Vikings are outgunned, stunned

Their season began on a cool evening in Green Bay, Wis., and ended in the artificial warmth of the Metrodome. Over four months the Vikings stumbled early, juggled quarterbacks, survived injuries, thwarted league-imposed suspensions and surged to their first 10-victory season and home playoff game in eight years.

When their season ended on Sunday, though, the Vikings found themselves back where they started -- with their quarterback foundering in a big game, their coach looking frazzled on the sideline and fans wearing green taunting them as they left the field.

The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Vikings 26-14 in the NFL's wild-card playoff round before a sellout crowd of 61,746. They outscored Minnesota 10-0 in the second half, as Vikings quarterback Tarvaris Jackson found the Eagles' defense as cryptic as a Rubik's Cube.

"We left a lot on the field today," Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe said. "We left a lot on the field this season."

On Sunday, they left Jackson on the field even after he threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown in the second quarter, and as he became a liability in the fourth quarter, when he completed just six of 16 attempts for 44 yards and missed on seven passes in a row.

With the Vikings offense stagnating, the Eagles required just one big play to put the game away. They got it when quarterback Donovan McNabb flipped a screen pass to Brian Westbrook, who accelerated, veered and swerved for a 71-yard touchdown with 6:37 remaining in the game. That made it 23-14 and exposed Jackson's inability to make big plays under duress.

"He did some good things, but this game always sticks with you," Vikings coach Brad Childress said of Jackson. "You hate to give up seven points. You've got to take that out of your repertoire.

In the second half, Jackson's passes looked like airborne wishes, renewing the debate that has punctuated Childress' tenure: Is Jackson the Vikings' quarterback of the future, or an understudy?

Several Vikings, including Shiancoe, lobbied for Jackson to keep the job, but the team invested too heavily in the rest of the roster to settle for an apprentice at the most important position.

The Vikings' two biggest acquisitions of the off-season, receiver Bernard Berrian and defensive end Jared Allen, again paid dividends, with Berrian breaking a 27-yard catch-and-run in the second quarter that led to Adrian Peterson's second touchdown run of the period, and Allen stripping McNabb of the ball near the end of the third quarter.

Peterson, stifled for most of the game, ran for touchdowns of 40 and 3 yards in the second quarter.

Peterson likes to call his running style "famine, famine, feast." After those runs, the Eagles put him on a starvation diet. He rushed eight times for just 17 yards in the second half.

Birk grew up in St. Paul, attended Cretin-Derham Hall and may have played his last game as a Viking on Sunday. He will become a free agent, so after the game, he brought his wife and parents onto the field for one last memory.

As Birk reminisced, a pack of Eagles fans in the stands loudly spelled the team name. Birk says he didn't notice.

"You never know," Birk said of his future. "It's human nature to wonder what's next. A lot of guys won't be coming back."

Before the game, Childress visited with his old boss, Eagles coach Andy Reid, and his old pupil, McNabb, who enveloped him in a bear hug at midfield.

Childress' defenders spent the rest of the afternoon trying to wrap their arms around McNabb, only to watch him duck away and fire another completion.

Maybe when he hugged Childress, McNabb was offering condolences.