MINNEAPOLIS — All week, the Vikings heard it and kept their mouths shut. All week, they heard how the Cowboys were coming to town to lay waste to a team that had floundered to the finish of their season just as the Cowboys were flourishing at precisely the right time.
“The Tasmanian Devils that were coming from Dallas that were about to bombard the state of Minnesota and run through us like Sherman through the south,” was the way Vikings coach Brad Childress put it. “That was the aura that was left after last weekend’s games. All of us felt that quite palpably.”
All week, the Vikings kept quiet and yesterday their response was deafening. Steadied by the transcendent play of 40-year old Brett Favre, the breakout play of receiver Sidney Rice and the overpowering play of a sack-happy defense the Vikings made a mockery of the Cowboys hype with a resounding 34-3 NFC divisional playoff victory inside the ear-splitting Metrodome.
The Cowboys came in off a 34-14 thumping of the Eagles to skyrocket into the position of “hot team” in the tournament. The Vikings lost three of their last five games and then sat out during a bye week.
“I heard all that nonsense and all the hype about the Dallas Cowboys coming to town, the hottest team in the playoffs,” Childress said. “I asked my team early in the week to choke it back and shut up. It’s hard to get guys like this to stifle themselves.”
There must have been a ton of pent-up hostility because the Vikings (13-4) methodically, and then spectacularly, ground the Cowboys to a pulp. Favre became the oldest quarterback to win a playoff game, and he hardly was just along for the ride. He completed 15 of 24 passes for 234 yards and four touchdowns, three to Rice, who dominated the Cowboys with six catches for 141 yards and scoring grabs of 47, 16 and 45 yards.
“Probably the most fatigued I got today was celebrating,” Favre said, smiling.
“Same ol’ Brett,” Rice said. “He’s doing things he’s done since he first came in the league: moving around, getting the ball out, breaking tackles and even running down the field and throwing blocks. That just shows you how big of a heart he has.”
On defense, Ray Edwards collected three of the Vikings’ six sacks of Tony Romo, who often had nowhere to go other than the turf. He lost two fumbles and threw one interception as the Cowboys (12-6) held the ball for 30 ineffective minutes.
“Nobody had that kind of pressure on us the whole year,” Dallas coach Wade Phillips said.
Form has held in the conference, with the No. 1 seed Saints fresh off their 45-14 thrashing of the Cardinals back home in New Orleans waiting to play host to Sunday’s NFC championship game against the No. 2 seed Vikings.
“We’re coming down to see Dem Saints,” former Giant tight end Visanthe Shiancoe said. “Who Dey? Who Dat?”
To get there, the Vikings used their big-play ability to subdue the aggressive Dallas defensive front. Favre was sacked on the first possession, but then got the ball out of his hands quickly and when he had the time to look downfield the results were devastating. Favre spotted Rice running down the right sideline in a mismatch with safety Gerald Sensabaugh to make it 7-0 after a 47-yard scoring play. Sensabaugh ran stride-for-stride with Rice but never turned around.
“Didn’t even know he caught it,” Phillips said. “That was the strangest play I had seen in a long time. If he had turned around he could have intercepted it or knocked it down. It was amazing that it happened.”
What was amazing was how Rice shredded the Dallas secondary. He made it 14-3 in the second quarter on a play not even designed for Rice to go out on a pattern. He was supposed to stay in and block DeMarcus Ware, which he did by going to the ground to cut Ware, then popped up and ran under a 16-yard Favre bullet over the middle.
Rice made it 27-3 in the fourth quarter when he out-maneuvered cornerback Mike Jenkins for the ball at the Dallas 20-yard line and then basically walked the rest of the way into the end zone.
“We beat them convincingly,” Shiancoe said. “We did not let them get any velocity because once they get started it’s going to be hard to stop them Boys. We wanted to take their will a little bit at first and that’s what happened.”
