Vikings vs. Saints NFC Championship Game

[LOTWSvirgin]

It was the third-quarter hit during the NFC Championship Game that injured Brett Favre, a low blow the NFL is now acknowledging should have been called a penalty, reversing a subsequent interception.

"It's the type of hit that we don't want," NFL vice president of officiating Mike Pereira said, "... because clearly we're trying to protect the knees and we need to focus on this to make sure we don't miss [them]."

Appearing on the NFL Network and NFL.com this week, Pereira said the right call had not been made during the New Orleans Saints' 31-28 overtime victory Sunday.

With the score tied 21-21, Favre took a hit from Saints defensive end Bobby McCray. The quarterback's left ankle was injured during the play, and he got it treated on the sideline and remained in the game.

"Pretty much a direct shot into the back of [Favre's] legs," Pereira said of the hit.

The Vikings would have had a first down at the Saints' 19-yard line.

Instead, linebacker Jonathan Vilma's interception put the Saints at their own 31-yard line, though they failed to score on the resulting series.

[fishersofmen]

Everyone who watched the game knows who really won. You could literally see the shock on the Saints players faces after the game like "dang we just got our tails whooped and here we are". The Vikings basically threw a winning lottery ticket in the garbage and the Saints pulled it out to claim it for themselves. Oh well....

[FutbolGuru]

As much as it hurts now, we still have to look on the brighside. Next year we probably won't have Favre, but we'll still have a good team. Yes we'll be taking a step back, but can still win. That's the beauty of the NFL... you don't need the best team to win (ask the Saints).

[fishersofmen]

Some good e-mails........

I'm watching the Vikings-Saints game. So are the guys in the apartment next to me, only my TV is running 10 seconds slower than theirs. I just heard Favre's pick before it happened. And now they're going to OT, where the Saints are sure as hell gonna win the toss. The girl I love won't talk to me. Please give me a reason not to kill myself.

-- Nick, Minneapolis

As a lifelong Vikings fan, son of a lifelong Vikings fan, and grandson of a Vikings fan the day the team came into existence, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that tonight's game would end the way it did. Eight months ago I had my tonsils removed. Two percent of people have issues with the incision bleeding when they have a tonsillectomy. Again, as a Vikings fan I knew without a doubt that it would happen to me. It did. They tried to cauterize the wound with me awake, gagging and burning the back of my throat. I lost so much blood I needed an infusion of two pints. I would gladly relive that day every day for the rest of the year over tonight's game. Stomach punch?? Please, this was a groin kick followed by an uppercut to the chin followed by another kick to the nuts. Welcome to Minnesota.

-- Peter D., St. Paul

The Vikings loss is giving me bad flashbacks to breaking up with my prom date in high school. I knew it would probably happen, yet I still feel like I want to throw up and have a strange urge to listen to Richard Marx.

-- Rachael T., St. Paul

I don't know where this falls on your levels of losing rankings, but I can tell you I'd feel a lot better if somebody had just punched me in the stomach. I definitely feel it in my stomach, but it feels more like a virus, like a big, painful empty hole in the pit of my stomach, accompanied by throwing up, irritable bowels, shaking ... I just feel like curling up in a dark bathroom for the next 48 hours. I've been a Vikings fan my entire life, and I find myself questioning why. I'm not a religious man, but I imagine this is what a crisis of faith feels like.

-- Ryan K., Bloomington, Minn.

Please tell me it'll be OK. There are real problems in the world. Why do I hurt this much? A two-hour walk in the freezing cold didn't make me feel better and didn't make me feel cold. Why do I do this to myself? There are people in the world with real problems.

-- Dan, Salt Lake City (via St. Paul)

There really is no category for Vikes-Saints in your 16 Levels of Losing, so I vote for "The Banana Peel." I'll explain. Despite the constant fumbles and plethora of massive hits Favre took, I refused to be a victim and kept my hope alive -- just like the main character in a melodramatic Lifetime movie about someone battling some rare infectious disease. After fighting the whole way, it looked like the victim (me) was going to be OK (the final drive, especially Favre hitting Rice at the 50 and Taylor's run to the 33). And out of nowhere, because some hack director thinks it will infuse "true emotion and irony," a freak accident happens in which the disease survivor slips on the proverbial banana peel and cracks his head open on the one rock in a beautiful field of grass (read: 12 MEN IN THE HUDDLE!!!!). Of all the losses I've endured, this one falls into a whole new category, right?

-- David P., New York

[Lee Lane]

Lmfaooooooo WOOOOOOW! Im a vikes fan and have been since I was a little kid. the 98 championship game was bad but this game was really BAD! for a time "about 2 minutes" I actually thought they were Going to GET ER DONE! Dont worry theres always the Minnesota Wild fighting for that 8th playoff spot!!

[kitchy]

It was the third-quarter hit during the NFC Championship Game that injured Brett Favre, a low blow the NFL is now acknowledging should have been called a penalty, reversing a subsequent interception.

That's karma for Jared's knee hits during the regular season.

[BlueLundFishrman]

Did you see on ESPN hat the NFl admits to the the personal foul on Brett farve when he was hit low and high then threw the int. They said it would of put us in the 19 yd line so there goes 3 more points too. Oh what could of been.

Ok, give them the ball back, plus the fifteen yards. But, now you have to put in Tarvaris, because Farve wouldn't have been back in the game yet. The best you can hope Tarvaris is gonna do, hand off to AP or have an open receiver 10 yards out and throw it at his feet. More than likely they don't even give T-Jack a chance to throw, instead just have him hand off to AP.

Sounds like a fumble to me.

[zepman]

With the ball on the 19, I wouldn't care what they did with it...it's another three points in a very, very close game.