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Vikings postgame: 27-24 OT victory vs. Cardinals

Brett Favre set career high with 446 passing yards as Vikings rally from 14-point deficit

November 8, 2010 at 3:05AM

Do the Vikings ever do anything the normal way?

Just when things looked dire for the team and coach Brad Childress, the Vikings finally came to life and stopped shooting themselves in the foot in time to rally for a 27-24 overtime victory against Arizona.

Vikings owner Zygi Wilf did not talk to reporters after the game but Wilf could barely contain his excitement. He stood at the entrance to the locker room and congratulated every player, coach and staff member with a handshake and two words, "Great heart." Wilf could be heard yelling those two words over and over inside and outside the locker room.

Childress said after the game that he has received no assurances about his job security for the rest of the season. Childress was asked if he needed or wanted that assurance. "I'm not going to sit here like Brett Favre and tell you I need compassion, I need a hug," he said. "I'm all right." Favre had joked last week that he could use a hug when asked if Childress was a compassionate coach.

Jared Allen was asked if the team won for Childress.

"We won one for us," he said.

Favre also was asked if he felt like he was playing for Childress' job.

"I felt like I was playing for mine," he said. "I am just being honest. I have played for 20 years. I have always wanted to be the best. I had to ask myself, 'Are you willing to do what it takes?' Do I always get along with my head coach, quarterbacks coach, offensive coordinator? No. Do I always agree with the plays that were called? No. Why should that factor in to me wanting to be the best player I can be? "Whether Brad is the head coach or not, that should never change the way you approach it. Those younger guys in there, they want new contracts, they want to be in the Pro Bowl and the best player at their position. They can't look at it from, 'Who's my coach?' It's still football. You have to run routes, you have to block, you have to tackle, you have to make the right reads, you have to overcome adversity. A head coach is a head coach. Individually, that's the way it should be and that's the way I approach it. " As for the game, we'll have plenty on Favre's performance in which he passed for a career-high 446 yards online shortly. One stat though: Favre's last 400-yard game came on Dec. 5, 1993 versus Chicago. That's 16 years and 337 days between 400-yard passing games, the longest such span in NFL history. Here are some other notes and quotes from the locker room:

Inside the numbers

The final stats are interesting:

First downs: Vikings 28, Cardinals 13.

Total yards: Vikings 507, Cardinals 225

Passing yards: Vikings 446, Cardinals 196

Time of possession: Vikings 38:05, Cardinals 27:13

Harvin's big day

Percy Harvin didn't have much fun last week. He was angry when the team dumped Randy Moss. He missed two practices and was questionable because of a severe ankle sprain. And he got into a heated argument with Childress.

But he rebounded with what he described as the best game of his career. He caught nine passes for 126 yards, both career highs. Harvin said his argument with Childress stemmed from the fact the he didn't want to get an MRI on his ankle.

Harvin got up slowly and limped to the sideline after several tackles Sunday, but he looked explosive with the ball in his hands.

"They did a great job of, as soon as I was getting ready to go to my next gear, they were able to grab my leg and trip me up," he said. "The biggest thing for me was hitting the ground and them landing on it, tweaking it and stuff like that. But it's fine."

Harvin fumbled the second-half kickoff, which was returned 30 yards for a touchdown. The Vikings challenged that Harvin was on the ground when he fumbled but the call was upheld. "I kind of got bent up and was trying to protect my leg so I couldn't get two hands on the ball," Harvin said. "They did a great job of stripping the ball out. I just have to have better ball security." Defense clamps down

The Cardinals were able to make some plays on offense, notably in the two-minute drill before halftime, but the Vikings defense tightened up at the end of the fourth quarter when the team needed stops.

The Vikings sacked Derek Anderson six times, equaling their season total through seven games.

"All the guys calmed down," nose tackle Pat Williams said. "We said, 'It's our season. If we lose this game, that's it, really.' If we lost, that would have basically been it for us. So, everybody just calmed down and everybody started playing better."

Said Jared Allen: "Honestly, if you lose this game things can come apart at the seams and I've been on a team where we lost nine straight and we were in first place going into our bye week and you can just watch it unravel. This team has a lot of character and a lot of heart and it showed. When we focus on playing football, we are pretty good. Even though we didn't play perfect today, we overcame 14 points on special teams, which kills you. The offense put up good numbers and the defense was able to hold them."

Extra points

-- Bernard Berrian had nine catches for 87 yards going into the game. He finished Sunday's game with nine catches for 89 yards. Berrian did a nice job with run-after-catch on slant passes.

-- Greg Camarillo received a lot of praise in the locker room for running down Kerry Rhodes after an interception and preventing a touchdown by knocking the ball out of his hands and through the end zone for a touchback. "I've always been taught to hustle on every play and never give up for that reason," Camarillo said. "That's a momentum play that could have changed the game instantly. I'm glad I was in position and the other guys made him cut back."

-- Right tackle Phil Loadholt appeared to suffer an injury to his leg in the fourth quarter but he was able to return. Safety Jamarca Sanford was injured in the first half and was unable to continue on special teams.

That's it for now. We'll have plenty more online and in the paper. We'll check back in from Winter Park on Monday morning.