It was hard watching the Green Bay Packers take their playoff loss to Arizona, but I believe it was almost 10 times harder for a Viking fan to watch Minnesota fall to the Saints in their NFC playoff final.
The Vikings outplayed New Orleans winning every aspect of the game, but they did their very best in giving the game away with turnovers . . . having five to their credit.
It’s one thing to lose a game, but to dominate in so many ways and then still lose, I think the Vikings just have a “hex” on them.
This has happened before, back in 1998 when the Vikings (15-1 in regular season play) dominated every team in the NFL, only to fall to the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC finals by a missed field goal, which would have clinched the game. The kicker, Gary Andersen, had not missed a field goal or extra point all season, but he did this one. Ironically, the guy that beat the Vikings that year was Morten Anderson, who booted the 38-yard game-winning field goal to send Atlanta to their first Super Bowl ever. No, they’re not brothers or even related, but it was Anderson beating Andersen for the win.
This playoff NFC final, however, was not a missed field goal, but a “missed opportunity” as QB Brett Favre made a poor decision and threw the ball across the field (like he has throughout his career) only to watch it get intercepted. He could have ran the ball and got the 10 to 15 yards needed, or thrown the ball to another receiver that was near the sidelines wide-open. Instead he elected to go with a play that was a gamble instead of taking the safe play out.
Sure that play was huge and would have set up a field goal for a very reliable Ryan Longwell, but the Vikings had chances to score time after time after time in this game.
~ They botched the easy three points before heading into the locker room at halftime with a Peterson fumble.
~ One fumble led to a short touchdown drive for New Orleans.
~ Two fumbles in the fourth-quarter stopped potential game winning drives for the Vikings.
The Vikings had 475 yards of offense to the Saints 257 and they had the ball nearly 10 minutes more in the game.
All in all, the Vikings just were not destined to win this game and that’s all there is to it!
My conclusion is that you just can’t rely on anyone that’s over 38 years old to win a game for you! Favre is 40 and Gary Anderson was 39 when he missed that huge field goal back in 1998.
You would think they would be seasoned enough to do just about anything, especially in a crucial situation . . . but now I believe the opposite!
I guess Favre giveth the season and then He taketh the season away!
You do have to still admire the guy. He took a beating in that game (hit 18 times) and I’m sure it will be questionable if he’ll come back next season. Even on that last play by the Vikings, where he threw the interception, he could have very well had a concussion and was just not thinking right. I don’t care how tough you are, but when your knocked down by 300-pound-plus guys throughout a game, it has to do something to you. I really don’t think Favre was in the “right mind” when he threw that pick.
Either that, or I guess the $5 that all of us Packer fans donated to him at the start of the season finally paid off!
–DE–
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It was hard watching the Green Bay Packers take their playoff loss to Arizona, but I believe it was almost 10 times harder for a Viking fan to watch Minnesota fall to the Saints in their NFC playoff final.
The Vikings outplayed New Orleans winning every aspect of the game, but they did their very best in giving the game away with turnovers . . . having five to their credit.
It’s one thing to lose a game, but to dominate in so many ways and then still lose, I think the Vikings just have a “hex” on them.
This has happened before, back in 1998 when the Vikings (15-1 in regular season play) dominated every team in the NFL, only to fall to the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC finals by a missed field goal, which would have clinched the game. The kicker, Gary Andersen, had not missed a field goal or extra point all season, but he did this one. Ironically, the guy that beat the Vikings that year was Morten Anderson, who booted the 38-yard game-winning field goal to send Atlanta to their first Super Bowl ever. No, they’re not brothers or even related, but it was Anderson beating Andersen for the win.
This playoff NFC final, however, was not a missed field goal, but a “missed opportunity” as QB Brett Favre made a poor decision and threw the ball across the field (like he has throughout his career) only to watch it get intercepted. He could have ran the ball and got the 10 to 15 yards needed, or thrown the ball to another receiver that was near the sidelines wide-open. Instead he elected to go with a play that was a gamble instead of taking the safe play out.
Sure that play was huge and would have set up a field goal for a very reliable Ryan Longwell, but the Vikings had chances to score time after time after time in this game.
~ They botched the easy three points before heading into the locker room at halftime with a Peterson fumble.
~ One fumble led to a short touchdown drive for New Orleans.
~ Two fumbles in the fourth-quarter stopped potential game winning drives for the Vikings.
The Vikings had 475 yards of offense to the Saints 257 and they had the ball nearly 10 minutes more in the game.
All in all, the Vikings just were not destined to win this game and that’s all there is to it!
My conclusion is that you just can’t rely on anyone that’s over 38 years old to win a game for you! Favre is 40 and Gary Anderson was 39 when he missed that huge field goal back in 1998.
You would think they would be seasoned enough to do just about anything, especially in a crucial situation . . . but now I believe the opposite!
I guess Favre giveth the season and then He taketh the season away!
You do have to still admire the guy. He took a beating in that game (hit 18 times) and I’m sure it will be questionable if he’ll come back next season. Even on that last play by the Vikings, where he threw the interception, he could have very well had a concussion and was just not thinking right. I don’t care how tough you are, but when your knocked down by 300-pound-plus guys throughout a game, it has to do something to you. I really don’t think Favre was in the “right mind” when he threw that pick.
Either that, or I guess the $5 that all of us Packer fans donated to him at the start of the season finally paid off!
–DE–
In honor of Favre making the “Minnesota mistake of his life” I thought we could tell a few Favre jokes.
• The loss to the Saints was nothing new for Favre . . . he’s used to making the Vikings lose in one way or another, especially as a Packer!
• Well, the GOOD news is, Favre has now retired from the Packers and from the Jets... after he retires from the Vikings, that means there will be only 29 teams left for him to retire from!
• Favre didn't know the mic was on during his last press conference... did you hear him ask his agent "Hey, I forgot, am I retiring or coming back today?"
• Poor Brett - at the start of the season he took a snap during an inter-squad scrimmage, and during all the action at the line of scrimmage, he just lost it... he started yelling "Hey you kids, get off of my lawn, you're messing it up!!!"
• Did you hear that the post office had to recall their Minnesota Vikings commemorative stamps? It seems people didn't know which side to spit on.
Well, I guess that’s enough punishment for one season. I would like to see the Saints win it all now, but I think Manning and Company will likely dominate and take another Super Bowl trophy home with them.
We’ll just have to wait and see.
–DE–
I was actually cheering on the Vikings and wanting them to win in their second playoff game––believe it or not!
My son, Colton, was starting to really dislike me, calling me a Packer traitor!
The reason? It would have been great for the Minnesota and northern Iowa economies with the Vikings going to the Super Bowl.
Just think how many more parties would have taken place, how the bars would have been packed, how the liquor stores would have sold more beer and how many more jerseys and other Viking apparel would have been sold?
It would have been tremendous!
I guess you can look at the good news . . . now you can probably get a Brett Favre jersey for 50% off!
Maybe next year? Or is that the year of the Green Bay Packers?
–DE–
Here’s a good Norwegian joke that I recently heard:
Back in the frontier days, a westbound wagon train was lost and low on food. No other humans had been seen for days, when finally they saw an "Old Norwegian Man" sitting beneath a tree.
The leader rushed to him and said, "We're lost and running out of food. Is there someplace ahead where we can get food?”
"Vell," said Ole, "I vouldn't go up dat hill und down the other side. Somevun told me you'll run into a big bacon tree."
“A bacon tree?’ asked the wagon train leader a little puzzled.
“Yah, ah bacon tree. Trusta me . . . yah, sure, you betcha! Just don’t do it!”
The leader goes back and tells his people that the old Norwegian said there’s a “bacon tree” over the ridge, but he didn’t want us to go there and was pretty adamant about it.
"So why did he say not to go there?" some of the pioneers asked.
"Oh, you know those Norwegians -- they always want to keep things to themselves.”
Ignoring Ole and thinking there will actually be bacon on a tree over the hill, the wagon train pushes ahead. Suddenly, Indians attack and massacre everyone except the leader, who barely manages to escape back to the old Norwegian, who's enjoying some lutefisk with some lefsa.
The near-dead man starts shouting, “You fool! You sent us to our deaths!” You told us there was food over the hill, but there was no bacon tree! There was only hundreds of Indians, who killed everyone.”
The old man holds up his hand and says "Oops, vait a minute."
He then gets out an old English-Norwegian dictionary, and begins thumbing through it.
"Darn, I made myself ah big mistake. It vuz not a bacon tree. It vuz a ham bush!"
Onward, upward!
