I’m with you on that, MilCard. To me, the 2-minute drill is the purest essence of the game, for either side, the whole game coming down to that one little snippet of play-time where you throw everything you have at it, bathwater AND baby if necessary. It separates the real from the wannabes and there’s nothing in a football game that I love seeing more than a finely executed (or hard-stopped) 2-minute drill.

Seeing it happen in Purple, for the first time in years…. was enough to bring tears to the eyes. I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve seen it done without any time-outs left to play with, either. Tark, Kramer, Moon…. I don’t think I ever saw Daunte do it without a pocket full of time-outs.

I still think T-Jack can get the job done from time to time, and Sage might be ok as well, but both those boys better be kneeling at the feet of the Master right now, seeking knowledge and understanding. Favre just reminded us all of what a real NFL first-rate QB is expected to be able to do.

Loadholt gave up the blocked kick, and the 10 point swing. Loadholt made three or four other bad plays, but Hutch also had some guys get by him. Sullivan played really BAD, he stood out, he leeked in the middle all game.

We out played them today, but especially in the first half. The blocked kick killed us.

all of these silly ESPN polls have obvious fan-bias. If it had been the other way around, I’d have still voted for the Vikes play just out of spite. I mean, it’s just a meaningless SC poll.

…a kickoff must be fielded with the exception of touchbacks. Punts may be fair caught. There is nothing in the NFL.com rulebook about fair catching a kickoff.

So, the clock would not have started until the 9ers fielded the squib or short kickoff, but they would not have had a play from scrimmage unless the receiver was able to run oob in less than 2 seconds.

I do long for the return of the days when I can be nearly certain that the Vikings aren’t just a luckier team or the beneficiaries of an easy schedule, but the real deal. See also: 1998, 2001, and probably another year or two around that time plus the late 80s-mid 90s with those amazing defensive lines.

Favre is our chance to do some damage in the playoffs, and I don’t want to see it wasted due to poor game plans, predictable playcalling, and other small details.

onside kick is a bad idea in that situation. Let them start the lateral game from our 40 yard line? Or they just let the ball go whizzing by them out of bounds? Or if they somehow get down with only a second ticking off the clock, they’ve got a chance at a 57ish yard field goal to tie.

What they did was good. Put the ball on their side of the field and force them to throw up a prayer.

The remaining time was the critical factor. Favre consumed the clock with absolute mastery on that final drive, leaving the 49’ers with only 2 seconds of play.

As long as the kickoff put them further back than the 50 yard line, they had to get a TD or nothing else was good enough. They had time for just 1 play. If they had had good enough field position, an FG could have sent the game into OT.

There was one last other possibility…. if Hill tossed his ‘Hail Mary’ and they got a pass interference down around the 20 yard line. The question is, on a PI, does the clock get reset? Because if it does, then they could have gotten one more play and that meant the FG would turn the trick. I don’t know, I checked a number of sources and couldn’t find it covered, so maybe not.