All season long, Tuesday Morning Quarterback has said the Vikings are a Potemkin team designed to roll up big margins on the second echelon but waiting to be exposed in a pressure game. TMQ has also been saying Minnesota headman Dennis Green, to quote an earlier column, has the Walter Mitty quality of showing you can be an NFL coach without having the slightest idea what you're doing. Thus Sunday's obliteration of Minnesota by the Giants for the NFC title was Exactly What I Predicted!*

(*Note: all TMQ predictions guaranteed to be valid except when not valid.)

All season long, Tuesday Morning Quarterback has said Baltimore is an irresistible steamroller of a team, plus dignified and sportsmanlike, while warning that Oakland is a papier-mâché club that is sure to crumple under pressure. Thus Sunday's stomping of the Raiders by the Ravens for the AFC title was Exactly What I Predicted!*

(*Actually, I never wrote any of the above about Oakland and Baltimore. I was just hoping you wouldn't go back and check.)

Ye gods, did Sunday ever separate the men, both players and coaches, from the individuals who merely have XY chromosome pairs. Let's start with the Jersey/A-Minnesota matchup.

Absolutely everyone, including every Giants fan, expected the Jersey/A game plan to be based on power running. Instead the home team came out throwing—five times on the first six plays, two for touchdowns. The Vikings had prepared a run-stuffing defensive game plan, with seven or eight in the box and the corners soft. How did Minnesota adjust when Jersey/A threw instead? No reaction whatsoever. Minnesota stayed in its run-oriented defensive set as Giants QB Kerry Collins tossed the ball up and down the field, breaking his team's postseason passing-yards record in the second quarter. The corker came when the Giants took possession on their own 23, leading 27-0, 3:31 remaining in the first half. Despite spending the previous 26:29 being pummeled by the pass, the Vikings lined up in a run defense. Collins proceeded to throw on nine of 11 plays of the drive, tossing for a touchdown with 19 seconds left and an out-of-body-experience 34-0 halftime lead over the favored Vikings.

Why didn't Dennis Green order his defense to start playing the pass? Because Green—lifetime 4-8 in the playoffs, every year coming up with a new justification why regular season success is what "really" matters—stayed home in Minneapolis to work on the wording of press releases. That's certainly the way it seemed. When the Giants jumped to a 14-0 lead after their first two possessions, heads began to sag on the Viking sideline. Green should have called his charges together and pumped them up, reminded them there was an entire game to go. Instead he took no action, staring off into space. It's the championship—don't just stand there, do something! Trailing 24-0 in the second quarter, the Vikes faced fourth and inches on their 34. Green sent in the punting unit! TMQ could not believe his eyes. You're down 24, it's the championship, you must take some chances, and you will never see a better chance than fourth and inches. When players quit on a game, as many Vikings did Sunday, they are denounced, as many Vikings were Monday in the nation's sports pages. How come when coaches quit on a game, as Green did by ordering that punt, they aren't denounced?

Wait, Green just was denounced here.

As for Oakland-Baltimore, TMQ notes it was the second straight playoff contest in which a Ravens defender knocked the opposition QB off the field with a blatant late, dirty hit that was not flagged by the refs. Against Tennessee, Ray Lewis got away with a hit that was both late and helmet-to-helmet, putting Steve McNair on the sideline. No yellow. Against Oakland, Tony Siragusa got away with a hit that was both late and the "pile-driver" move, specifically forbidden by NFL rules, putting Rich Gannon on the sideline. No yellow. Both QBs were ineffective on their returns. How is Baltimore getting away with these cheap shots? See TMQ's speculation in Reader Animadversions.

But beyond the league's coddling of Baltimore's dirty play, Oakland has mainly itself to blame. The Raiders dropped two touchdown passes. They ran the Single Worst Play of the NFL season. (See below.) With extra time off at the bye and with an easy victory a week ago over the Dolphins that allowed the Raiders to rest their starters in the fourth quarter (while the Ravens were getting hammered until the final play at Tennessee), Oakland nevertheless appeared unprepared while Baltimore was ready. TMQ lays this at the feet of Jon "I Was a Teen-Aged Coach" Gruden, who lost the postseason psyche match to Brian Billick by a wide margin.