In short, it was definitely the worst game the Vikings have played this season, with poor performances in all aspects. The injury bug bit, hard, with Viking players dropping on both sides of the ball, and both Brett Favre and Adrian Peterson having season-worst outings.

The game started well for the Purple, with an early forced fumble giving the Vikings a short field and a quick touchdown (although Brad Childress had to throw a challenge flag after Visanthe Shiancoe was initially ruled out of bounds on the reception). And that was pretty much the high point of the game, with the wheels coming off early in the following series. With backups on the offensive line, there was nowhere to run for Adrian Peterson, and Brett Favre threw two interceptions (and could easily have had four, had Cardinal backs been able to hang on to the ball).

Poor play aside, probably the biggest loss was the season-ending injury to middle linebacker E.J. Henderson:

The silence in the Vikings locker room late Sunday night was all one needed to observe to understand just how painful of loss this team had suffered at the hands of the Arizona Cardinals.

Not only had the Vikings easily played their worst game of the season in a 30-17 defeat to the Arizona Cardinals but they also had lost defensive captain and middle linebacker E.J. Henderson to a fractured femur in his left leg. Players choked up as they attempted to discuss the injury to Henderson.

Coach Brad Childress said Henderson would remain in a Phoenix-area hospital tonight and probably undergo surgery. The severity of Henderson’s situation — the second time he has suffered a season-ending injury in as many years — made the loss almost secondary.

“It’s a horrible injury,” linebacker Ben Leber said as he fought his emotions. “I feel bad for the guy. He has battled through so much.”

A fast start, a three-score lead, but then a defensive let-down allowed Baltimore to climb back in to the game, which was eventually decided by a missed field goal. I don’t know why Minnesota’s defence looked so out-of synch in the second half, but the Ravens took everything they could while the Vikings were struggling.

Even worse, for the Vikings were late injuries to Adrian Peterson and Percy Harvin . . . Peterson did return, but Harvin was out after being hurt on a kick return. Sidney Rice had a huge game, including the 58-yard reception that set up the winning field goal. From the AP summary of the game:

The Vikings took a 14-0 lead in the first 9 minutes and led 27-10 when Visanthe Shiancoe(notes) caught his second TD of the game with 10:08 to play. But Flacco was just getting started.

He threw a 32-yard TD to Mark Clayton(notes). After a field goal by Longwell, Flacco capped a 49-second drive with a 12-yard TD to Derrick Mason(notes), and it was 30-24.

Ray Lewis(notes) and the Ravens’ proud defense came up with their first big stop all day, and Ray Rice’s(notes) 33-yard run gave Baltimore its first lead 7 seconds after it got the ball back.

Stunned and reeling, the Vikings turned to Favre—this was just the situation they signed him for two weeks into training camp. He pump-faked and unloaded to Rice, who beat Frank Walker(notes) for the 58-yard catch.

But coach Brad Childress played it conservative with three straight runs, and Longwell’s 31-yard field goal gave Flacco one more chance with 1:49 to go.

A late mention that Antoine Winfield left the game in the 2nd quarter may indicate why the defensive effort was so much less impressive from that point onwards. Karl Paymah’s name came up a lot in the colour commentary . . . and not in a uniformly positive way.

Update, 19 October: The stats bear it out . . . that was a terrible quarter of football for the Vikings.

As much as the Vikings would like to focus on the things they did right Sunday in handing the Ravens a third consecutive loss — touchdowns on their first two drives gave the Vikings a 14-0 lead, the Ravens rushed for 13 yards in the first half — they are going to have to take a good long look at the fourth quarter.

It isn’t going to be pretty.

The Ravens accumulated 222 of their 448 yards in the final 15 minutes, including 196 passing yards by quarterback Joe Flacco. The Ravens’ yardage total was a season-high against the Vikings and marked the third game in a row they have surrendered 400 or more yards. Flacco finished with 385 yards passing, 1 more than the total Aaron Rodgers had in Week 4 when the Packers put together a fourth-quarter rally.

Some of Sunday’s meltdown had to do with the fact that with Winfield not on the field, Flacco went at his replacement, Karl Paymah, on a regular basis. The Ravens trailed 27-10 with 10 minutes, 8 seconds left and by 13 with 6:01 to go but managed to take a 31-30 lead when running back Ray Rice sliced through the defense for a 33-yard touchdown with 3:37 remaining.

Probably thanks to the “Brett Favre” factor, I’m having the opportunity to watch more Vikings games on TV this year than in almost any previous year. It almost makes me regret my earlier “stay retired, Brett” posts.

St. Louis self-destructed in this game, turning the ball over repeatedly within a few yards of the goal line, denying themselves great scoring opportunities. The Vikings defence looked very ordinary as the Rams moved up and down the field, but posted very few points (final score 38-10). Turnovers literally were the story in the game: the Rams fumbled, the Vikings didn’t.

As far as individual performances went, the usual names were there (Favre, Allen, Peterson), but some less familiar names got frequent mentions: Benny Sapp seemed to be in on every defensive play, Tyrell Johnson had an interception and a very athletic pass deflection, while Karl Paymah got victimized for the Rams’ only TD after he replaced Antoine Winfield. Adrian Peterson scored two TDs, but again didn’t have a lot of yards.

Update: Tim Olsen quotes “Eaten Purple People” about past Vikings teams:

Short week, road game, coming off of a big emotional win….hmmmmm.

In the Denny era this game was as good as pre-lost.

In the Tice era, the staff would be game planning for the Ravens game and starting the party planning for the bye week.

When TJack ran the show, you could count on as many fumbled snaps as were necessary to keep the Rams in it for the whole game.

In the early Chilly era, we would run a variety of plays designed to gain 3.33 yards if executed perfectly and then hope the measurement crew bailed us out.

But E.P.P. is here to tell you — not this year. We remember the 1998 Vikings that would win these games by 3-4 TD’s going away.

The Minnesota Vikings moved to a 3-0 record on the season with a squeaked-out victory against the San Francisco 49ers yesterday. I got to watch most of the game, until the two-minute warning, when Fox — or the CTV sports programmer carrying the Fox feed — switched over to the already-decided Patriots-Falcons game.

Minnesota appeared to have the game well in hand until the final play of the first half, when Nate Clemons scooped up a blocked Ryan Longwell field goal attempt and ran for the go-ahead TD. A huge momentum-changer, as the Vikings went from a potential 2-score lead to one point down. The stats were all in Minnesota’s favour, except for the only one that matters, the one on the scoreboard.

In his first regular-season home game with the Vikings, Brett Favre managed yet another fourth-quarter game-winning drive, this time connecting with recently signed wide receiver Greg Ellis.

The first five series of the second half: Three punts, Favre’s first interception, and a turnover on downs. The Vikings (3-0), who gained only 85 yards on Adrian Peterson’s 19 carries, still had three timeouts left and were able to force a punt. They got the ball back at their 20 with 89 seconds remaining.

“I didn’t say a whole lot,” Favre said. “I knew what I was thinking: We blew our chances.”

Well, not quite all of them.

The last play began with 12 seconds left, and Favre stepped forward in the pocket and slid to the right by design to buy time for his receivers to move in position. Instead of throwing a ball up for grabs, he figured he could get close enough to the line of scrimmage to fire a line drive that would be tougher to defend.

Lewis watched the quarterback’s eyes, and broke the other way — Favre said he didn’t even know who was running across the end zone — to find room near the right corner.

He caught his first pass from Favre, who completed six throws on that drive, and looked forward to the next one.

The Brett Favre era may have opened, but Adrian Peterson is still the heart of the team: he took a handoff from Favre for a 75-yard TD on the first play of the game. Here’s the press reaction:

Two weeks after joining the Vikings, Brett Favre played into the third quarter of his team’s 17-10 victory over the Houston Texans. The future Hall of Fame quarterback threw his first touchdown pass as a member of the franchise, twice lined as a wide receiver as the Vikings unveiled their version of the Wildcat offense and even threw a vicious block from that formation.

And if that wasn’t enough, Favre also caused a pregame stir when ESPN reported he might be playing with a cracked rib. But no matter what Favre was able to accomplish in his first extensive action in purple, one thing was made abundantly clear to the Vikings and a national television audience.

This remains Adrian Peterson’s offense.

It’s still very much the preseason, as the Vikings committed a disturbing number of penalties; they’re averaging 12 per game. Favre was scheduled to play the first half, followed by Tarvaris Jackson in the third and Sage Rosenfels in the fourth, but Favre lobbied the coach to get another series after halftime, so Jackson’s appearance was very short. Rosenfels got on the field after both teams had switched to second- and third-string players, so it wasn’t a great opportunity for him to shine like Jackson did in the previous game.

Favre will probably be getting a fine from the league for his illegal block on Eugene Wilson, who was injured on the play and did not return.

Update, 5 September: Yep. The league penalized Favre $10,000 for the illegal hit.