Redemption for both Childress and Jackson

There were plenty of people who speculated that coach Brad Childress was going to be fired at the end of the season after the Vikings got off to a slow start in September. And there were also a lot of critics, including me, who questioned whether Tarvaris Jackson would ever make it in the NFL.

Well, Childress never was going to get fired regardless of how the season developed because Vikings owner Zygi Wilf told many of his cohorts just that. But the coach could certainly be second-guessed for his decision to draft Jackson as the Vikings quarterback of the future in the second round of the 2006 draft.

Jackson played poorly the first two games of the season, both losses, and was benched for veteran Gus Frerotte. In the following weeks, Jackson only saw a little bit of action here and there whenever Frerotte got hurt, but for the most part he stood on the sidelines and watched during Vikings gamedays.

But last week, Jackson got his first extended playing time since getting benched after Frerotte suffered the back injury, and he led the Vikings to a come-from-behind victory at Detroit. And with Frerotte still banged up this week, all Jackson did Sunday at Arizona was lead the team to an impressive 35-14 victory.

Jackson completed 11 of 17 passes for 163 yards, but four of those passes went for touchdowns. He didn't throw an interception and compiled a quarterback rating of 135.5.

It just showed again what Vikings quarterback coach Kevin Rogers told me many times: It takes two or three years for a young NFL quarterback to develop into a top-notch player. Rogers pointed to Peyton and Eli Manning and Donovan McNabb as examples of highly touted quarterbacks who didn't enter the league with much success right away before developing into first-class signal callers.

Jackson isn't Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. But on the basis of his performance Sunday, he isn't too far from being a really good NFL quarterback if he continues to work hard and listens to the instruction of his coaches, including Childress, Rogers and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell. He also can continue to take some tips from Frerotte. Someday, Frerotte can be a great coach, like his father-in-law.

As for Childress, his coaching theory is that you should finish a much better team than when you start.

He has done a great job this season, considering he lost the best middle linebacker in the league in E.J. Henderson to injury and Jared Allen has been playing hurt much of the season. And Childress made the tough call with the quarterback change two games into the season to Frerotte, who probably could have played if needed Sunday.

This Vikings team is peaking at the right time, and they will win the division if they can keep playing like they did Sunday. And if Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor quit fumbling, this team could go a long way.

Berrian stars At one time in the first half of Sunday's game, Arizona had 109 total yards and Bernard Berrian had 123.

He had a total of 82 yards on a punt return and 41 yards on a pass for a touchdown, on a great pass from Jackson.

Berrian has shown to be a great acquisition by the Vikings, giving the team its best deep threat since the days of Randy Moss. Berrian has 42 receptions for 865 yards, and he now has seven touchdowns with the two he had Sunday -- one on his first career punt return for a score.

He has come a long way since early in the season, when he was battling a toe injury. During training camp, the Wilf family wondered if the injury would hamper Berrian -- whom the Vikings gave $16 million in guaranteed money when they signed him as a free agent -- for most of the season.

"I had to sit before the beginning of the offseason. I just didn't do anything, to let it heal up," Berrian said of his toe injury. "Then it didn't bother me in that first preseason game. Apparently nobody knew how serious the injury was, and then I reinjured it again."

Berrian sat out the final three preseason games because of the injury, and then once the season started he contributed very little as the Vikings went 1-3 in September. He had only six catches in the first three games, including none in Week 2 against Indianapolis.

Well once Berrian got healthy, he proved that the investment the Wilfs made in him when they brought him to the Vikings from the Bears was money well spent. The Vikings are 5-1 this season when Berrian catches a touchdown and 4-0 when he gains 100 yards or more.

He really got going against New Orleans in Week 5, when he had six receptions for 110 yards. He caught his first touchdown of the season in that game, a 33-yarder in the fourth quarter that tied the score, and he then set up the winning field goal by drawing a 42-yard pass interference penalty late in the game to set up the winning field goal by Ryan Longwell.

Since then, Berrian has caught an 86-yard touchdown against Detroit; had catches of 49 and 55 yards against Houston; tied an NFL record with his 99-yard touchdown reception that turned the game around for the Vikings against his former team, Chicago; and now on Sunday he had his first two-touchdown game of his five-year NFL career.

Jottings In 1959, the Chicago Cardinals played two games at Metropolitan Stadium, against the Eagles and Giants. The team was paid a guarantee of $250,000, and both games sold out before crowds of 25,000. That came as a result of a plan to get the Cardinals to possibly move to the Twin Cities, and I was part of a group that tried to persuade team owner Walter Wolfner to move here. Wolfner, who was married to Violet Bidwill, was excited about the sellouts and indicated he was going to move the team here, but he changed his mind and moved the Cardinals to St. Louis instead. Then in 1988, Violet's son Bill Bidwill moved the Cardinals again to the Phoenix area, and now they have 29 consecutive sellouts in their new stadium in Glendale. Bill Bidwill has owned the team since 1962.

Larry Fitzgerald Jr., the former Holy Angels standout, came into Sunday's game in the top five in the NFL in receiving yards (1,148), receptions (83) and TD catches (83). But the Vikings held him to five catches for 52 yards, short of his average of 6.4 receptions and 88 yards per game.

Sid Hartman can be heard weekdays on WCCO AM-830 at 6:40, 7:40 and 8:40 a.m. and on his Podcast once a week at www.startribune.com/sidcast. shartman@startribune.com