The only surprise is it took this long

The Minnesota Vikings, as is their history, blew a golden opportunity to make the Super Bowl today. In classic Viking fashion, they put themselves in position to win, only to have the rug pulled out from underneath them at the worst possible moment.

Favre killed the team, of course, which is what he does. He killed the Packers numerous times during the playoffs, and he did it again today to Minnesota. Considering the circumstances, his INT with 19 seconds remaining was one of the worst throws you'll ever see. It was a horrible decision at a horrible time during the biggest game of the season. He played mistake-free football all season long, which made me believe he was past the "gunslinger" bullshit. But he had to make a wild throw at the worst possible moment, and it cost Minnesota big time.

Minnesota is a better team than New Orleans; they outplayed the Saints on offense and defense, and special teams were basically a draw (a big return for the Saints, but also a fumbled punt return). If you had told me before the game that the Vikings would hold the Saints to under 300 yards of offense, I would have been ecstatic. The Saints are an explosive offense, so to hold them to that yardage total should get you the victory.

But turnovers are always the story in the postseason. When you get to this point, the teams are fairly even, so turnovers almost always win or lose the game. And it was the Vikings who put the ball on the ground an embarrassing amount of time (I won't trust Peterson again until he goes 8 games without fumbling) and throw 2 INTs while only forcing one turnover, you will lose in the playoffs. Teams that lose the turnover battle 5-1 don't win often in the regular season, and they certainly don't win in the playoffs.

The way to beat the Saints is to limit their big plays on offense, and the Vikings did that. The Saints aren't good enough defensively to win without their offense moving the ball and scoring points, but Minnesota's turnovers kept the Saints in the game, and even gave them the lead a couple of times. I couldn't have asked for a better defensive performance, and yet it still resulted in a loss. That's what hurts the most.

* I hate overtime in the NFL. A freaking coin flip is used to help determine a team's season; awesome. The Saints got the ball first and put together a mighty 10 play, 40 yard drive to win the game. 60 minutes of hard-fought football gets reduced to a freaking coin flip; I'm so glad the NFL never does anything about this travesty. And for anyone who says, well the defense needs to make a play...if getting the ball first isn't advantageous, then why does everyone outside of Marty Mornhinweg take the ball in OT? And although, yes, the defense is paid to make plays as well, it's still a joke that something advantageous like possession is determined by a coin flip. Do something, anything, to eliminate a coin from helping to decide a game.

* That pass interference on Ben Leber in overtime was a joke (it wasn't interference, and even if it was it certainly wasn't catchable), and I don't think Robert Meachem caught the ball that got the Saints in range for a 40 yard field goal. What I really love, though, is that Pete Morelli was our official today. I'm pretty sure he was the guy who refereed the Super Bowl between the Steelers and Seahawks in which the Seahawks got raped on every call. Glad to have him involved in this game.

* My initial thoughts on this year's Super Bowl is that the Colts will win, and probably by double-digits. Was anybody who watched today's game really impressed by the Saints? The Vikings fumbled a lot and Favre threw them a couple INTs; is that really the mark of a good team? They're explosive offense was held in check, which means the Colts can do the same thing. I just don't expect the Colts to hand the Saints a bunch of gifts like Minnesota did. The Saints will need to play much better, and they could certainly move the ball against the Colts, which could keep this close. I just don't know how good the Saints really are; they've had one impressive win (last week against Arizona) over the past two months, and today's game was gift-wrapped to them. I don't anticipate Peyton Manning throwing away the Colts' season like Favre did today.