NFC Championship: Saints 31, Vikings 28

PREGAME
This has the makings of an aerial battle if my semi-ignorant feelings about the two teams' running games hold out. I don't see the Saints running on the Vikings. The Vikings' run D is too good, and Reggie Bush isn't going to do that (last week) again. Is he? Meanwhile, is Adrian Peterson, who's supposedly better than Steven Jackson, EVER going to rush for 100 yards AGAIN? I keep waiting for him to turn it on and ascend to that legend-making moment. Been waiting like 10 weeks, AP.

This looks like a game where both teams will have to look to set up the run with the pass in order to do any, and passing game vs. passing game, the Saints win it. Drew Brees has got too many receivers and I see him actually picking on a well-regarded Viking secondary, which doesn't have its leader, Antoine Winfield, at full speed. The Viking pass rush is the x-factor; for the Vikes to win, Jared Allen has to be the game MVP, which is within reason when he's going up against Jermon Bushrod. (Of course, Bushrod has game MVP potential if he shuts Allen down.) Brett Favre doesn't have near the big-game potential Brees does. His receivers aren't as good; Percy Harvin is a very big question mark for Sunday health-wise; the Saints' defense doesn't get enough credit, especially for their secondary. No Harvin; Jabari Greer's perfectly capable of dealing with Sidney Rice; Darren Sharper knows every move Favre's going to make. Especially when he has no one but Bernard Freaking Berrian to throw to and Will Smith bearing down on him again because Bryant McKinnie has blown another block. Sorry, Saints; you're still the pick.

FIRST QUARTER
Here's Buck and Aikman with the call, if they can recover from Pam Oliver asking Favre about spanking technique in a pregame interview.

Good grief, I almost stepped out of the room and would have missed the Rebecca Grant cleavage update. That update told me, or even any non-English-speaking person, absolutely nothing we didn't know already. Unless we hadn't seen the Verizon "update" before and didn't know Rebecca Grant has really nice, um, cleavage.

Percy Harvin will be in action for Minnesota but has to watch the opening kickoff roll out the back of the end zone. The Saints hit Brett Favre on his first throw and he misses Visanthe Shianco. Scott Fujita with the hit. Vikes throw again on 2nd down, and Favre finds Jim Kleinsasser all alone in the left flat for 12 up the sideline. He's going to have that all day. Quick hitch to Harvin for 5. Another quick one to Harvin for another 1st. Adrian Peterson isn't even on the field right now. Favre beats a big blitz and hits Berrian again, over the middle for 9-plus. Harvin gets the game's first handoff and gains 8 off left tackle. Ball at the NO 40. Screen to Chester Taylor for about 4. Hey, there's Peterson, who takes a 4-yard pass in the middle of the field, breaks a tackle and gets down to the 25. Peterson off RG for 6. The Saints are showing no clue of stopping the Viking offense right now.

And they sure don't the next play, as Peterson cuts back left inside Will Smith's too-jiggy overpursuit and dances away for a 19-yard TD. Good work by the whole Viking o-line crashing right that play, which the Saints really bought as a run right.

Vikings 7, Saints 0.

Hmm, the pass set up the run that drive. Where was I reading about that?

Saints to start at their 24. Brees rolls right and hits Lance Moore on the sideline for 5. Saints are in no-huddle. Brees gets forever to throw but misses Marques Colston squaring out at midfield. 3rd-and-5. Um, Saints, you need a first down. They get it, with David Thomas throwing a key block for Robert Meachem on a smoke route. 7 yards. Play-action to Colston for 13, and the Saints are at midfield. No hint of a Viking pass rush thus far. Pierre Thomas off RG for 8. Pat Williams jumps offside. Brees overthrows Devery Henderson the next play. 2nd-10 from the 38, the Saints work a screen pass to Thomas to perfection. They suck the whole d-line in. Jahri Evans kicks out and takes care of two guys with one block. Thomas slips an atypically-sloppy arm tackle by Ben Leber at the 15, cuts back inside, gets a last block from Jeremy Shockey, and it's bye-bye for the TD. Evans was incredible that play; besides picking off the two Vikings originally, he ran downfield ahead of Thomas most of the way and had a piece of the DB Shockey picked off.

We have a classic on our hands.

Vikings 7, Saints 7.

I just saw that today's referee is PETER MORELLI. Really? So Mike Carey's either working the Super Bowl or wasn't even good enough to get a playoff assignment this year? Same for Ed Hochuli. (Tony Corrente refereed the AFC Championship.)

From the 27, Favre just overthrows Berrian on a go up the near sideline. He throws away the next pass with a blitz coming and Sidney Rice well covered on the out route. Bobby McCray jumps a mile offside to give the Vikes 3rd-and-5. Favre takes a big hit from Roman Harper anyway. Way to protect the QB, Morelli. Favre badly overthrows Harvin on a short route, but it's because Harvin was being ridiculously held by Randall Gay. So the Saints hand Minnesota a first down. Berrian puts a Marshall-Faulk-spinaroonie on Tracy Porter after catching a quick screen and gets 15 yards out of the play. Vikings have crossed midfield. Harvin gets about 3 off an end-around. Bobby McCray once again appears to get away with cheap-shotting the crap out of a QB, this time clobbering Favre right after the handoff to Harvin. Morelli then calls a personal foul, and McCray's number, for "hitting a player out of bounds." Except nobody was hit flagrantly out of bounds on the play.

In other words, it's not OK for the very same person to do the very same thing to Brett Favre that he did to Kurt Warner last week.

BULL. SHIT.

Minnesota ball at the Saint 30 in any event. Peterson gets a lot of open ground on 1st down but Darren Sharper stops him for 3. Vikings again blocked hard right and ran left. Still waiting for Buck or Aikman to ask why that McCray penalty wasn't a penalty when he hammered Kurt Warner last week. Favre rolls right and overthrows Harvin in the far corner of the end zone. The Saints have blitzed pretty much every play so far. Again, Aikman and Buck won't shut up about the number of hits Favre has taken, with no one mentioning Warner's experience last week. Completion to Harvin down to the 9, and OH MAH GOD, FARVE GOT HIT AGAIN! Sharper did really drill him on the blitz. But to Buck and Aikman, it's like Favre's the only QB who's ever been hit! Oh, NOW Buck finally mentions Warner last week! Peterson gets nothing on 1st down, and Harvin gets 2 on a quick screen, leaving 3rd-and-goal from outside the 5. Favre hits Sidney Rice just inside the goal line for Minnesota's 2nd TD. Four Saints all around him but nobody making the play.

Vikings 14, Saints 7.

Saints really hurt themselves with penalties that drive, which should have been a 3-and-out. No way they're winning today if they keep making stupid mistakes, because they're not stopping anything on defense the way it is.

Buck continues to dramatize the number of shots Favre is taking like he's Christ himself bearing the cross. OH MAH GOD THEYRE LOOKIN AT HIS JAW ON THE SAHDLAHN! Chad Greenway stuffs a Thomas run. Reggie Bush runs practically back to his goal line on a reverse and winds up losing a yard. That thing could have lost as much as 15. 3rd-and-11. Um, the Saints better get a first down here. Vikings fake a blitz and give Brees all night, but Colston runs a 10-yard route on 3rd-and-11. Saints D did NOT need a 3-and-out by their offense there. Vikings appear to be taking over at their 16 after the punt and the end of the first quarter.

End of first quarter: Vikings 14, Saints 7.

Katy Perry feels dirty? She should, given her taste in men.

Back to the game. Peterson up the middle for 2. FARVE IS WEARIN EAR PLUGGS!! Gee, you'd've thought Brett Favre was the city that was destroyed by a hurricane 4 years ago and has never had its team go to a Super Bowl. How do you ignore that story during the game to blather about Favre's chin and Favre's jaw and Favre's ear plugs?!?!? After another run goes nowhere, Favre throws a sideline pass away, and the Saints get a critical stop.

Because of RamView, and because the Rams certainly aren't material for Fox's game of the week these days, I don't actually get to listen to Buck and Aikman that much.

Little did I realize how terrible they are.

Brees just overthrows Shockey open up the right seam. Kevin Williams' pressure blows up a screen to Thomas. Hmm, that seems familiar. Remember the Kyle Boller fumble TD against the Vikings? 3rd-and-10. Kevin Williams nearly gets Brees but Drew finds the mismatch, Reggie Bush vs. Ben Leber, for 28 yards. Minnesota has GOT to find its pass rush. Thomas gets 4 but not more thanks to Madieu Williams' open-field tackle. How many Williamses do the Vikings have? Brees hits Thomas down to the 20. Jared Allen nearly got to him after splitting a double-team. Thomas cuts back left into open space and gets inside the 10. That's the run play the Vikings have been getting big holes with. Brees earns a bouquet of wows the next play, stepping away from Allen's pressure after play-action and hitting Henderson in the far corner of the end zone for the tying TD.

Vikings 14, Saints 14.

Safe to say this game's MVP will be an offensive player.

The Vikings start the next drive with a timeout. What, is Mike Martz their OC? Misdirection screen to Harvin gets 6. Play-action bubble screen to Taylor gets another 11. Rice makes a tough catch of a slant pass for 4 or 5. Saints continue to blitz every play and not get there. Peterson's stopped for 4 off left tackle after a big hit by Sharper. No, he got the first down. Circle route pass to Peterson gets Minnesota to midfield. Off left guard for 3 more. 3rd-and-4. Peterson's pissed off on the sideline for getting pulled. Saint blitz still doesn't get to Favre but he misses Berrian on an out route anyway, necessitating a punt. They wisely punt away from Bush and New Orleans' next drive will start at their 18.

I still think Dan Jansen was just untalented and kind of an idiot. Sorry.

Henderson drops a screen pass that looked overcomplicated anyway. Brees gets Minnesota offside with a hard count, which I figure out at least 30 seconds before Buck or Aikman. Brees avoids big pressure from Leber on a blitz and hits Thomas over the middle for 4. 3rd-and-1, Jasper Brinkley FLIES through and stuffs Lynell Hamilton for a loss. Suddenly we have a defensive battle with less than 5:00 till halftime.

Minnesota from their 24. Favre's nearly picked off trying to force a pass to Shiancoe at midfield, leaving 3rd-and-7. Blitz nearly gets there on 3rd down, and Favre overthrows Harvin's not-very-well-run route. ANOTHER 3-and-out?

Saints now at their 33, where Brees is nearly picked off by Leber. Leber probably kept one of his DBs from making the play. Shockey gets 8 over the middle. The Vikings shut down a 90-flip to Bush to force another punt. Super reaction by Allen to cut the play off, with Pat Williams taking care of Bush's cutback. Looks like the Saints are going for it? From their 43?

Dumbasses. Brees got the nose tackle to jump with a hard count, but the ball wasn't snapped. Timeout, Saints. I've never seen that play more poorly executed by the offense. You wanted to try to get them to jump offsides. They jumped offsides. And you DIDN'T SNAP THE BALL?

Punt will come after the 2:00 warning.

Saints took a delay-of-game before the 2:00 warning instead of using the timeout. Hmm. Darrius Reynaud calls fair catch, muffs the punt, then gets drilled after recovering it. Oh, Aikman's actually useful here, explaining the hit came after the whistle. Otherwise it had to be OK. Vikings at their 32 after the penalty. Favre misses Rice over the middle on first down. Peterson gets only 1 around right end on 2nd. Clutch throw by Favre to Berrian on the sideline at the 46. Saint blitz is registering hits but still no sacks. Favre throws the next pass away; looked like Rice ran the wrong route. Stupid draw to Peterson for 1. Saints use their first official timeout with 1:30 till halftime. With the Saints bailing madly out of a blitz look on 3rd-and-9, Favre badly overthrows Berrian on the sideline.

BUSH IDIOTICALLY TRIES TO RETURN THE PUNT WITH A DEFENDER ALL OVER HIM. He watches the defender, Eric (Is Live) Frampton, instead of the ball, and bobbles it away. Wah wah wah wah, Vikings ball at the Saints 10!

Holy crap, two plays later, Favre and Peterson blow the handoff and Scott Fujita saves the day for New Orleans by recovering the loose ball. Is that the lucky bounce of a team destined to win?

The Saints won't test that idea the rest of the half, running the clock out with Bush, who they surprisingly trust to hold the ball two plays in a row. And he surprisingly does.

Halftime score: Vikings 14, Saints 14.

So right after I say the game MVP is obviously going to be an offensive player, neither team scores again. Eh, screw all of you guys. The Saint blitz is starting to affect Favre, and it's about time since Gregg Williams has pretty much been blitzing him right off the bus. Minnesota hasn't really countered that with any quick stuff, which they might want to do since the Saint secondary seems to have figured things out in the 2nd quarter. Time for Peterson to step up, if he's EVER going to. Except for the TD run, he's been his usual most-non-descript-big-name-player-in-NFL-history self. Saints can also help themselves out a lot by cutting out the stupid penalties.

The Vikings have barely gotten in the same area code as Brees, and I can't believe another half with so little pressure on the Saint QB is going to lead to a successful result for them. Sure, it's worked for them so far, but I can't believe Sean Payton hasn't found a half-dozen different ways to pick them apart during halftime.

I think it's advantage, Saints in the second half unless the Vikings start getting to the QB.

THIRD QUARTER
Courtney Roby runs right through two tackles at the 25, pops out to the far sideline and flies down to the Minnesota 37. Exactly the start the Saints want, with Brees hitting David Thomas for 16 the next play. Then Pierre Thomas leg-drives off RG for 6, and off LG for 5 more and first-and-goal at the 9. That Roby return, its effect at least, is reminiscent of Tony Horne's kickoff return TD to start the 2nd half of the Rams' 1999 Divisional Playoff against these very same Vikings. Who fall behind for the first time today when Pierre Thomas cuts inside Carl Nicks' block and drives and dives at the goal line for a TD. Aikman points out Evans' impressive work on the play, PANCAKING Kevin Williams.

Saints 21, Vikings 14.

Ruh-roh, Thomas was actually down at the 1 on his TD run. Well, I wondered what the hell the Morelli crew was doing in a conference championship. Favre to Rice for 13 on a quick slant. Peterson tries to string a run around the left corner but Tracy Porter gets him stopped. Favre guns to a WIDE-open Shiancoe over the middle for 26, to the Saint 40. Fullback Naufahu Tahi SAVES PETERSON'S FREAKING BACON by recovering the fumble the RB supposedly better than Steven Jackson coughed up after running smack into ANTHONY FREAKING HARGROVE. But it's Shiancoe wide open AGAIN! on 2nd-and-20 for another 1st down. Vikings inside the Saint 30. Bubble screen to Harvin for 5. With Peterson obviously untrustworthy of hanging on to the damn ball, here's Chester Taylor cutting back left for 3. 3rd-and-2, a nifty lob to Shiancoe on a corner route ends in a one-handed catch inside the 2 and no flag for the blatant defensive holding committed against him. Peterson returns from exile with a 2-yard TD run inside Steve Hutchinson's strong block.

Vikings 21, Saints 21.

And still neither team is getting to the opposing QB.

Roby out to the Saint 35 with the ensuing kickoff. Huge pressure by Allen blows up Brees' millionth screen pass attempt of the day. Draw to Bush for 6. Announcers would shut up about kickers' inexperience being any kind of factor if they would watch college football games. That Texas kicker sure hit a big one to win the Big 12 Championship. He's not experienced. The Saints 3-and-out with an incompletion along the sideline. REYNAUD IDIOTICALLY RETURNS THE PUNT FROM HIS OWN ONE and is tackled at the 10.

Both these teams have gotten away with some serious f-ups today. I was originally picking the winner of this game to beat the Colts in the Super Bowl, but right now I have no freaking idea.

Peterson powers for 7 and pops up talking smack to Sharper. That's a lot of smack for 53 big yards, 19 on one carry. Next play, more AMAZING SHIT LUCK for Peterson, who about flings the ball away for a fumble on a nice run up the middle but manages to pounce on the loose ball at the 32. Favre misses Berrian badly on 1st down. Taylor up the middle for 5 or 6. Heh, the water boy's squirting water into Peterson's mouth on the sideline because he can't trust him to hold on to the bottle. Favre doesn't connect with Taylor on 3rd down, but draws a BULL SHIT roughing penalty on Anthony Hargrove. Hargrove had Favre wrapped up when he let go of the ball. Aikman's far more right than Buck here; the hit looked a lot worse than it was. Hargrove didn't body slam Favre as much as it was Favre coming off the ground after releasing the ball after Hargrove already had him wrapped up. Anthony Hargrove was an amazing knucklehead when he played here but he deserved a lot better than drawing a penalty for one of the game's key plays right there.

Justice about 3 plays later as I get done typing an actual pro-Anthony-Hargrove rant, as Favre forces a classic stupid Favre pass into triple coverage at the Saint 30 and it's intercepted by Jonathan Vilma. Remi Ayodele flatout falls on top of Favre on the ground well after the throw on a play that probably should have been called roughing, though he may have been blocked there.

Long story short, the big bullshit penalty is nullified by the idiotic Favre throw, and the Saints have the ball back.

Saints at their 31; Pierre Thomas off-tackle for 5. Favre was taken down funny and took a legitimate ankle injury on his last play. The Saints false-start with Minnesota fake-blitzing on 3rd-and-3. Brees steps up from the rush and throws an awful pass well over Meachem's head.

The Saints better god damn win this game, because I am NOT going to put up with two weeks of every media outlet in creation wondering about Brett Favre's damn ankle.

End of third quarter, by the way: Vikings 21, Saints 21.

Seriously, given her taste in men, why wasn't Katy Perry's biggest hit called "I Kissed A Toilet And I Liked It"?

FOURTH QUARTER
Harvin tries to lose the ball at the end of a run off LT but gains 11. ANOTHER handoff to Harvin - seriously, BACK-TO-BACK handoffs to Harvin? - blows up and becomes a disaster when he tries to cut back and Will Smith jiggies the ball loose. Harvin also fails to recover the bouncing loose ball, which Remy Ayodele - there's that name again - ends up with it down at the Viking 6. That stupid play-calling sequence deserved that disastrous result.

Seriously, 4th quarter of the NFC Championship and you're doing gadget handoffs to Percy Harvin TWO STRAIGHT PLAYS? Did the Vikings do that all season?

Pierre Thomas down to the 3 on 1st down, but Tyrrell Johnson BLOWS UP a slowly-developing outside run for a huge loss on 2nd down. 3rd-goal from the 5. Brees steps up from I think Ray Edwards' pressure and hits Bush at the sideline inside the 1. Johnson forced him out of bounds, and the officials call it 4th down, but the very good question Sean Payton's challenging is whether Bush got the ball inside the pylon. I don't think he did, and don't think Morelli will have enough to see it, but it's a good challenge. Also gives Payton plenty of time to think about his 4th down play. 4th and goal from inside the 1, they have to go for the TD imo.

Morelli says Bush broke the plane of the goal line, TD, New Orleans. Fox gets us a replay showing he kept the ball inside the pylon even though Johnson spun him around and down. From the head linesman's angle, though, I totally understand not calling that a TD originally.

Saints 28, Vikings 21.

Vikings at their 20, 12:39 left. Screen to Taylor for maybe 3. Peterson spins out of a tackle at the line of scrimmage, goes up the sideline and ACTUALLY DOES NOT FUMBLE THE FOOTBALL, for a 27-yard gain. The longest run in 9 games for the RB supposedly better than Steven Jackson. Jabari Greer DROPS a ball thrown right to him on 1st down. Rice helped break that up. Taylor falls down on the 2nd down screen pass, forcing a throwaway. Double-teamed by Porter and Gay, Berrian makes a terrific play to corral an underthrown ball at the Saint 20 for 30 yards. PETERSON GAINS 3 WITHOUT FUMBLING. Wow, he's better than Steven Jackson!

Game over? Favre hits Berrian at the 10, and Porter just punches the ball loose while taking him down. Vilma recovers at the 5. 4th Viking turnover, 3rd lost fumble, today. That one was especially painful, coming inside the 10 with Minnesota driving for the tying TD. Ouch.

Pierre Thomas for 3, then a flare to Henderson for 5. Brees drops the snap - OY VEY! - and picks it up and tries to dive for the first down, but comes up half a yard short. Wow, Payton's going to challenge the spot? Fox's yellow line will have to be WAY off for him to win this one. It's happened before, though.

Morelli confirms the previous play but doesn't bother to tell anybody the Saints spent a timeout and their last challenge on it. Buck at least tells us at home. Vikings have very good field position to try again to tie the game, their 43.

Peterson cuts back left for 4. 7:30 left. Greer breaks up a pass to Rice. Somebody predicted he'd be perfectly capable of dealing with Rice today; who was that? But Shiancoe beats Roman Harper like he's James Butler for a big first down. Vikes at the NO 37. Favre barely avoids a sack by Anthony Freaking Hargrove by throwing away toward a very well-covered Taylor. Peterson explodes off RG for 18 off a play-fake. Tahi the fullback had a big block to open up the hole. PETERSON HAS GONE OVER 100 YARDS. Alert the media. Favre throws a jump ball for Berrian in the end zone but Porter interferes with him. Put the ball at the 1. Hargrove and Marvin Mitchell wrap up Peterson at the 2. Peterson goes up the gut on 2nd-and-goal to score his third TD of the game.

Vikings 28, Saints 28.

4:58 to play. Roby runs into his own man at the 17. One of the big surprises of this game is that the Saints haven't stretched the field better. No time like the present. MINNESOTA GETS THEIR FIRST SACK OF THE DAY as Ray Edwards beats Jon Stinchcomb, AND BREES FUMBLES, but Jahri Evans saves the day with the recovery. Minnesota is AGAIN ALL OVER Brees' BILLIONTH screen pass today, and he throws a lollipop that Pierre Thomas can only manage to get a yard out of. 3rd-18, Brees hits Henderson over the middle, but a couple of yards short. Reynaud brings the punt to the 21, and we are less than 3:00 away from the Armageddon of fifty billion media speculations about Brett Favre's freaking ankle. C'mon, Saints; we need a stop. Peterson gets nothing off RT. Why run that play now, with its inherent turnover risk? The 2:00 warning is here. I guess the Vikings are going to try to eat up the clock while getting into position for Ryan Longwell.

Peterson gets only a couple off a draw play, with Sedrick Ellis and Vilma tripping him up. Saints use their 2nd timeout with 1:52 left. 3rd-and-8, Vikings. I really don't understand those last two running plays. Maybe Brad Childress will hand off to Harvin on 3rd down. Saints stupidly bring the blitz at Favre; he hits Berrian for about 6 and Porter BLOWS the tackle to give the Vikings a 1st down at their 33. Minnesota timeout now with 1:39 left.

Perfect pass to Rice up the right seam for about 20. Randall Gay was all over him. With the Viking center driving Hargrove backward like a blocking dummy, Taylor cuts through and breaks a couple of tackles down to the 33, putting Freaking Favre in freaking field goal range. Saints use their last timeout with 1:06 left.

No gain for Taylor, then no gain for Peterson off left tackle with 0:19 left. Childress is sure treating this near-50-yarder like it's going to be cake for Longwell. Has he watched any of this postseason? Astonishingly, Favre tries to waste Minnesota's last timeout, which he can't legally call when they've just called one, and the Vikings get penalized for 12 in the huddle. So they're at the Saint 38.

OH MY HOLY FREAKING GOD. Favre rolls right, tries to hit Rice in the middle of the field, BUT THAT'S THE CLASSIC STUPID FAVRE THROW, AND TRACY PORTER PICKS IT OFF. Porter returns it to the Saint 48 with 7 seconds left.

HOLY FREAKING COW, FAVRE, WHAT A STUPID THROW!

Brees attempts an outside pass but Kevin Williams bats it down, and the Vikings get about three guys in his face the last play of the game and force a throwaway.

The NFC Championship game is going into overtime.

OVERTIME
The Vikings get the coin toss wrong and will kick off.

Does anybody else replace "5-layer burrito" with "fish taco" when they're watching the new Taco Bell commercial? And, yes, I am 11 years old.

Suddenly it's Pierre Thomas returning the overtime kickoff, and a gimmick I insist always blow up in a team's face works instead - he returns it to the 40 yard line. Hell, the Saints are already in business!

Thomas up the middle for 3, then Bush off right guard for nothing, and the home crowd is actually BOOING their team in the first conference championship game any of them have ever gotten to experience. Asher Allen lets them off the hook by holding Colston. Great explanation by Buck that Allen is in for Cedric Griffin, injured on the kickoff. Ray Edwards blows up the TRILLIONTH attempted screen pass today, incomplete for David Thomas. 2nd-10 at the Saint 48. As he did two plays ago, Colston muffs a catchable ball into an incompletion. Tyrrell Johnson nearly intercepted this one. The Vikings blitz, stupidly, leaving Henderson open for a first down, but HE bobbles it and doesn't secure it for first-down yardage. 4th and a football. The Saint receivers are more nervous than a stray dog that just figured out it ran into Mike Vick's yard.

The booth is reviewing the spot of the last play, and taking their sweet damn time doing it. Morelli's crew got the call right, it turns out. Thanks for that, booth. 4th and inches at the 42. Troy thinks the best call here is a QB sneak. I thought that all my life until Peyton Manning got stuffed at the 2 in the AFC game. Thomas leaps over LG and gets the first down. This call's going to get reviewed, too. Hey, some of us have to work tomorrow, NFL.

Wow, Thomas may not have gotten the first down. One of the Vikings jarred the ball loose; he was lucky to come down with it, let alone also get the first down. I don't see how the hell Thomas came down with the ball for a first down, but Morelli says he did, so he did. Or else Goodell called the booth to remind them the Super Bowl WILL be Colts vs. Saints.

With Brees back-pedaling for a mile, Leber interferes with David Thomas up the far sideline. I think Thomas drew that, or dived for it, more than Leber really interfered with him. Leber then atones by dropping Bush in the backfield for a 4-yard loss. But the ball's at the Minn 35. FG range.

For sure now, as Brees hits a sliding Meachem at the 22. Meachem nearly dropped that pass. Looks like he held on, but the Saint receivers are more jittery than an ADD kid who accidentally took caffeine pills instead of Ritalin.

Childress called timeout to induce a review, and gets one, but I don't think this is even a Bert Emmanuel catch; it's a clean catch. And if either Fox announcer mentions Bert Emmanuel, I am flying down to New Orleans tonight and pissing in their bed.

Morelli correctly gives Meachem the catch, leaving 3rd-and-3 at the 22. Play-action screen, the QUADRILLIONTH of the game, is incomplete, bringing on kicker Garrett Hartley. No pressure, kid.

Childress calls the idiotic freeze-the-kicker timeout. I might have passed on that there.

Hartley strokes it right down the middle from 40 to send the Saints to the Super Bowl and Brett Favre home, for the sanity of us all.

Final score (OT): Saints 31, Vikings 28.

MVP: Beats the bejeebers out of me. For a supposedly-great offensive team, the Saints had no great offensive performances. No receiver over 40 yards. Pierre Thomas ran for just 61. Reggie Bush? 7 rushes, 8 yards and a fumble. Brees didn't even throw for 200 yards. Despite some bad plays, Tracy Porter may have done the most to save the game, not only picking off Favre on what would be Brett's last play of the game, but also popping a fumble loose from Berrian to stop a Viking drive inside the 10. So Porter gets it.

Honorable mention MVP: me, I was 2-0 this weekend; 6-4 for the playoffs. Guaranteed winning postseason!!!

Looking ahead: We'll be spared two weeks of wondering about Favre's ankle, but we're certain not to be spared another offseason of speculation about Favre's future. The Vikings better have an escape plan in case he bails like he did on the Jets. They also better have a recovery plan for Peterson, who is threatening to wreck a superstar career with all the fumbling. (P.S. He's not better than Steven Jackson.) Their biggest failing today wasn't a personnel failing, it was a game-long failure to adjust to the Saint blitz. The Vikings appear to be stacked at every position, on paper. They just need to put it all together. Of course, Favre was brought in to get them there. If they can convince him to stay, and sneak a RB onto their roster who can pick up a blitz or two, they should be a potent team again next year, still hungry, still having something to prove. Or Favre could quit, or dither about it in the spotlight the next seven months, and start the unraveling process. YGIAGAM.

The Saint secondary doesn't match up too badly with the Colts' WRs at first blush, but I don't see their d-line putting any pressure on Peyton Manning at all, and I don't see their feeble blitzing scheme really giving the Colt QB a lot of trouble. I don't know how they're going to stop Peyton from throwing it all over the yard. If the Saints work on stretching the field against the Colt D, I think they'll have a lot of success. Or, they could try to throw a quintillion screen passes like they did today. Not only won't that work, I expect the Colts to shut down the Saint running game.

Like the rest of planet Earth, I'm expecting a close and high-scoring Super Bowl. Old-school wisdom would never say to pick the Colts and their league-worst running game, a full yard per carry worse than the Saints.

Bet against Peyton Manning at your own peril, though. I'm not.

Colts 38, Saints 35.