Sid Hartman: Best Brewster win dedicated to Decker

The Gophers' 42-34 victory over Michigan State on Saturday night was the biggest victory in coach Tim Brewster's three years here, and it might result in more success in the future. It was dedicated to one of the program's great players and people, receiver Eric Decker, who will have surgery on his foot Wednesday and will need to rehab for six to nine months.

Brewster talked about how emotional the locker room was before the game, with Decker the big attraction, and how the great all-around athlete was presented with the game ball.

Nobody wanted to have a better game than Adam Weber, Decker's best pal and favorite receiver, and the quarterback answered critics by throwing for a record 416 yards and a record five touchdowns.

It's a wonder the Gophers won this game against a Michigan State team that almost beat undefeated Iowa last week, a game the Hawkeyes won on the last play of the game. The Gophers committed a school-record 17 penalties for 157 yards against the Spartans.

And give the crowd a big assist. Michigan State quarterback Kirk Cousins had a hard time -- especially in the fourth quarter -- getting his signals to teammates, and the result was some important penalties that helped the Gophers.

Going into this game, the Gophers were eighth in the Big Ten in passing offense and last in total offense. But they are in good position to finish with a 7-5 record despite having one of the tougher schedules in the country.

Not only did Weber have a great day, but the Gophers' young receivers made some of the best catches of their careers. Running back Duane Bennett had 121 yards and two touchdowns on his only two catches.

Huge game for Vikings Today's game at Green Bay is one of the biggest in the history of the Vikings franchise. When the Purple has had an outstanding quarterback, the team traditionally has done very well, and the Vikings appear to have one now in 40-year-old Brett Favre, who in my opinion will be with the team for at least another year.

And if they win today's game, the schedule is very much in their favor to have a great opportunity to go to their first Super Bowl since the 1977 season.

The Vikings went to the Super Bowl for the first time in the 1969 season, when they had an outstanding quarterback in Joe Kapp.

They went to the Super Bowl three times when Fran Tarkenton came back after being traded to the Giants.

Since their last Super Bowl appearance, they have lost three NFC Championship Games: after the 1987 season, when they had Wade Wilson, who would go to the Pro Bowl the following year; after the 1998 season, when Randall Cunningham was named NFC Player of the Year; and after the 2000 season, when Daunte Culpepper was developing into one of the best quarterbacks in the game.

While he won't talk about it, I'm convinced that because he left the Packers with a poor relationship with management, that a victory today would mean a lot to him.

Jottings Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was asked whether the first Green Bay game, when he gained 55 yards on 25 carries, was the toughest sledding he had this year. "I don't want to say it was the toughest. But those guys did a good job of slowing down the run game," Peterson said. "But still with that, we were able to move the ball effectively and contribute. Those guys are good up front, and you have to give them credit." ... Vikings offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell was asked whether the Packers did anything special to stop Peterson in the first game at the Metrodome. "There are a couple of times that we thought we had a few plays but they made the tackles. I thought they tackled well."

According to the Packers, since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger, this is only the second time a former Packers starting quarterback is returning to start at Lambeau Field. The only other time it happened was when Don Majkowski did it with the Lions in November 1996, a 28-18 Green Bay victory during their last championship season. Majkowski was the quarterback that Favre replaced as starter in 1992. Don Horn, who started six games for Green Bay in 1969 and '70 combined, started against the host Packers for Denver in September 1971, but that game was at Milwaukee's County Stadium. ... Other former Packers quarterbacks to start as an opponent in Green Bay include Matt Hasselbeck and Aaron Brooks, both former Favre backups who were traded away. Hasselbeck came back with the Seahawks, Brooks with the Saints.

The Vikings sacked Aaron Rodgers eight times in the game at the Metrodome last month, but they have not had a sack at Lambeau Field in their past 11 quarters there. Their last sack at Lambeau came in the first quarter of the 2006 game, when Ben Leber took down Favre. ... According to an NFL analysis of Week 1 rosters, the Packers have the league's youngest team for the fourth year in a row.

The Gophers football team got two big verbal commitments over the weekend. Most important was Josh Huff, a great running back from Aldine Nimitz in Texas, who had committed to Utah, a school that recruits well, and changed his mind in favor of Minnesota. The Gophers also got a commitment from Donnell Kirkwood, a running back who plays for former Gopher Andre Thaddies at Delray Beach Atlantic in Florida. And visiting here this weekend is wide receiver James Louis from the same school, who had previously committed to national champion Florida, then changed his mind and committed to Ohio State, and now apparently is reconsidering. ... On Oct. 16, Marquise Hill, a highly recruited running back from Trinity Catholic in St. Louis who has committed to the Gophers, had a great game where he scored on a 25-yard run, an 84-yard kickoff return and a 75-yard interception return.