Pat Williams says he'll put a stop to the run

Pat Williams is supposed to have his broken right shoulder examined again today, but the Pro Bowl nose tackle said he plans on playing in the Vikings' first playoff game.

"I'm confident I'm coming back," he said. "I'm going to rehab twice every day."

Williams missed his second consecutive game Sunday as the Vikings clinched the NFC North title with a 20-19 victory against the New York Giants at the Metrodome. After watching the defense give up 135 yards rushing -- the second most this season -- Williams said he can't stand to watch any longer.

"Last week I about busted my TV," he said. "This week I about pulled my hair out on the sideline. I said, 'I should have stayed home and watched this game, too.' I'm going crazy.

"They need me, because in the playoffs if you can't run the ball, you can't win."

The Vikings run defense made history Sunday, but they clearly are not the same without their top run-stopper clogging up the middle. The Vikings became the first team to lead the league in run defense for three consecutive seasons since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger. They allowed an average of 76.9 yards rushing.

But the Vikings were not particularly pleased with their performance Sunday. The Giants own the NFL's top rushing offense, but they were without leading rusher Brandon Jacobs (knee injury). Backup Derrick Ward was limited in the second half after rushing for 77 yards on 15 carries.

Only the Green Bay Packers rushed for more yards (139) against the Vikings this season.

"We had chances to stop them, but we missed tackles," defensive end Jared Allen said.

"It's as simple as that. You can't miss tackles."

The Vikings blamed most of the problems on breakdowns in gap responsibilities and missed tackles. "They ran one or two plays that kind of caught us off guard, but that wasn't even what hurt us," linebacker Ben Leber said. "It just seemed at times like they outexecuted us. You know that whoever we play [in the playoffs] is going to try and exploit the same things, so we have to look at ourselves in the mirror and really improve."

Getting Williams back would be a huge lift. The Falcons and the Giants had success running up the middle, which doesn't typically happen when Williams is in the game.

"It's eating at me," Williams said. "I hate people running the ball. I hate that. That's what I strive for: stopping the run. That's my game. Let the other guys take care of the pass, the sacks. I rough up their running backs."

Williams said he no longer has pain in his shoulder and is working on regaining his strength. He said he doesn't want to wear a brace or get any pain-killing injections when he returns.

"I ain't taking no damn injections," he said. "I just have to get my arm strong. That's my only problem. Just get it back strong. I'm not worried about a cracked bone."

The Vikings also realize that they must not repeat the mistakes they made Sunday.

"You know whenever you have a guy in the middle that's an All-Pro defensive tackle, he's able to nullify a lot of their runs and what they like to do," safety Darren Sharper said. "But it doesn't matter. Whoever we have in there has to find a way to get it done, too, and we're going to fix those things and it's going to be up to us to tackle well on the back end and we'll be fine."