The Vikings decimated Dallas 34-3 Sunday, branding the Cowboys losers before prodding them off the edge of the cliff in an impressive BrettFavre-led cattle drive that carries Minneosta into New Orleans Sunday in what promises to be a gunslinging NFC title tilt shootout for the ages.
1. BrettFavre is a g-g ... a g-g-g-g-g ... a g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g ... a g-g-great quarterback – OK, we spit it out. Are you happy?
BrettFavre's greatest attribute is not his arm, which remains capable of firing off unusually zippy passes for a 40-year-old man. His greatest attribute is that he's a miracle of human evolution. As Cold, Hard Football Facts visiting Buffalo wing eater Sully noted Sunday: "Besides the fact he's 40, what physical ailments does BrettFavre have?"
The answer, Sully, is none.
BrettFavre took a lot of heat many years ago for taking a dive to hand his old pal Michael Strahan the single-season sack record. But maybe it's just a survival instinct that has allowed him to play with so little physical damage in a sport that grinds up athletes like the Chicago stockyards used to grind up heads of Texas beef.
We got a taste of that instinct Sunday: In the first half, DeMarcus Ware came flying in around the right tackle, like a laser-guided missile that appeared ready to nuke BrettFavre back into the Stone Age. BrettFavre hit the dirt without being touched ... he ducked the punch ... while Ware flew over his body. It was Ware who needed to be helped off the field while BrettFavre jumped up untouched, ready to gunsling for yet another day.
BrettFavre, signed in the middle of training camp amid a chorus of
disenchantment from the idiot pundit-ocracy, now takes his team into the conference title game. He's the biggest hit to come out of Minnesota since the 1980s classic Purple Rain album. Allow us to satisfy our 1980s pop peccadillo and declare "Take Me With U" the most underappreciated hit on an album in which every cut filled the airwaves in 1985.
It was a time when we actually harbored hopes of athleticism and this song would fill the air as we played basketball on the courts along Heron Road Beach while gawking at that little high-school hottie Suzanne prancing around in her front yard in her purple bikini ... you dirty little thing. You love it, teasing the boys, dontcha, you bosomy vixen ... Oops, sorry, 1980s flashback.
2. More BrettFavre l-l ... l-l-l ... l-l-love – In his last three playoff games, BrettFavre has produced the two the best postseason performances of his career (using passer rating as the measure).
In the 2007 divisional round against Seattle (when he was still with Green Bay), BrettFavre completed 18 of 23 for 173 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT and a 137.6 passer rating. In this game, he completed 14 of 24 for 234 yards, 4 TD, 0 INT and a 134.4 passer rating.
The problem was the game in between: BrettFavre's complete meltdown in the fourth quarter and overtime of Green Bay's 23-20 loss to the Giants in the 2007 NFC title game.
3. The Cowboys got a big hat, but no cattle – A big late-season run and the dominating win over the Eagles gave Dallas the appearance of a Big Time Contender. The Pigskin Pundit-ocracy was clearly only board. It all ended with the stampede chasing it each other head off a cliff: Sunday's loss to Minnesota was the second biggest postseason defeat in franchise history.
In one of the more curious confluences in football history, the biggest loss in the otherwise proud history of the Cowboys was the team's 38-6 loss to the L-l-l-l-l-l ... the L-l-l-l-l-l-l-l ... this is the tough ... the L-l-Lions back in the 1991 playoff. It was and remains Detroit's only postseason victory since 1957. That'd be a long time ago for those of you keeping score at home.
Of course, Dallas soon proved to have plenty of cattle under those big blue-starred Cowboys hats: they won the next two Super Bowls after that loss to the Lions.
4. The Defensive Hogs are being castrated – The Greatest Indicator in the History of Pigkind is 1-2 this weekend. The higher-rated D-Hogs of the Cardinals and Ravens lost Saturday; while the higher-rated D-Hogs of the Vikings overcame the Cowboys. The indicator went just 2-2 last weekend. So it's now 23-6 identifying playoff winners since we introduced it in 2007. (Note: the DHI is now 2-2 after New York's win over San Diego.)
5. With that said, teams that win the battle of the D-Hogs are winning the games – This game was no exception: The Vikings held the league's No. 2 ground attack (4.82 YPA) to 92 yards on 24 attempts (3.83 YPA) and contained homerun hitter Felix Jones to a long gain of 27 yards; they forced an awesome seven Negative Pass Plays on 41 dropbacks (17.1%); and they held the Cowboys to a dreadful 3 of 13 (23%) on third down (and 0 for 2 on fourth).
6. Yo, whatever happened to Adrian Peterson? – Minnesota's superstar running back gained 63 yards on 26 attempts – a lame 2.4 YPA. Peterson has now gone eight straight games without a 100-yard day. His most prolific outing in that period was 26 carries for 97 yards (3.7 YPA) against the Bengals back in Week 14. The totals in the equivalent of a half-season of work: 159 attempts, 529 yards, 3.3 YPA. Either the 24-year-old ball carrier has lost a step, or teams continue to game their defense against him and dare BrettFavre to beat them.
If that's the Saints and a possible Super Bowl opponent might consider a change of strategy: BrettFavre has made good on those dares.
7. A star was born – Third-year player Sidney Rice was Minnesota's leading receiver this year with 83 catches for 1,312 yards and 8 TD. It was quite a year, considering he had caught just 46 passes for 537 yards and 8 TDs in his first two years.
Great season – but lost amid the great numbers produced by the game's biggest receivers, not to mention the among the explosive potential of rookie teammate Percy Harvin and tight end Visanthe Shiancoe, who led the team with 11 TD receptions (among the most ever for a player at his position).
But a three-TD day in the playoffs should launch Rice into the upper tier of NFL pass catchers. It was the first three-TD day of his career.
8. Interceptions continue to rule – The Cold, Hard Football Facts will re-publish our critically acclaimed Postseason Interception Ladder this week, which tracks the winning perception of teams based upon interceptions. No single play is more critical to success in the playoffs and teams that throw fewer picks (or, put another way, make more picks on defense) are now 7-0 in the playoffs. Tony Romo threw one pick; BrettFavre threw zero. Including the regular season, BrettFavre has thrown just seven picks on 555 attempts in 17 games.
9. The NBC late-night TV wars offer more excitement than the 2009 NFL playoffs – Six of seven games so far this postseason have been blowouts. With the exception of
the Green Bay-Arizona classic in the wildcard round, the 2009 postseason has been the biggest dud since we tried and failed to blow up horseshoe crabs with M-80s down on the beach, in a misguided, juvenile effort to impress Suzanne and convince her to wiggle out of her little purple bikini. No such luck.
10. Minnesota erased its ugly character flaw, at least for one day – The Vikings entered the playoffs with what was easily the worst pass defense of any team in the tournament (27th overall with a 92.5 Defensive Passer Rating).
But against this unit, Tony Romo completed just 22 of 35 for 198 yards (a poor 5.7 YPA), 0 TD, 1 INT and a 66.1 passer rating.
From Minnesota's perspective, it was 26 points better than what they allowed in the average regular-season game. And remember, Minnesota's defense might have been worse even than that 92.5 DPR indicated: their schedule included a long series of games against some of the worst quarterbacks and passing offenses in football: Cleveland, Detroit (twice), Chicago (twice); St. Louis; Seattle. That's a soft schedule.
For Romo, it was 31 points below the lofty 97.6 he posted during the regular regular season and a sign that the "can't win the big game" mantra that were fended off for one week will return.
Based on regular-season performances, Minnesota's effort on pass defense was the greatest statistical turnaround by any team this week. Great statistical turnarounds on defense, meanwhile, are what sparked the 2006 Colts (run defense) and 2007 Giants (pass defense) to their recent Super Bowl runs.
