Halo

By Brian Allee-Walsh - The New Orleans Saints will have to eliminate a second Hall of Fame-caliber quarterback in as many weeks if they want to spend the first week of February in south Florida.

That is the task now facing the top-seeded Black and Gold after the Minnesota Vikings and their grizzled quarterback Brett Favre hammered the unsuspecting Dallas Cowboys 34-3 in an NFC divisional round game Sunday at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.


"The Tasmanian devils were coming from Dallas that were about to bombard the state of Minnesota and run through us like Sherman through the South," Vikings Coach Brad Childress said, exaggerating the popular opinion about this game. "All of us felt it quite palpably."


“This is just step one,’’ Vikings defensive end Jared Allen said after his defensive unit sacked Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo six times and forced three turnovers. “The Saints are a good team. They like to go downfield with the ball and we’re going to have to get after them up front.’’


The Vikings (13-4) square off against the Saints (14-3) for the NFC Championship at 5:40 p.m. next Sunday at the Superdome and a berth in Super Bowl XLIV.


Neither franchise has won a Super Bowl; the Vikings now in their 49th season, the Saints in their 43rd. The Vikings, however, have been there four times, losing all four, the last time in 1977 in Super Bowl XI to the Oakland Raiders 32-10 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.


The Saints have never qualified for the roman-numeral game, falling short in 2006 in their only previous conference championship when they lost to the Chicago Bears 39-14 at frigid Soldier Field.


New Orleans advanced to next Sunday’s title game with a convincing 45-14 victory Saturday against the Arizona Cardinals and 38-year-old quarterback Kurt Warner at the Superdome.


“I think we reminded a lot of people how good we were when we were 13-0 and how good we can be,’’ Saints free safety Darren Sharper said Sunday.
“You never really expect to win a playoff game in the fashion that we did, by the margin that we did. That’s how we were winning games at the beginning of the season. Playoffs are always different. It’s a different season. But I’ll tell you what. You don’t expect that just like we didn’t expect to have a point in our season where we were 13-0. But that lets you know the ability that we have and we need to kind of believe that.’’
Favre, a 40-year-old native of Kiln, Miss., is no stranger to the Big Easy or the NFC Championship venue. His only Super Bowl victory during a distinguished 19-year NFL career took place in the Superdome, 35-21 against the New England Patriots in XXXI on Jan. 26, 1997.


Payton met with reporters Sunday morning, just before the Cowboys and Vikings kicked off in Minneapolis. His observations were general in nature since an opponent had not been determined.

“When you get to this point in the playoffs, you’re going to see the best teams in football,’’ he said.


Certainly, the two best teams in the NFC, according to the seedings and records of the Saints and Vikings.


Saints players shied away from handicapping the Cowboys-Vikings game but it seemed clear which team many wanted to play. They had hoped to exact a pound of flesh from Dallas, which ended their historic 13-0 season-opening run on a national stage Dec. 19 at the Superdome.


The Cowboys rolled out to a 24-3 lead after three quarters and hung on for a 24-17 victory.


“As a team there’s more emotion with the Cowboys because they recently came in here and beat us,’’ said Sharper, who signed a one-year, $1.7 million contract with the Saints in March after spending the past four seasons with the Vikings.

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