Little Johnny, No!

A quick review of the overall stat lines from the NFC title game makes you scratch your head. The Saints shouldn’t have been in this game. Period.

The Vikings moved the ball well. They played solid defense.

In the end, the Saints won in the only statistical category that matters in the NFL universe. The Vikings gave the ball up. Again … and again … and again.

Brett Favre’s interception brought back images of his last championship game and that “will he or won’t he?” talk started up .000001 seconds after Hartley’s field goal went through the uprights.

As Favre moved out of the pocket and threw back across his body, I had flashbacks to a memorable scene in “Natural Born Killers.” Yeah, that’s right. I’m busting out the ultra-violent film from the mid-90s.

For the uninitiated, there’s a scene in the film where Woody Harrelson is holding court and pacing back and forth. He’s telling a bawdy joke to the guards charged with containing his sociopathic Mickey Knox character in a holding cell. Knox is about to be interviewed by Wayne Gale (remember when nobody wanted Robert Downey, Jr.?). Anyway, he rolls through and has the guards chuckling when he approaches the big finish …

 “Little Johnny! What were you doing? Little Johnny … little Johnny, no!”

That’s where the similarities end, as Harrelson’s Knox grabs a shotgun and proceeds to shoot the guards. Well, perhaps it was almost the same. Favre fired his gun, but he misfired.

 Will he reload for another run? It’s way too early to tell, but my gut says that this wasn’t his last rodeo. Favre posted one of the finest regular seasons of his career and this entire unit will be back for another run. And Chilly is still there.

 You just can’t go down “acting like a fool with your pants on the ground.”