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This is why Brett Favre said he was coming
back. And back he is -- maybe better than ever.
     

 Four touchdown passes from Minnesota's
40-year-old quarterback put the Vikings within a game of the Super
Bowl with a 34-3 rout of the Dallas Cowboys to advance to the NFC
championship Sunday.


      Five months after ending retirement for a second straight year
for a chance to win another championship, Favre found Sidney Rice
for three scores and Ray Edwards led the defense's harassment of
Tony Romo.


      Favre and the Vikings (13-4) will take on the Saints next Sunday
at New Orleans, with the winner going to the Super Bowl.


      The exclamation came late in the fourth quarter, when Favre hit
Visanthe Shiancoe for his personal playoff-best fourth scoring
pass. Never in 22 previous postseason games had he thrown for that
many touchdowns.


      Favre completed 15 of 24 passes for 234 yards to finally beat
Dallas in the playoffs, and Romo sat stone-faced on the bench
between possessions in the second half after a three-turnover game
against one of his childhood favorites.


      Romo was sacked six times, three by Edwards, lost two of his
three fumbles and threw a glaring interception right to Ben Leber
deep in his own end late in the third quarter to set up a field
goal. 


After gaining 118 yards in the first quarter, the Cowboys got
only 130 the rest of the way and watched the buzz from their first
playoff win in 13 years last week fizzle out.


      Romo finished 22 for 35 for 198 yards, but for all the strides
he made this season his lack of poise in the din of the Metrodome
will be remembered well. The last time Dallas won a playoff game on
the road was the NFC championship after the 1992 season.

      Favre had a remarkable regular season with a career-low
interception total of seven and 33 touchdown passes that pushed the
Vikings to their best finish in 11 years. They won their division
last season, too, so this return to the playoffs was irrelevant.


      The once-unfathomable partnership was formed just for this, a
talented team hoping to hitch those title hopes to Favre, who was
driven to disprove the doubts about his ability to get back to the
big game again.

      He took some hard hits by Dallas and that fierce front seven,
but he was as sharp as he was all season. Stepping up in the pocket
to elude the rush and making the right reads downfield, Favre
looked the part of the missing Super Bowl piece the Vikings were
searching for when they persuaded him to join them last summer.


      After a 35-yard heave to Rice midway through the fourth quarter
that stretched the lead to 27-3, Favre ran up to right guard
Anthony Herrera and jumped on his back while the fans enjoyed the
frenzy.


      The Vikings played Dallas only three times in the last decade,
hardly rivalry material, but fans in Minnesota have plenty of
contempt for the Cowboys. Favre brought his own history of defeat,
though scattered and distant, against them with three straight
postseason losses early in his career.


      It was football's original "Hail Mary" heave in 1975 that sent
Dallas one step toward the Super Bowl and left another stinging
loss with Bud Grant's bridesmaid Vikings, who believed Drew Pearson
was guilty of pass interference on the play. Oh, and don't forget
another dubious Dallas-Minnesota link, the ill-fated Herschel
Walker trade that fueled the '90s dynasty built by the Cowboys.

      So maybe this game meant a little more to the guys in purple
than simply moving on to the semifinal, if not for the players then
for the people who have cheered for the purple for 49 years without
a championship.


      The crowd was loud, as it usually is under the roof where the
Vikings won all eight games this season, and that helps the
defensive line here as much as any position.


      The turning point came in the first quarter during a second
straight too-easy drive for Dallas. Romo fumbled a second-down snap
at the 35, and on fourth-and-1 at the 30 coach Wade Phillips sent
Shaun Suisham out for a field goal. It went wide left, as did his
try from 49 yards in the third quarter.

Gallery

Sports

Brett Favre threw four touchdown passes, and
the Vikings' defense put the clamps on the Dallas Cowboys in a 34-3
victory Sunday that sent Minnesota to the NFC title game.

Vikings advance with 34-3 win over Cowboys

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