Divisional Game Recap: Vikes Roll Over the 'Boys 34-3

Does ESPN know how to pick these game or what. Only 2 of the ESPN "analysts" picked the Vikes to move on to the NFC Championship(Thanks Jaws and Eric Allen).  The network pretty much punched their ticket to the NFC Championship. It was obvious that the Network forgot something, is that the Vikes have been undefeated all season at the Thunderdome. The was suppose to dominate the Viking defense all game long with their dynamic running attack, suck the LBs in with their play action passed to Miles Austin and Jason Witten. I guess none of that worked out the way it was planned. The Vikes dominated the Cowboys in a 34-3 V-I-C-T-O-R-Y. This was one of the most satisfying wins as a Vikes fan in quite some time. One of the guys(a Pacer fan of course) told me today, that you are glowing like a pregnant chick. I told him I did not care, at least my team has made it futher than your team this season, with the QB that your GM disposed of.

 
Balanced Attack
Was Chilly really calling this game? Maybe, just maybe there is hope for him as the Vikings head coach. The Vikes called 33 rushes and 24 pass plays, now that is not to bad. Considering lately, the Vikes have been more of a pass oriented team with the stats being more passing than running. Brett Favre had a monster game and had some 1st in this game. This is the 1st time that Favre has ever passed for 4 TDs in a playoff game and the 1st playoff win over the Cowboys(it looks like the monkey is still around). The Vikes linemen did a good just from keeping Ware and James from getting to Favre. Favre was sacked 3 times, but the hogs gave him the time that any QB needs to pick apart a defense.The line played well throughout this game and had VERY few breakdown.Favre had 234 yards in the air. Now that was a pretty good performance by a 40 year old QB.

With line protecting Favre, we able to find Sid The Kid early and often. Rice had benefited the most from the Favre addiction this season. Favre connected with Rice on a 47 yard TD play. From there Viking offense did not look back, they kept the pedal to the metal. Rice finished the day with 6 catches for 147 yards and 3TDs.From the start of the season Favre and Sidney have been in sync(not a terrible excuse for a boys band). Shanks had the other TD for 11 yards grab, this was his lone catch of the game. There were 7 different receivers that were found by Favre in this game.

The Dallas Cowboys are good rush defense team. The Vikes rushed for ovr 100 yards against a team that on average gave up about 90 yards per game.  The Vikes average 3.3 yards per carry. The running game was not stop, but was not by any means a BIG part of the game. Adrain Peterson had a good game, but not Adrainesque type of a game. He had 63 yards on 26 carries, he did enough to keep Dallas on edge. The mix and success on the ground was enough to keep the defense guess what the Vikes would do next.

Where is Tony?

The Cowboys in the first two drives going down the field with ease against this Vikings defense. After a Ray Edwards forced a fumble from Tony Romo and Kevin recovered in the 1st drive and Dallas missed a field goal. This defense was all over Tony Romo and Company.With Allen and the Williams Wall getting most of the attention. This freed up, Ray Edwards pick a good game to have one of the best games of his career. He was making play after play, it was like something out of the Purple People Eaters days. Edwards finished the day with five tackles (all for loss), 6 QB hits,three sacks and a forced fumble.

The Vikes as a team sacked Romo six times. With Romo being hit time and time again and out of his element of trying to come from behind, he was getting hit on most pass plays.Romo fumbled three times (losing two) and threw an interception. Now that was a sweet sight to see the Cowboys getting totally dominated for most of this "contest". Sure it may have been 17-3 at the start of the 4th quarter, the defense was flying to the ball and tacking well in this game. It was sweet to see a Vikes team tackling well in this game, It was obvious they are motivated to keep up this type of a rampage. The defense did not let up in this game whatsoever.

The issue coming in this game was the coverage issues. The Vikes seonday came to play against a team that has been having good luck. The DBs did not allow much YAC yards in this game. When the receivers caught the ball they had a hoard of Vikes stomping them to the ground. I was pleased to see how the Vikes defense performed against this Cowboys team.

The Vikes had all the Thunderdome behind them and the Cowboys could not hear much of anything. The sweet taste of Victory. The Vikes stayed aggressive from start to finish, some people think that last TD was running up the score. You get paid to win and not to care if hurt the other teams' feelings. Keith Brookings was crying about the last TD pass by Favre saying the it was classless. Do not know what is classless rubbing Bernard Berrian's nose into the turf after making a catch. Where is Mr. Intensity Now?? Sitting at home crying about how their defense was schooled by a 40 year old QB.

Now the Vikes will be getting ready to visit the Saints and be listening to Darren Sharper talking smack all week long on how he has Favre number and such. There will be more to come this week.

SKOL VIKINGS.