Vikings Hold the Cards

MINNEAPOLIS--They win any way they want, these mighty Minnesota Vikings.

Through the air, as they've done so many times this season. Or on the ground, as they did yesterday on the way to their first NFC championship game in 11 years.

Playing in the deafening delirium of the Metrodome, Robert Smith set a team playoff record with 124 yards and Leroy Hoard grabbed his own team mark with three TDs as the Vikings rolled to a 41-21 victory over the upstart Arizona Cardinals.

That sent the Vikings into next Sunday's conference championship against Atlanta, meaning that a dome team will play in the Super Bowl for the first time ever. It will be the first conference title game played indoors, a party the Vikings have been planning since the day they reported to training camp last summer.

"We are right where we expected to be," receiver Cris Carter said. "We're not exactly surprised. That's why you don't see anybody celebrating. There's a sense of accomplishment being in the NFC championship game, but we're looking for a bigger prize."

If the Falcons are to reach their first Super Bowl they'll have to do what no team has done this season: stop the highest-scoring team in NFL history in the noisy Metrodome.

The Vikings, who have the league's best record at 16-1, are 9-0 at home this season, winning by an average of 23 points. They've averaged 41 1/2 points in their last six games and they scored 556 points during the regular season, breaking the record of 541 set by the '83 Redskins.

"I don't know what a juggernaut is, but I know one thing, they've got a very good football team," said Arizona coach Vince Tobin, whose team was in the playoffs for the first time in 16 years. "They're well-coached, they've got some great skill people and they play hard."

Minnesota hasn't reached the NFL title game since the 1976 season, when they beat the Los Angeles Rams at old--and very cold--Metropolitan Stadium before enduring the last of their four Super Bowl defeats.

While Smith and Hoard had big days, the rest of the Vikings weren't exactly plodding Sunday. Randall Cunningham threw three touchdown passes, and Randy Moss and Carter each had 45-yard catches to set up scores. Moss also caught a TD pass.

But the Cardinals (10-8), who were 15 1/2 point underdogs after beating Dallas last Saturday for their first playoff victory in 51 years, doomed themselves early.

First, the Vikings drove 80 yards on the opening possession for 7-0 lead on Hoard's 1-yard run. Then came two straight poorly thrown passes by Jake Plummer, Arizona's $29.7 million man. Both were intercepted by Robert Griffith, his first since Oct. 5, and Minnesota had a 17-0 lead.

The Vikings never let the Cardinals within 10 points the rest of the way. It was 24-7 at halftime, and 34-14 when Cunningham hit Moss with a 3-yard TD pass, set up by Plummer's fumble, with 1:31 left in the third quarter.

It was a predictable end to the Cardinals' best season since 1975, when they were in St. Louis and finished 11-3 before a first-round playoff loss. No one expected them to seriously challenge the Vikings, and, with the exception of a few moments, they didn't.

The Vikings led just 7-0 when Aeneas Williams intercepted a Cunningham pass in the end zone and returned it 42 yards. But Griffith's first interception quickly gave the ball back to Minnesota.

Down 17-0, the Cardinals got a break when linebacker Dwayne Rudd was called for roughing Plummer on a fourth-and-goal incompletion late in the second quarter. That set up the first of Mario Bates' team playoff record three TDs (all on 1-yard runs).

But as they have done so many times, the Vikings answered quickly. They gained 45 on the ensuing drive, which Hoard finished with a 16-yard catch to make it 24-7 at the half.

Now the Falcons will have to face Minnesota and its rowdy fans.

"We believe this is our year, and all we have to do is win a couple more," Carter said. "It starts next week."