Dec 18, 2011; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe (81) against the New Orleans Saints at the Metrodome. The Saints defeated the Vikings 42-20. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-US PRESSWIRE

The Rick Spielman youth movement has cleared out a lot of fan favorites from the last couple years, including Visanthe Shiancoe who is now officially an ex-Viking after signing a one-year $1.2 million contract with the New England Patriots. Was 2009 only 3 years ago or 10? Of Brett Favre’s favorite receiving weapons from that team, only Percy Harvin remains. Shank is now gone along with Chester Taylor and Sidney Rice. I was going to add Bernard Berrian but of course we know Favre didn’t like Berrian and froze him out.

As for Shank, good for him joining a franchise that has a chance to go deep into the playoffs this year. Though one has to wonder how much Shank will even see the field with Rob Gronkowski, Aaron Hernandez and Daniel Fells already in the mix. Clearly touches aren’t as important to Shank as just the chance to be on a winning team. He also reportedly visited the Eagles, a team that might’ve let him see more action. I don’t know if the Eagles ever offered him a contract, but at any rate he’s now on the Patriots. So we could very well see Shank catching balls in the Super Bowl.

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The Patriots‘ Myron Pryor gave Favre a shot up under the helmet Sunday, splitting Favre’s chin and sending him to the locker room.  Today Pryor was fined $7500 by the league for the hit.

Thanks to Pryor, Favre was not available for any kind of late fourth quarter comeback attempt by the Vikings.  This proved moot as the Vikings’ defense, and particularly Asher Allen, were unable to prevent Danny Woodhead and the Pats from scoring one last touchdown to put the game out-of-reach.

After Favre’s abrupt, violent and somewhat pitiful removal from the game, Tarvaris Jackson entered and promptly threw both a touchdown pass and a two-point conversation toss to Percy Harvin.

Despite T-Jack’s small taste of success at the end of that drive, few Vikings fans were thrilled about the prospect of him becoming the starter in place of Favre.  Thankfully, Favre’s injuries do not appear significant enough to keep him out of this weekend’s Fire Chilly festival at the Metrodome (which will also include a game against the Cardinals).

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The fourth quarter turned into a comedy of terrors.  With the Vikings driving to get themselves back in the game, Brett Favre took a shot up under the chin, suffering a laceration that required him to be helped off the field, then driven to the locker room on a cart.  The shot of Favre being driven off looked for all the world like the final image we would ever see of the Silver Fox on a football field as a player, an image as startling and pathetic as the famous shot of Y.A. Tittle bloody and on his knees.  Favre as it turned out was not that badly hurt – a few stitches in his chin and some wooziness but probably not a concussion, and definitely not the broken jaw we all feared when we saw the shot of him lying on the cart apparently near expiration.  With Favre being tended to, Tarvaris Jackson entered the game and promptly hit Naufahu Tahi for a touchdown.  The two-point conversion to Percy Harvin was good, making it 21-18 Vikings with plenty of time left in the fourth.  Fans’ minds immediately went back to the end of the first half when Brad Childress passed up an easy field goal, electing to go for it on fourth and goal, only to watch Adrian Peterson get stuffed.  Would those 3 lost points come back to haunt us?

Well, as it turned out, the Patriots would follow the Vikings’ TD with a workmanlike, clock-eating scoring drive, putting the game out-of-reach with time running down.  The big play on that drive was a Danny Woodhead 16-yard-reception on 3rd-and-12, a conversion that could’ve been prevented had Asher Allen succeeded in making an open field tackle.  The Vikings defense by now looked utterly defeated and helpless.  For the first time all season, the D failed to come up big when it was needed.  One stop on a drive that featured two successful third down conversions of longer than five yards and the Vikes still would’ve had a shot, needing only a field goal to tie.  Once again, the Vikings were in it, but came one or two plays short.  Afterward there would be a lot of questions for Brad Childress, questions about his decision to go for the TD instead of the field goal at the end of the half, about his questionable challenge of the Brandon Tate reception on the ball Williams should’ve picked in the first half; questions about the defensive line’s inability to bring down Brady (though, in all fairness, they did get decent pressure on him at times), about Brett Favre’s health, about Randy Moss‘ dedication to the team after a ranting and bizarre post-game presser.  The Vikings face lots of such questions…and they are running out of time to get them answered.

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