Kurt Warner threw for 391 yards and five TDs in his first playoff start.

And doubts were starting to creep into the head of St. Louis Rams coach Dick Vermeil.

"I was scared," Vermeil said Monday. "You get spoiled. You start going, 'Hey, what's wrong with this guy?' "

Then came Sunday, and relief mixed with the weekly awe that has become a companion to Warner's incredible storybook MVP season.

"In pregame warmups, he was humming it," Vermeil said.

On the Rams' first play, a 77-yard scoring hookup with Isaac Bruce, Warner answered those who doubt his credentials and blink twice at his rapid rise. He added four more touchdown passes as the NFC West champions set up a conference championship meeting with Tampa Bay with a 49-37 victory over the Minnesota Vikings.

It was almost a typical game for Warner, who became only the second quarterback in league history to throw 40 or more touchdown passes and posted the fifth-highest passer rating in league history.

"It was typical Kurt Warner," wide receiver Az-Zahir Hakim said of Warner's 27-for-33, 391-yard performance. "He does that on a day-to-day basis."

Warner certainly didn't believe he'd reached the pinnacle. His idea of a wild postgame celebration was a night at home with his family, watching the Disney Channel.

"I did absolutely nothing," Warner said. "I came home, ate a little pizza and hung out with my family, watched a movie with my daughter and ate some popcorn."

Warner has been insisting for weeks that success wouldn't change him. There's no need for a reality check with his middle-of-the-road resume: He threw only 11 passes last year, was exposed to the Cleveland Browns in the expansion draft and had to convince the Rams, who shopped for a veteran backup in training camp, that he was up to the job.

Five years ago, he was stocking shelves at a Hy-Vee grocery store in Cedar Falls, Iowa, hoping for a chance in the Arena League. He knows there are others out there, just like he was.

"You can't help but think there are guys that got passed over that maybe could have had great careers had they gotten the opportunity," Warner said.

Suddenly, he's on top, and the confidence is building. He shrugged off his second-quarter interception, a bomb to Bruce that was a bit underthrown, and didn't discuss the miscue with offensive coordinator Mike Martz during the Vikings' resulting 96-yard scoring drive.

"I know when I make my mistakes," Warner said. "Nobody's going to sit there and tell me when I make them or what I did wrong."

Warner threw five touchdown passes against the 49ers in Game 4, but he said the turning point for his confidence was rallying the Rams from a 21-0 halftime deficit against the Tennessee Titans in Game 7. St. Louis lost 24-21, but would have forced overtime had Jeff Wilkins not missed a 38-yard field goal with seven seconds remaining.

"That was a big game for me from a standpoint of gaining confidence in my teammates," Warner said. "We'd dominated a lot of games, and they'd never seen me when the chips were down, and how I'd respond.