Kurt Warner, Hall-of-Famer.  Brett Favre, Hall-of-Famer.  Peyton Manning, Hall-of-Famer.

The Saints beat Warner and Favre by mercilessly pounding them, sending Warner into retirement and Favre into a bruise-covered limbo.  Peyton Manning was spared the physical punishment, but by game’s end, had received a psychological beat-down perhaps even worse than that suffered by his predecessors.

As with Favre two weekends ago, the final blow to Manning’s psyche was delivered by Tracy Porter.  With the Colts driving for what seemed like an inevitable tying touchdown in the fourth quarter, Porter read Manning, stepped in front of Reggie Wayne, caught the ball and raced downfield for a 74-yard touchdown, giving the Saints a 14-point lead.

The Colts got the ball back after that, but you could tell by Manning’s body language that he was already defeated.

That’s what the Saints do on defense.  They give up  yards, they give up points, but then they turn you over and score, either via return or their quick-strike offense.  In football there is nothing so disheartening as coughing the ball up and watching helplessly as the other team converts the mistake into points.

The Vikings may have a more consistently stifling defense, at least when they’re on turf and can generate their pass rush, but one wishes they were a little more like the Saints in their ball-hawking ability.  Grinding a team down is one thing, but what really breaks their back is the turnover.

Something Brett Favre and Peyton Manning know all-too-well.

The key word last week was “physicality.”  The Vikings, a week after getting out-efforted by the Cardinals, needed to assert themselves against Cincinnati, especially in the running game.  Their re-commitment to the ground attack paid off in a big game for Adrian Peterson and a convincing victory over a playoff caliber team.

The foe this week is anything but playoff caliber, but the running game will again be vital.  The Vikings need to push Carolina around early, ram AD down their throats and make them cry uncle.  I also expect Chester Taylor to be in the mix more than last week, when Brad Childress gave him 5 carries to AD’s 26.

Chester could also be a big factor in the passing game.  The receiver corps, a strength all season, figures to be somewhat weakened this week, with Percy Harvin and Sidney Rice coming off health issues that limited their practice time.  The short passing game to the backs would be one way to compensate for this, and possibly slow down the pass rush of Julius Peppers, who has been known to torch Bryant McKinnie from time-to-time.

For Brett Favre, this is another chance to prove his prowess in inclement late season conditions.  Of course, “inclement” is a relative term.  It will be around forty in Charlotte tonight, chilly for North Carolina, but positively balmy for a guy who played most of his career in the frozen wastelands of Wisconsin.

Favre will face a Panthers pass defense that has picked off 18 balls this year, 5th in the NFL.  This might not have seemed a big issue earlier in the year when Favre was protecting the ball, but he’s gotten intercepted three times the last two weeks while occasionally seeming borderline senile.  That’s all the more reason to dial back the down-the-field passing and put the game in Adrian and Chester’s hands.

For the Vikings defense, the major challenge will be slowing down a Panthers run attack that ranks 4th in the NFL.  DeAngelo Williams is one of the top rushers in the league with his 1104 yards and 7 touchdowns, and Jonathan Stewart is a fantastic complementary back with his 693 yards and 7 TDs.  The Viking run D is still one of the best in the league, but they did nearly surrender a 100-yard rushing game last week to Cedric Benson, and there have been other occasions this year when teams have been able to run up the middle with more success than expected.

The Carolina passing game still sports one of the best receivers in the league in Steve Smith, but is now being run by Matt Moore instead of Jake Delhomme…a circumstance welcomed by those who were tired of watching Jake turn the ball over at a rate that would embarrass even Jay Cutler, but still not necessarily conducive to victory (Matt Moore’s passer rating is ten points higher than Delhomme’s, but still well below even halfway decent).

The inexperienced Moore will not only have to deal with a Viking defense that’s first in the league in sacks, he will also have to contend with a secondary that visibly improved with the return of Antoine Winfield.  The Panthers figure to take the pressure off Moore by running it and sticking to controlled passes, which lessens the possibility of the Vikings’ brutal safeties being exploited deep like they were by Kurt Warner.

This game may boil down to one simple question:  how much fight do the Panthers have left in them?  They are out of the playoffs at 5-8, but pride and anger may be sufficient to motivate them, plus there’s the chance to play spoiler to a team that’s battling for playoff positioning.

If the Vikes can get Adrian Peterson cranked up early, mix in some Chester Taylor and get a couple of big plays out of Brett Favre, they should be in for another solid offensive effort.  The concern is that Carolina will get their own running backs going, shorten the game and keep it close late.  That’s where a Brett Favre interception or AD fumble could tip the balance over to the otherwise outmatched Panthers.

Carolina could be in big trouble, though, if the Vikings flash the same game they brought against the Bengals.  Either way, this is a huge one for the Vikings who, with New Orleans losing, still have a shot at homefield throughout the playoffs.

1.  Everyone has their pet theory as to why the Vikings‘ running game has fallen off the table.  Some think it’s the downgrade from Matt Birk to John Sullivan.  Some believe Adrian Peterson is not picking out the holes.  Others point the finger at Steve Hutchinson‘s nagging back issues.  All those things are probably involved, but there’s one more factor that might be the biggest of all:  Lack of rhythm caused by Brad Childress and Darrell Bevell‘s new tendency to lean on Brett Favre.  I believe the Vikings would be a better running team if they committed themselves to it, but, when you have Favre and some good receivers, it’s so easy to just start throwing the ball around.  I’m not sure what you do at this point of the season except make up your mind to run more and hope you start opening some holes and hope Adrian doesn’t get all fumbley again.  I do know that our offensive line is not overpowering enough to expect those holes to be there all game.  We have to work at it and wear down defenses…but, of course, if Favre is throwing the ball well, what’s the point?  It only became a serious issue because we lost.

2.  Brett Favre had a bad game.  Guess what kids…it was going to happen sooner or later.  It’s no surprise that the interceptions came after we had fallen behind.  Favre blamed himself for the picks, saying he should never have made those throws (the one where he attempted a no-look pass to Sidney Rice and Michael Adams didn’t bite was just flat stupid).  It wasn’t all Favre’s fault that the offense fell apart in the second half though.  The pass protection got spotty, largely thanks to Bryant McKinnie, who got owned by Bertrand Berry.  Obviously, there was no running game at all.  And overall, I just felt like the offense came out seeming panicky in the third quarter, even though they were only down 11, and had started moving the ball decently in the second quarter after deciding to get Chester Taylor involved in the passing game.  There was really no reason to get pass-happy there, unless you made up your mind that: A) you couldn’t run; and, B) your defense couldn’t stop them.

3.  The defense had a terrible first half.  No pressure on Kurt Warner.  Blown coverages.  Absolutely no shot at slowing down Anquan Boldin.  In the second half, though, the defense was much stronger.  Obviously, part of this was that the Cardinals were ahead and sort of took their foot off the gas, but the Vikings’ players deserve credit for hanging in.  It’s unfortunate the offense was unable to get anything going, because the D did give them a shot to get back in the game.

4.  Two refrains were sounded most frequently among my tweeps last night:  “The old Favre is back,” and “Percy Harvin needs more touches.”  Indeed, Percy was the Vikings’ most effective weapon, with 6 catches for 79 yards and a garbage-time TD, and 2 rushes for a team-leading 22 yards.  My refrain was, and always will be, “Chester Taylor needs more touches.”  That goes double when there’s a big pass rush and you need some screens to slow that down.  Chester could also be a big weapon on those occasions when teams decide to disrespect the Vikes’ run game and start dropping 8 men in coverage like Arizona did.

5.  The injuries are piling up.  There was E.J. Henderson‘s gruesome leg break.  There was Visanthe Shiancoe’s aggravated rib cage issue.  Tyrell Johnson suffering a concussion.  Cedric Griffin getting banged up.  Bryant McKinnie and Phil Loadholt both leaving the game, forcing the Vikes to face the horror of Jon Cooper and Ryan Cook being in at the same time.  Favre banging his hand on someone’s helmet.  Who am I leaving out?

6.  The Vikings are still 10-2 and comfortably ahead in the NFC North, so obviously, there’s no cause for panic.   However, I think the Bengals game this weekend constitutes something of a gut-check.  We’ll be facing another pretty good quarterback and another really good defense.  I can’t imagine how Chilly will approach it, but, I wouldn’t be surprised if the passing game gets dialed back a tad.  Chilly’s instinct is to play it safe.  Lately, he’s gotten out of his comfort zone by throwing more, but that didn’t work against Arizona, so now Chilly will likely revert to what he knows best, namely grinding.  Unless of course he’s lost all his faith in the running game, in which case, I imagine Favre will throw it 40+ times again next week.  I’m personally not convinced Adrian Peterson has suddenly become chopped liver.  There’s got to be a way to free him up; the brain trust just needs to figure out what it is.

7.  Some game balls need to be handed out on the defense.  One for Pat Williams, who played his best game of the year.  One for Benny Sapp who was also outstanding.  One for poor E.J. Henderson who was having himself a hell of a game before the femur thing.  None for Kevin Williams and Ray Edwards who were both erased despite the Cardinals focusing all their attention on Jared Allen.  None for Jamarca Sanford who, even before the unfortunate E.J. play, was acting like a total dipshit.  Someone tell Jamarca to grow up.

8.  Props to Kurt Warner, Ken Whisenhunt, the Cardinals offensive line, the Cardinals defensive line, Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin, Steve Breaston, the Cardinals secondary, the Cardinals linebackers…yeah, pretty much the whole damn Arizona outfit.  The Cardinals outcoached Chilly and Co.  Warner outplayed Favre.  Fitzgerald and Boldin had their way with our DBs in the first half especially.  The secondary outwitted Favre every step of the way.  The O-line swallowed up our D-line.  Their D-line ate our O-line for lunch.  It was just a thorough ass-whupping.

9.  Remember yesterday afternoon around 3 o’clock when it looked like the Redskins were going to beat the Saints and we were thinking we might have our hands on homefield advantage by the end of the night?  That was a great couple of minutes.  And then reality happened.

10.  For quite awhile this morning, the #1 search on Google was “E.J. Henderson.”  Further proof that, for a lot of people, the allure of football is the violence.