Arizona at Minnesota


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Hoard, Smith provide Vikings with flash, dash


A final four to shout about




Randall Cunningham realizes he's not solely responsible for the Vikings' offense.
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MINNEAPOLIS -- The young man will learn one day what the old man finally knows. The NFL is too tough a business to try to get it done by yourself.

	Randall Cunningham has learned to rely on his teammates more during the twilight of his career.

"I look back on my career and at the mistakes I made," Randall Cunningham said Sunday, "and I tell myself, 'I don't want to make those mistakes anymore.' "

He did not throw this comment at the kid on the other sideline. Not intentionally, anyway. But the Arizona Cardinals had better hope Jake Plummer was paying attention.

It doesn't figure that a quarterback who retired himself two seasons ago to cut kitchen countertops would be better at 35 than 25. More patient, absolutely. Wiser, probably. Even tougher, maybe.

But Cunningham is better by every measure. And after the Vikings' 41-21 victory over the Cardinals, he is also deeper into the postseason than he ever has been. And a better supporting cast in Minnesota than he ever had in Philadelphia explains only some of the difference.

Not long after kickoff Sunday, the Cardinals found out what a few charities in the Twin Cities have been counting on for a long time: The only thing that consistently stops the Vikings is the clock. Before the game, two local charities pocketed checks for $556,000 and $64,000 from sponsors who pledged $100 for every Minnesota point and $1,000 for every touchdown scored during the regular season.

That was long before anyone in town had any idea that the backup quarterback with the bad reputation and Randy Moss, the rookie receiver with an even worse one, would turn out to be the best throw-and-catch act in the NFL this season. It was also one big reason the Cardinals headed back home to Arizona empty-handed.

Another reason was Plummer. It was an impressive feat just to remain vertical in the face of the Vikings' pass rush, let alone attempt 41 passes. But he completed only 23 to his own guys, and the two that went to Minnesota's Robert Griffith were quickly converted into scores that put the Vikings ahead 17-0 barely four minutes into the second quarter.

From there, it was pretty much a mop-up operation.

"I'm young," the 24-year-old Plummer said quietly, "but I don't want to keep using that as an excuse. I wanted to make a big play."

Cunningham, meanwhile, isn't so old or so far removed from his first NFL go-round that he can't recall the feeling. He was labeled an "athlete" and a "game-breaker" during his stint with the Eagles, from 1985-95, and he fit the bill of particulars. Good and bad.

Cunningham would juke pass rushers, outrace linebackers and throw it beyond the safeties -- sometimes all on the same play.

That made the temptation to try it on every play almost irresistible. But that was precisely Cunningham's problem -- he wanted to be the guy who did it all. Guys like Joe Montana, John Elway and Brett Favre do it occasionally -- and are lionized for it.

But anybody who plays in the NFL long enough learned at some point that getting deep into the postseason means making the high-percentage play, not relying on the spectacular one.

Cunningham didn't learn easily. He was 2-5 in the playoffs coming into this season, after starting only five games the previous season. And that after an entire year back home in Las Vegas working in a marble and granite business he had expected to spend the rest of his days building.

He didn't want to play football -- at least until the phone calls from clubs desperate for a backup rolled in. So many front-liners were down with injuries and so few young prospects were rounding into form. Cunningham, despite a reputation for selfishness, was a hot commodity again.

The Vikings knew his arm was still strong, What they were unsure of was whether he was more reliable than he had been. It took an injury to Minnesota starter Brad Johnson in the second game of the season to get Cunningham the opportunity to prove it -- to the club and himself. He did it once more Sunday.

Facing third-and-3 at the Arizona 40, with 6:49 left to play and his Vikings already ahead 34-21, Cunningham was flushed out of the pocket to his right. Somehow, he eluded Andre Wadsworth, rushing from his blindside. Then he stutter-stepped to make Simeon Rice miss and suddenly 10 yards of open field materialized ahead of him.

Once, Cunningham would have run or thrown the ball all the way up the sideline. Instead, he stopped, set his feet and arched a 10-yard throw to Moss just behind Aeneas Williams. The play gained 16 yards. The Vikings finished the drive with a touchdown.

"In the past, I used to press to make things happen, because I thought that's what I was supposed to do. Now, I see other guys can get the job done, and I hand the ball off. They make 7 yards, then there's only 3 left to go for another shot," Cunningham said.

"It makes a huge difference, not sitting in the pocket for that extra second or scrambling around the corner all the time. It wears you out, trying to throw the impossible touchdown every time."

Plummer often finds himself in the same boat. In barely more than two dozen starts, he's already dug the Cardinals out of fourth-quarter holes nine times -- seven times this season.

Soon after he engineered the last one, the Cardinals handed Plummer a four-year, $29.7 million deal. But he won't pay the kind of championship dividends Cunningham delivered Sunday. Not without learning he can't do it by himself.