The NFL admits they were wrong. - Page 2

On paper, they outplayed them. But those turnovers killed those drives especially in the 4th.

With the number of turnovers the Vikings had I was amazed that the score was as close as it was late in the 4th.

they only did this cause it was brett favre.

Interesting article from Joe Posnanski of SI about Favres apparent dislike of running the football.

Brett Favre faltered*in Vikings' NFC title game loss to Saints - Joe Posnanski - SI.com

You are all fools! Can't you see football is now a puppet of the state of Indiana, putting a Purdue graduate with a couple of IU players up against the state team....

The Vikings had a lot of turnovers in their last game against the Saints- some of them were forced, but two of the most important turn overs weren't - Harvin's dropped ball, and the bad hand off between Farve and Peterson. And at least one of the other turn overs shouldn't have been a turn over, because it occurred because by an illegal hit on Farve in the 3rd quarter.

I remember when they were 1st and 10 at the end of the 4th quarter, I turned to my wife and said "They should kick it now". She said that she thought they should try to get a little bit closer to give them a better chance at the field goal, but I said "No, they can screw this up. Longwell can kick it at this point, and they should do it". And that's when it started to fall apart. I agree that what cost them the game was the 12 men in the huddle- that was a stupid, stupid penalty to take. And that, as much as anything else, cost them the game. It meant on the third down, Farve had to complete for some yards, so when he was being chased, he didn't have a lot of options. I'll never hold that play against him- he didn't have any good options at that point. He knew at that point they were too far for a field goal- he had to make forward progress, or they were going to be forced to punt the ball to the Vikings. Brett Farve plays like a champ with a lot of heart. Sorry, Brett Farve is my first real sports-man crush. I love that guy.

But that said, the Vikings didn't have a particular problem with turn overs this year- this was just a bad game for them in terms of turn overs. It can happen to any team, and it just happened to us on a really important day- and despite that, the Vikings were able to keep the score as close as it was. I think that says as much about the Vikings as anything else- they had a bad game in terms of turn overs, but they kept the score close.

Back to the topic of Farve- at the end of the 4th quarter, playing injured following two illegal hits, Farve was still throwing really well- nice, tight spirals, and right on target. You can't say that for Brees- by the end of the game his throws were wobbly. If you take a look at Brees completion record for the season, and you compare it to that last game, you can see how effective the Vikings defense were.

Special teams were pretty bad- particularly on kick off. They'd been allowing the other team to get way too deep before stopping them. That really hurt them in OT, IMHO.

Plus, there's no way that Leber should've been called for interference on that play- the ball was not playable. It was a ridiculous call. I'm not going to get overly bent out of shape over the officiating- sometimes there are bad calls against you, sometimes there are bad calls for you.

I also would like to see a rule change where both teams get a chance to have possession in the OT. Winning the coin toss is such a huge advantage, that it sort of comes down to a flip of the coin as to determining who's going to win. That said, when the game is tied going into OT, it means that either team is equally deserving, and the OT is just there because they need to pick someone to go on to the next round. I think the Vikings and the Saints were equally deserving. If the Saints are able to win, or keep the game close to the Colts, then that'll reaffirm my view. On the other hand, if they can't win against the Colts because of a lack of turn overs, then it'll say to me that the Viking's lost the NFC championship more so than the Saints won it.

As far as I'm concerned, there are only two season- football season, and waiting for football season.

I bleed purple. Skol Vikings!

This is debated often, and I do agree. The coin flip has too much power. Now twenty years ago, when receivers and quarterbacks weren't so protected, maybe not. I heard an idea to simply play out an additional quarter, no sudden death. That would work for me, since I've always found the college version a little hokey, in that it negates special teams, other than field goal kicking of course. I don't know how plausible any change is. From an ownership standpoint, sudden death saves wear and tear on those million dollar bodies. All the better so they can play an 18 game season.