Monday, January 10 Heating up in Minnesota By Tom Oates Special to ESPN.com

For the sake of argument, let's just say the NFL season had started on, oh, Oct. 24.

The final NFC standings, at least for those teams that made the playoffs, would look like this:

• Minnesota (8-2)
  
• Tampa Bay (8-2)
  
• St. Louis (7-3)
  
• Washington (6-4)
  
• Dallas (4-6)
  
• Detroit (4-6)

	Although the Vikings have won eight of their last 10, Randy Moss says they haven't reached their potential.

Now, do you still think the Rams are a prohibitive favorite to win the NFC Championship and reach the Super Bowl?

Everyone else does. After all, the explosive Rams rolled through the season with a 13-3 record, finishing three games ahead of their closest pursuers in the late, great NFC.

And the Rams admittedly have been on cruise control the last few weeks. How else would you explain a season-ending loss to the Eagles?

But even though St. Louis has home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs, the Vikings and the Buccaneers, at the very least, represent hidden threats on the NFC horizon. They are the hottest teams in the conference, if not the entire NFL.

The Buccaneers have won eight of their last nine games, but you can scratch them. They have a rookie quarterback, and rookie quarterbacks don't win playoff games, much less Super Bowls.

The Vikings, on the other hand, have won eight of their last 10 and enter the playoffs with a three-game winning streak, the longest of anyone in the six-team NFC field. More than that, they will enter the playoffs believing that they've recaptured the dominance they had last season.

"This team can go all the way," running back Robert Smith said.

In fact, because Minnesota (10-6) is by far the most playoff-tested team in the NFC field, it might be the favorite to go all the way, starting with Sunday's home game against the Cowboys (8-8).

For Minnesota, it all started back on Oct. 24. That's when Jeff George replaced a faltering Randall Cunningham at quarterback. Since then, the Vikings look a lot more like the explosive team that powered through the NFL with a 15-1 record last season than the disgruntled team that stumbled to a 2-4 record after six weeks this season.

The resurgence can be directly traced to George, who has been nothing like the whining complainer who wore out his welcome at Indianapolis, Atlanta and Oakland. Like Cunningham the year before, George has resurrected his career at the helm of the NFL's most explosive offense.

After averaging 20 points per game and never scoring more than 23 in the first six games, the Vikings have averaged 28 points per contest and have scored fewer than 23 only once in the 10 games since George took over. For a team dependent on its offense as the Vikings, those eight points per game made all the difference.

The reason is simple. Because their defensive front seven is small and the cornerbacks aren't very good, the Vikings need to play from ahead. If they can grab the lead and force opponents to abandon the run, their defense, ranked 27th in the NFL in yards allowed, goes from a liability to a strength in a hurry.

That's because ferocious pass-rushers such as tackle John Randle and ends Chris Doleman and Duane Clemons can make life miserable for opposing quarterback when all they have to worry about is the pass. That, in turn, makes the shaky coverage less of a factor.

In the Vikings' final game, a 24-17 victory over the Lions, they had a season-high seven sacks and gave up only 16 yards rushing. Their three-game winning streak coincides with Randle's move from end, where he often disappeared, back to tackle, where he was once the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year. In those three games, Randle has once again terrorized opponents and the Vikings have allowed only 18 points per game.

"You've got some teams ranked higher than us (on defense) and they're not even in the playoffs," linebacker Ed McDaniel said. "Where are they? I think they'll be watching us this weekend."

As for the offense, the tag team of Smith and Leroy Hoard once again has the Vikings moving on the ground. Smith missed some games after hernia surgery early in the year, but since he returned the Vikings have again become a two-dimensional headache for opponents. Over the last 10 games, Minnesota has averaged 126 yards per game on the ground.

George, meanwhile, has become comfortable with both of his Pro Bowl receivers, Cris Carter and Randy Moss. Carter finished second in the NFC with 90 catches and caught a conference-best 13 touchdown passes. Moss caught 80 passes for an NFC-best 1,413 yards and scored 11 touchdowns through the air.

"We feel we're peaking at the right time," George said.

Minnesota's offensive numbers aren't quite as good as last year, but they're getting there. Just in time, too. The playoffs are here and the Vikings are hot in more ways than one.

"Eight out of 10?" Moss asked. "We should be 16-0. The hell with eight games out of 10. We can't really be satisfied with what we've done so far. Everybody's goal is the Super Bowl. It's the second season. Simple as that, our goal is the Super Bowl. If we don't get there, it will just be a big disappointment for the second year in a row. But if we get there, it'll make a lot of things happen."

The source of the Vikings' surly new attitude is their playoff flameout last January. Minnesota won 16 of its 17 games last season before going belly-up in the NFC Championship Game against the visiting Falcons. Back then, the Vikings listened to the experts who said they were a lock to reach the Super Bowl.

Coming off only the third 15-1 season in NFL history and having set the NFL record for points in a season, they thought they were invincible. Their 30-27 overtime loss to the Falcons showed them they were not. And if they weren't last year, then they certainly aren't this year, no matter how hot they are.

"I think we're more focused this year than last year," Moss said. "When Atlanta came in here, there was a lot of hype. Even though we didn't say it, I think we bought into the hype. Now ... we're just talking about getting there."

"There" is the Super Bowl. And the road to "there" won't be easy -- even though the quality of the NFC is down.

As the fourth seed, the Vikings will probably be on the road should they beat Dallas on Sunday. If they do, their first stop would likely be at St. Louis. Although the Rams are unbeaten at home, they play in a dome and the Vikings were built to play inside, on artificial turf.

Should Minnesota advance to the NFC Championship Game, it would probably have to travel to Tampa Bay or Washington. The Vikings are evenly matched with the Buccaneers -- each team won by seven points at home this season -- and are a virtual carbon copy of the Redskins, only more consistent.

Of course, none of that will matter if the Vikings lose to the Cowboys in a rematch of a Nov. 8 game at the Metrodome. In that game, Dallas jumped to a 17-0 lead before losing quarterback Troy Aikman (concussion) and halfback Emmitt Smith (broken finger) to injury. The Vikings stormed back to win 27-17.

Aikman and Smith are healthy again, but that is about the only real hope the Cowboys have. None of the three previous playoff qualifiers with an 8-8 record has ever won a postseason game. Meanwhile, the Cowboys haven't won consecutive games since they opened the season 3-0. They were 1-7 on the road and haven't beaten a non-NFC East team on the road since the 1997 opener.

On Sunday, the Cowboys will be on the road, facing what is arguably the NFL's hottest team.

"I think we're playing better football right now than we have," Vikings coach Dennis Green said. "We haven't played the perfect game yet, but I think the last five weeks we've played a pretty good style of football."

Lions up against the wall
The surest bet of the weekend is that someone will put a big "X" on the wall in Washington where quarterback Gus Frerotte once injured himself during a post-touchdown celebration.

After scoring in a 1997 game against the Giants, Frerotte, who played five seasons with the Redskins, hurt his neck head-butting the padded, concrete wall. It was the beginning of the end for Frerotte in Washington. At least with the Redskins.

Frerotte, signed by Detroit as a free-agent in March, will make his first career playoff start Saturday at Washington in place of injured Charlie Batch. Frerotte can now laugh about the head-butt incident, although he knows he'll be reminded about it Saturday.

"I hope I get to do it about 10 times," he said.

If history is any indication, that's not likely.

The Lions are 0-17 in the nation's capital, including 0-2 in the postseason. Their last road win over the Redskins came in 1935, when the Redskins were based in Boston.

Frerotte is the Lions' only hope to change the karma in this series. He has beaten the Redskins to snap a long losing streak already this season.

Frerotte started six games in place of Batch late in the regular season, one of them against the Redskins five weeks ago in Detroit. He completed 21 of 32 passes for 280 yards and a touchdown as the Lions beat Washington 33-17. That game snapped the Lions' 16-game losing streak to the Redskins, which dated back to 1965.

Although they gave up on him, the Redskins know enough to fear Frerotte. In the first meeting, their defense couldn't stop the big play -- a Frerotte specialty.

"He throws the ball up the field real well," Redskins coach Norv Turner said. "He did that to their advantage in the first game, and it's something we're going to have to handle."

The Lions haven't won since beating the Redskins, losing their last four games. The Redskins, meanwhile, have allowed only 14 points per game since Frerotte touched them up for 33.

Something's got to give Saturday in Washington, and one thing Frerotte knows for sure is that it won't be the wall.

Tom Oates of the Wisconsin State Journal writes a weekly NFC column that appears every Thursday during the regular season.