MINNEAPOLIS — The Vikings owned a commanding 27-3 lead in the closing minutes and on fourth down from the Dallas 11-yard line they opted not to kick a field goal or even to simply hand the ball off with the victory long-since secured.
Instead, with 1:55 remaining, Brett Favre threw a touchdown pass to tight end Visanthe Shiancoe to put the finishing touches on a 34-3 pummeling of the Cowboys.
Immediately, Cowboys linebacker Keith Brooking sprinted over to the Vikings sideline and screamed at coach Brad Childress.
Later, Brooking called the late touchdown “classless.”
“Somebody told me he came running up,” Childress said. “I am not aware of that. I have good guys to protect me.”
Cowboys coach Wade Phillips said he viewed it as the Vikings running up the score but said: “They have the right to play whatever they want to play.”
The Vikings were unconcerned by what the Cowboys thought.
“We don’t care what Keith Brooking says,” defensive tackle Pat Williams said. “Nobody said anything when they blew out the Eagles. It’s the playoffs. It ain’t no regular-season game. If you lose, you go home. We take no pity on them. Do they expect us to? I don’t care about no Brooking. He can say whatever he wants to say.”
Brooking wasn’t buying it.
“I thought it was classless,” he said. “I thought it was B.S. Granted, we get paid to stop them, but we had zero timeouts left. I didn’t think there was any call for that.”
* Tony Romo last week in a 34-14 victory over the Eagles gained his first playoff victory in his third try and all the talk in Dallas was about how much of a huge relief that was for him professionally.
Romo did not sustain that momentum as he was sacked six times, lost two fumbles and threw one interception.
“I think it was quite obvious they did a great job applying pressure,” Romo said. “If you have the ability to get pressure from the front four, it allows you to play a pretty sound game defensively.”
* This is the first appearance for the Vikings in the NFC title game since they were crushed 41-0 by the Giants following the 2000 season. Minnesota is one victory away from their first Super Bowl since 1977.
