But it is no ordinary nectar they seek to partake of this Sunday afternoon in Green Bay.  It is, instead, the sweetest of all delights:  victory over the Packers.

To be slightly less flowery about it:  beating the shit out of the Packers always feels better than beating the shit out of anyone else.

And not just because they’re the #1 rival.  There are practical reasons, too, why a victory today would ring louder than most.

First and foremost, a win over the Packers gives you a season sweep and, therefore, a massive tiebreaker advantage against a divisional opponent.  You can have a crappy second half and still know, if you somehow end up tied with the Pack, you own them.

Victory today would also make the Vikings 5-0 against the NFC.  Not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but, conference record is everything when it comes to playoff seeding.

Also, being 7-1 going into the bye would just be damn cool.

Of course, there are a few things standing between us and that seventh victory, and they are all named “the Green Bay Packers.”

I don’t need to remind you that, after kicking the Packers in the teeth for most of their first meeting, the Vikings sort of wilted late, and nearly let Green Bay back in.  If nothing else, that game proved that the Packers have plenty of fight in them.  If you get them down early you better finish them off.

I also don’t need to remind you – do I? – that Aaron Rodgers was the NFC’s Offensive Player of the Month for October.  He is currently second only to Peyton Manning in passer rating in the NFL, is completing nearly 66% of his passes and has only 2 picks against 11 touchdowns despite enjoying arguably the worst pass protection in the history of the cosmos.

In the first Vikes/Packers showdown, you will recall, Rodgers threw for 384 yards and two scores while completing over 70%.  And that was with Antoine Winfield shutting down Greg Jennings.  Today, we will have someone other than Antoine covering Greg Jennings.

The lack of Winfield didn’t matter last week against the Steelers, but I guarantee you, the Packers will go after whoever is playing left corner, be it Karl Paymah, Benny Sapp or Asher Allen.

Assuming Aaron Rodgers can stay upright long enough to complete the passes.

Yes, pass protection is still a problem for Green Bay.  They gave up 5 sacks two weeks ago against a Lions team that was missing three of four starting defensive linemen.  True, they gave up no sacks against the Browns, but that was the Browns.

The Packers are fortunate in that, this week, Chad Clifton will play instead of whoever that was they had trying to block Jared Allen last time.  Clifton, we remember, completely shut down the Vikings’ main pass rusher in the teams’ early-season meeting in Lambeau in 2008, prompting Allen to declare himself a total suckball.

I expect the Packers’ pass blocking to be better today than it was last time, but I still think the Vikings will get their shots at Rodgers.  If they don’t, Rodgers could have a good day.

Speaking of pass rush:  the Packers got none on Brett Favre during the big Monday night meeting, the result being a 3 TD, 135.3 passer rating performance for Brett.  I’m assuming the Packers will make a more concerted effort to put pressure on the passer today.  Of course, the Packers know better than anyone else the sort of carnage that can ensue when you blitz Favre and don’t get him down.

Actually, I’m not that worried about Brett.  Yes it’s possible he could get carried away by the moment and have one of those awful Favre performances, but I think he will be fine in spite of the emotionally-charged atmosphere.  The guy I’m looking squarely at is Adrian Peterson, who I’m sure wants redemption after a 25 carry/55 yard/1 fumble-for-touchdown effort in game 1.

Sometimes, when Adrian gets angry, he runs people over (just ask William Gay).  But sometimes when he gets angry he starts coughing it up.

My hope is that Brad Childress and Darrell Bevell will try to use AD like they did last week, mixing in some throws out of the backfield.  Despite his reputation as a powerful, hard-running back, Peterson is really at his best when he’s got room to work.

The other big issue for the Vikings is the health of the receiver corps.  Bernard Berrian and Percy Harvin are both expected to play after battling physical problems all week, Berrian a pulled hammy and Harvin an illness of undisclosed nature.  These are two explosive players who have a bad habit of not finishing games.

Of course, The Favre’s #1 weapon these days is Sidney Rice.  At last, the Vikings have found a receiver the other team must at least consider slapping a double-team on.

The Packers have a lot to deal with defensively.  They didn’t do a great job overall during the first meeting, but it is a tough defense, one that has allowed just 3 points the last two weeks, and is high up in the rankings against the pass.

Weather will not aid the Packers in their efforts this week at least.  It’s expected to be around 50 in Green Bay with no precipitation and a light wind.

And then of course there’s the little matter of fan reaction to Favre.  I expect boos.  Lots of boos. But I don’t expect the boos to affect Favre adversely; in fact, knowing this guy, they may only fuel him.  He was on top of his game in the first meeting at the Dome, largely because it was the Packers and he wanted to show them he could still get it done.

Now, Favre will want to show his old fans he can still get it done.  If emotion once again guides Brett to a great performance, the Vikings will win.  But it will not be easy.  The Packers are a worthy opponent with a quarterback who can also get it done.

It’s rare that a Packer/Viking game doesn’t turn into a nerve-wracking experience.  I expect this one will also have us biting our nails to the quick.

Join me and the rest of Purple Nation for more commentary and wackiness all day on Twitter.

1.  The defense played better than I ever anticipated it would given the circumstances.  Big ups to the defensive line, especially Pat Williams who got back to being Pat Williams after, I thought, a weak first few games.  And big ups to Karl Paymah who not only did not embarrass himself, but actually played pretty well.  Oh, and Asher Allen gets some love too for his drive-ending strip of Ben Roethlisberger (which the Vikings might have recovered had Ray Edwards just fallen on it).

That being said, I think the Steelers did the Vikings a major favor by not attacking deep more.  They gashed the secondary late in the second quarter to score an easy touchdown (Fox’s Jimmy Johnson rightfully criticized the soft zone defense the Vikings played there), and might have run up bigger totals in the second half had they stuck with that.  Then again, maybe the Steelers were just reacting to the Vikings’ pressure, which was fairly heavy on Big Ben for much of the game.  If the Steelers did indeed fail to exploit the secondary because the pressure was too great, then more kudos to the D-line.

2.  I think someone may have slipped me some Favre Kool Aid, because all I want to do is defend the guy.  Yes, it’s true, Brett did commit the two turnovers that not only killed two scoring drives but resulted directly in 14 points for the Steelers.  The fumble was on him as I’m sure he’d admit, but still, give credit to the Steelers for making a play there.  And the interception was of course 75% on Chester Taylor if not more.  Fact is, without Favre, we never would’ve been in position to possibly score on either of those drives.  Without Favre we would be a 4-3 team right now at best.  A couple of bad plays do not erase the good stuff he’s done.  So, Packer fans who keep talking about the “Favre stomach punch” and gloating over his failures, go back to crying in your stale beer.  And get ready for an ass-whipping at your place.

3.  I don’t believe in ref-bashing – haven’t believed in it ever since I witnessed some officials being booed off a high school field by a bunch of idiots who don’t understand football – but, that being said, there was some bad officiating in yesterday’s game, and it hurt the Vikings.  The tripping call on Jeff Dugan was a joke.  And there was a hold called on Bryant McKinnie that probably shouldn’t have been.  And there was that inexplicable delay of game penalty for someone on the defense allegedly making an unnatural motion to try and force a false start.  Of course, there were other penalties that the Vikings absolutely deserved.  A ridiculous number of procedural/pre-snap penalties – Visanthe Shiancoe should be ashamed of himself – and of course Benny Sapp’s imbecilic personal foul for diving at Big Ben as he was going out of bounds.

In the final analysis, yes the refs hurt the Vikes with bad calls, but the Vikes hurt themselves worse with penalties they deserved.

4.  Sidney Rice is a Pro Bowl wide receiver.  That catch he made on the sidelines, keeping his feet in-bounds, was like the glory days of Randy Moss and Cris Carter.  People are going to have to start slapping a double-team on him and then look out for Percy Harvin and Visanthe Shiancoe.

5.  I laughed out-loud when Brian Robison came up after trapping a ball and motioned for Chilly to throw the challenge flag, after Chilly had already lost one challenge.  Chilly just ignored him, and I thought that was priceless.  Replays showed that Robison didn’t even come close to catching that ball.

Of course Chilly’s bad record of challenges has been well-documented.  But, yesterday, he actually redeemed himself a little by winning a big one, challenging the original ruling that Rice was out-of-bounds on his sick toe-dragging sideline catch and getting the reversal.  Had Chilly not challenged that one, we would be bashing him right now.  Really bad.

6.  Adrian Peterson only had 69 rushing yards yesterday, his third-lowest total of the season.  But he made up for it by having his best receiving game of the year, catching 4 balls for 60 yards including an already-legendary 29-yarder at the expense of William Gay, who now knows what a porcupine feels like when it gets hit by an SUV.  Of course, Peterson might’ve had an even bigger impact on the game had Chilly elected to hand him the ball at the goalline rather than call two straight failed pass plays then settle for a chip-shot field goal.

7.  On Chilly’s playcalling during the above-mentioned goalline situation:  I said on Twitter that I wouldn’t bash Chilly hard because, if you’ve got Favre, you expect him to get the touchdown.  And I stand by that.  Maybe it would’ve been smarter to just hand the ball to AD three straight times, even four straight given how close they were to the goalline, but frankly, Peterson has gotten stuffed in short-yardage situations a lot in his career – way more than you would expect from a guy who’s supposed to be some great power-back – so, I can understand why Chilly might prefer to put his trust in The Favre there.

8.  Bernard Berrian‘s apparent pulled hamstring is an issue.  That’s the sort of thing that can linger the whole season and, frankly, we need Berrian, who has become the #1 target on slants and quick-hitters at the line (Greg Lewis doesn’t cut the mustard on those).  It might be wise to sit him against the Packers, even if he’s able to play, giving him two straight off-weeks with the bye.

9.  Shame on the people who say Jeff Dugan ran over that official on purpose.  What video are you watching?  That was clearly an accident.  If the league even so much as investigates the matter, well, they are idiots too.

10. Moose Johnston is now my favorite Fox analyst.  I think he’s insightful, fair and non-hypey.  If they’d just get rid of that idiot Tony Siragusa, the Kenny Albert/Moose team would be an excellent one.

The play came just after one of the most impressive runs of Adrian Peterson‘s career, a third down reception and freight-train job on William Gay that seemed for a moment to have set the Vikings up for at least a game-tying field goal.

Of course the Vikes would never have been in that position had it not been for Percy Harvin‘s kick-off return touchdown, which came in answer to a Favre fumble and LaMarr Woodley TD return.

And I didn’t even mention the insane catch Sidney Rice made on the sidelines to keep another drive alive.

Yes, it was that kind of game.  Another crazy fourth quarter.  A whole load of stuff to chew on for the next couple of days.  For right now, there is extreme disappointment.  But there is also the encouragement that comes with knowing the defense made a better showing than some of us expected, and that the Vikings overall showed incredible heart in nearly pulling out a miracle win in a very hostile setting against a playoff-bound team.