Favre Shines, Minnesota Vikings Roll New York Giants

NFL News - January 3rd, 2010 - Written by John

Adrian Peterson held on to the ball. Brett Favre was nearly flawless in the last game of the regular season.

Maybe the purported armageddon of the Minnesota Vikings has been a bit over exaggerated as the team bounced back from consecutive losses.

Eager to answer their critics, Peterson was fumble-free and scored a touchdown, and Favre threw for 316 yards and four scores in a 44-7 win over the New York Giants on Sunday. The win keeps hope alive for the Vikings to keep the second seed in the NFC bracket, and they now need the Philadelphia Eagles to lose later in the afternoon to clinch it.

The Giants, who were dispatched from the playoff hunt last week, looked like a team with nothing to play for, and turned the ball over three times and only had 202 total yards.

Peterson had a long 23-yard run early in the second quarter in which he dragged several Giant defenders with him, and covered the ball with two hands when he usually does so with one. He had been battered in the media for his unseemly fumbles in recent weeks, but didn't cough up the ball all day.

It allowed the Vikings to jump on top early, grabbing a 17-0 lead midway through the second quarter. By that time, three Minnesota receivers had over 50 yards, which at that point was more than Eli Manning had passing.

Favre started the game 12-of-14 for 194 yards, and had the game's first score on a 10- yard connection to Visanthe Shiancoe.

Then, it was Peterson's turn and he turned his aforementioned big gain into a one-yard score to take the 17-point lead.

For the rest of the half, it was essentially the Sidney Rice show and the third-year wideout blew up for 112 yards before the break. He had back-to-back touchdowns to end the second quarter, the first a four-yard score and the second a 12 yarder that took the lead to 31.

Rice finished with a game-high 112 yards.

Favre then followed up with a two-yard score for his fourth touchdown pass of the day, giving the Vikings their highest point total of the year, and plenty of momentum heading into the playoffs.

NFL Betting Lines were right on, listing Viking as one of the favorites to make it to the 2009 NFL Playoffs.