Yes ladies and germs, the schism talk is back.  And it’s here to stay.

This time, though, the schism is not between Brett Favre and his teammates, it’s between Favre and coach Brad Childress.  And this time no one can deny its reality.  Brett Favre himself made sure of that.

In comments following last night’s debacle, Favre let us know that he’s not only not on the same page as Chilly, he’s not even in the same book.

It was inevitable that Favre would have to say something, after everyone in the stadium, and watching on TV, saw him get into a contentious exchange with Childress on the sideline.  Indeed, the question was raised during the post-game presser, and Favre, in typical fashion, was perhaps more forthcoming than he should’ve been.

“Yeah, there was a heated discussion, I guess you would call it,” Favre admitted. “We were up 7-6 at the time. No secret, I was getting hit a little bit. I felt the pressure on a lot of plays. We had seven points. So I think everyone in the building was like, ‘They’re not moving the ball, they’re not getting points.’ Brad wanted to go in a different direction and I wanted to stay in the game.”

There you have it, straight from the horse’s mouth:  Brad Childress tried to bench Brett Favre in the 3rd quarter with the Vikings ahead.  An idea Favre was not exactly keen on.

“We were up 7-6,” Favre continued.  “Yeah, it’s not 70-6, but we’re up 7-6. So I said, ‘I’m staying in the game, I’m playing.’ I don’t know if it was exactly to protect me, or we had seven points, I’m not sure. That’s his call. But we talked it out. We didn’t have time, I didn’t have time to sit there and say why or what. My response was, we’ve got to win this ballgame and I want to stay in and do whatever I can. Now, unfortunately, I didn’t do that, but that was my intention.”

As things turned out, the Vikings offense never did turn it around, and the defense took a 4th quarter nosedive even worse than the one that almost let the Ravens steal a game earlier this year, resulting in a humiliating 26-7 Panthers victory.

Such a loss always leads to big questions, especially with the team supposedly gearing up for a playoff run.  But the questions are going to come faster and more furiously than usual, now that we’ve gotten a glimpse of the tumultuous dynamic between Favre and Childress.

No Jared Allen, a schism isn’t an STD.

Thankfully, NFL Director of Media Relations Michael Signora has a twitter feed through which he sends out all the official scenarios as calculated by the brilliant minds at the NFL.  These scenarios are 100% guaranteed to be accurate.

This weekend, the scenarios are in play for the 10-1 Vikings.

Should the Vikings defeat the (probably Warner-less) Cardinals, they would clinch a playoff spot for the second straight season.  Should the Vikes win and the Packers lose to the Ravens, the Vikes would clinch the NFC North, by virtue of their massive tiebreaker advantage.

Once the Vikes clinch, we can begin thinking about seeding.  Given the way the Saints handled the Patriots last night, it seems a long-shot that the Vikings could leapfrog them into the #1 seed.  But grabbing the #2 seed and a first round bye?  That seems just about in the bag for the Purple.

Except a major injury to an important player.

So far, the only big injury to a starter has been the one suffered by Antoine Winfield, who hasn’t seen any action since the first half of the Baltimore game.  Winfield said he was close to playing against the Seahawks, but the decision was made to sit him one more week – which ended up not hurting the Vikings.

Now, Winfield’s foot is healed enough for him to be back in the swing of things at practice, and he says he will go this weekend against the Bears.  Nevertheless, Winfield is listed as questionable on Friday’s injury report.

And “questionable” is also the status stamped beside Adrian Peterson‘s name.

The All-World running back hurt his ankle against the Seahawks and has been nursing it all week.  On Friday, Peterson missed practice altogether, but it wasn’t because of the ankle.  Instead, says Brad Childress, it was an illness that forced AD to sit.

Both Winfield and Peterson will most likely be on the field against Chicago.

The same can’t be said for Anthony Herrera, who suffered a concussion against Seattle and hasn’t practiced all week.  Herrera is listed as doubtful on the report and will almost surely be replaced in the line-up by Artis Hicks, who saw action earlier this year at tackle when Phil Loadholt went down.

So, when the Vikings take the field against the Bears, they will have one starter back in, and one starter going out.  But they will still, overall, be exceptionally healthy, most notably at the quarterback position.  Which is bad news for the fading Bears.