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TEMPE, Ariz. -- Vince Tobin is a studious sort who likes to do his thinking in quiet places. He knows that won't be the case on Sunday when he sends his Arizona Cardinals against the Minnesota Vikings in Minneapolis.

	Jake Plummer is surprised at how quickly the Cardinals bandwagon has grown.

The third-year head coach won't take any extra measures to prepare the team for the noise of 64,000 purple-clad fans, though.

"A lot of teams have loudspeakers and stuff like that at practice, and I've gone through all that, and really the only thing it accomplished with me was give me a headache," Tobin said Monday. "I don't think you can duplicate what happens in a game, and to me, practice is a time for learning what you're supposed to do."

The Cardinals (10-7) are coming off a momentous upset of the Cowboys in Dallas, another stadium with artificial turf once considered an Arizona weak spot.

But Tobin's young team (29 players with three years of experience or less) is 5-4 on the road this year, including the 20-7 victory that ended 10 years of frustration in Texas Stadium.

Lomas Brown, a 35-year-old left tackle, said his teammates' youth is their strength against the talented Vikings (15-1).

"It's not like Dallas," Brown said. "I figure if Dallas was in this situation, they'd be like grownups. You know, they'd be tense, they'd be tight; it'd be something that they expected to do. Well, we're like kids, man. We did something nobody expected us to do.

"We're reaping the rewards. We're happy about everything that's going on, and we have no fear."

The Cardinals hadn't won a playoff game since they beat Philadelphia 28-21 on Dec. 28, 1947, and earned their only NFL championship. They had played four other playoff games in the next half-century and lost each one.

They came close to earning a playoff berth just once after moving to Arizona in 1988, going 8-8 in 1994.

Quarterback Jake Plummer, a key figure in the turnaround, was touched by the crowd estimated at 14,000 that gathered at the airport Saturday night to greet the Cardinals. He also was surprised at how a four-game winning streak helped the marketing department.

"I never used to see anyone in Cardinals stuff," Plummer said. "I heard on the news that now they can't keep it in the stores. I went to the team shop and couldn't find anything. ... The fans have come out in full force, and it's great to be in this situation."

Brown, who joined the Cardinals in 1996, was 9-13 against Minnesota during his 11 years with the Detroit Lions. He acknowledged the strength of the Vikings defense, particularly lineman John Randle.

But Brown noted that the Vikings hadn't won a playoff game since 1989 until they beat the New York Giants 23-22 in the first round last year.

"They've been to four Super Bowls back in the past," Brown said. "They never won one. But I think they're in unfamiliar territory. I don't think they've been this close in a long time, and it's unfamiliar to them, so I kind of think it evens the thing out."