fourth-quarter comeback for a 36-30 victory.

 

The more embarrassing part for the Favrkings? Cutler was booed by his hometown fans on his team's very first possession, a quick three-and-out that made it look like the Bears were in for another long night of offensive futility.

 

But Cutler soon recovered, matching a career-high with four TD passes (a feat he last accomplished in September 2008) and topping the century mark in passer rating (108.4) for the first time since posting a 100.4 against the historically inept, No. 32-ranked pass defense of Detroit back on Oct. 4.

 

The most embarrassing part for the Favrkings? Cutler was fresh off perhaps the worst game of his career in a 31-7 loss last week at Baltimore. The man from Santa Claus completed just 10 of 27 for 94 yards with three picks and a 7.9 (yes, 7.9) passer rating just eight days before he carved up the porous Minnesota pass defense like it was the CHFF crew's traditional Christmas beef sausage.

 

Minnesota in the process dropped two more spots on our Defensive Passer Rating charts, from No. 26 last week to No. 28 this week. Only also-rans like Seattle and Jacksonville, and the league's stinking detritus like St. Louis and Detroit, are worse than the playoff-bound Vikings.

 

It's something of a minor miracle that the Favrkings have won the NFC North and still might earn a first-round bye given the condition of their pass defense. In fact, it's a tribute to the offense and the quarterback we so often criticize for his late-season implosions, BrettFavre, that they've been so competitive.

 

The ageless wonder was brilliant in the second half Monday night, leading the Favrkings to 30 points and forging overtime in a game they trailed 16-0 at intermission.

 

But coupled with one of the worst pass defenses in the NFL, it wasn't enough. And if it wasn't enough against a struggling passer like Cutler Monday night, it won't be enough against one of the NFC's quick-triggered gunslingers in the playoffs.  

 

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Finally, for your entertainment pleasure, a song from 1990, just bordering the end of our pop-culture sweet spot of the 1980s, from the legendary rap group and Ron Borges-style plagiarists, Snap! We hear it's Joe Theismann's favorite.