The Forgotten Championship Game

[Funkytown]

I actually just referred to this game yesterday.

I don't remember the season much, and I don't remember a whole lot about that game except for I knew it was over from the start. I was a fan for only a few years at that point, but I remember that "well, here we go" feeling that the Vikings like to give their fans. It was just an awful, awful game. The stats are absurd. Yikes.

I remember hearing that the Giants cheated, too.

I'm sensing a pattern here...

[soflavike]

The Vikings imploded in that 2000 NFC Championship game against the Giants. Kerry Collins threw for almost 400 yards and 5 TD's. Denny just stood there like an angry dwarf. It was very painful to watch.

Jeff George did not play for the Vikes in the 2000 season. He was on the roster in 1999. George was signed on a 1 year contract as a backup to Cunningham in 1999 (after Brad Johnson was traded to the Redskins). George took over for a struggling Cunningham and in 10 games as a starter, went 8-2 with 23 touchdowns, 8.6 yards per attempt and a 94.2 rating, leading Minnesota to the playoffs. In the playoffs, he threw three touchdown passes to beat the Dallas Cowboys 27-10. The Vikings lost the next week to the eventual Super Bowl champion Rams 49-37. When the game seemed lost at 49-17, George threw three TD's in less than 5 min of the 4th quarter to bring the Vikes back into the game. Denny had already given up, but George rallied the team. George threw for over 400 yds and 4 TD's, with one INT, against the Rams.

George may have been a head case and highly inconsistent at times in his career, but he was brilliant in purple. The best pure passer I've ever watched in a Vikings uniform and maybe one of the best arms of all time.

Of course, Denny hated George for yelling out "Why don't we know what we're *bleeping* doing?" on camera as he walked to the sideline when he didn't get a play in time and had to call a TO, so he wasn't offered a contract for 2000. Stupid, egotistical, gutless DeKnee Green got rid of him.

[Funkytown]

Ah, good ol' Jeff George. Didn't he have a unique celebration or something? Or did he get a little extra excited at times? It seems like I remember that more than anything. That seems like forever ago. Wow.

[Purple Domination]

It is interesting... I remember being pumped up during 98 and 09, but I hardly remember being excited during 2000. Granted I was 13, but I was 11 in 98 and I remember nearly every game that season. I don't think Minnesota bought into the team as much that year, must have known we weren't that good?

[viking_guy]

I remember thinking before the game that if the Vikings can score 17 points they will win. Couldn't have been more wrong...The Vikings just played awful. This is the game that made me add the Giants to my list of teams I hate...I was ecstatic when the Ravens whooped them in the Super Bowl.

[indianation65]

I never forgot this game. I seem to remember the Giants coming out and throwing, throwing and throwing, hurry up offense, just massive punches to the face! D. Green, man I can't get over his end of the season failings. After the first half I went outside my parents' house to shoot baskets. I couldn't watch anymore, and my gf stayed inside with my Dad, brother and nephews. She could tell I needed to be alone! Nope, that game hurt almost as bad as the previous cursed championship game.

...wisdom

[HardcoreVikesFan]

What an awful game that was. I was only 8, but I still remember it. Of course, I don't remember it all, but I remember it because Moss and Culpepper didn't do anything that game. At the time, in my young mind, Culpepper and Moss were super humans, and I could not believe that they were stopped so easily.

[Eli]

Even with the four Super Bowl drubbings, that's perhaps the most embarrassing Vikings playoff appearance in history. "Forgotten" is right. Truly, it's best forgotten.

[losperros]

I agree with those who felt humiliated after that game. It was an aberration and a nightmare.

I never think of the game...well, until now...but it definitely belongs in the unused file of my memory banks.

[PurpleKoolaid]

And yet its always Childress mentioned as such a tard, when in fact Denny was a bigger one. At least imho. He caused more grief to this team then Childress even. Childress's ego just got completely out of control.

[NextQuestion]

The offense lacked creativity after Billick's departure. I was listening to KFAN one day a few years back and Mark Rosen (WCCO Sports) was saying that Cris Carter's agent approached Mark before the game and was like "We're expecting a very big night for Cris. Big celebration is being planned". Moss was also pissed his home boys couldn't get on the field in pre-game.

NYG scored within 3-4 plays and then Moe Williams fumbled the kickoff.

I don't hate the NYG because we were never in that game and it's a totally different era.

[soflavike]

And yet its always Childress mentioned as such a tard, when in fact Denny was a bigger one. At least imho. He caused more grief to this team then Childress even. Childress's ego just got completely out of control.

Dennis Green was a terrible game-day coach. His failures in two NFC Championship games are testament to this fact.

[VikingLord]

I don't know if the Giants cheated, but it was amazing how they seemed ready for everything the Vikings tried on both sides of the ball all game. It often seemed like the Giants had an extra player on the field. I kept thinking that they were overplaying their hand and Green and his coaching staff would find ways to exploit that, but no matter what the Vikings did the Giants were always right there to stop it, and defensively the Vikings always seemed a step behind.

When I watched the Championship game between the Vikes and the Saints the announcers wondered out loud if the Saints were intentionally going after Favre. Something just wasn't right with the way that game played out in terms of hits on Favre, and it later came out that indeed the Saints were targeting him. I wonder if the Giants in the 2001 NFCCG just have managed to keep things under wraps a bit better. I personally think think the Giants had access to the Vikings signals the whole game, which in turn allowed them to completely shut down a powerful offense while simultaneously doing what they wanted offensively. There is no way the 2001 Giants were good enough to completely outclass the 2001 Vikings like that without a little extra help. We might not know the truth until we get a "death bed confession" from someone involved, but I expect that to come some day.

[NextQuestion]

Our defense was awful during that era. Griffith was the only guy in the secondary worth a damn

[Knoxx]

Our defense was awful during that era. Griffith was the only guy in the secondary worth a damn

This is why we lost the game. Our defense was a joke it amazes me we got as far as we did.