Central Lead Is Vikings’ Tundra

What an unlikely combination to ruin the good life in Green Bay. A pair of storybook creatures from nearby Lake Woebegone who sent the locals into depression, forcing them to cope this morning with defeat for the first time in 26 regular-season games at Lambeau Field.

These are fantasies come true. Randall Cunningham was in the granite kitchen counter top business two years ago, out of football and living in Las Vegas with no reason to ever venture into Lambeau again, and upstart Randy Moss was lost a million miles away, unable to stick at Notre Dame and Florida State before heading off to oblivion at Marshall.

But Monday night with a rainstorm of touchdowns muting the Cheeseheads, the Cunningham-Moss Vikings broke away from the pack on a national television stage, silencing Green Bay 37-24 before 59,849 and establishing Minnesota (5-0) as the NFC team to beat.

In Brett Favre’s very own hallowed backyard, Cunningham, a backup quarterback, threw for 442 yards--the most ever against the Packers, surpassing the 411 by San Francisco’s Joe Montana in 1990.

“It’s the greatest night of my football career,” said Cunningham, 20-of-32 passing with four touchdowns, no interceptions and no sacks. “I’m really thankful to go from laying tile on my knees in Las Vegas, being humbled like that, to coming here on Monday night football and beating a team that doesn’t get beat here. I’ve been blessed.”

And yet the greatest night in Cunningham’s career might have been overshadowed by the bombastic play of Moss--five catches for 190 yards and two touchdowns--and a 75-yard scoring play negated by a holding penalty.

“I asked Randy before the game, ‘Are you scared?’ ” Cunningham said. “He said, ‘Scared? What do you mean scared?’ I told him it’s Monday night, and he was like, ‘OK, let’s get it on.’ He doesn’t know any better to be scared; that’s just the kind of kid he is.”

This was a Minnesota coming out party with extraordinary flair. The Vikings, fueled by an “us against the world” mentality driven hard into them by Coach Dennis Green, dominated Green Bay, which had won 19 straight NFC Central Division games here.

Minnesota’s offense not only demolished the NFL’s No. 1 defense, but the Vikings’ defense forced Favre to the bench in the fourth quarter with only 114 passing yards, no touchdowns and three interceptions.

“Everyone’s a little down,” said Favre, who was 13 for 23. “It’s been a long time since we’ve lost at home. We were hoping it wouldn’t happen during our career. We just got out-played by the better team tonight.”

Doug Pederson came on in relief of Favre and threw two touchdown passes. If you really want to put Green Bay into a funk, try suggesting a quarterback controversy as the Packers (4-1) go into an open-date week chasing the Vikings.

Better yet, find some cornerbacks and safeties first who can stick with Moss, who is undefeated in his NFL career and apparently unstoppable.

“There are a lot of people who want to see me fail, and that’s not going to happen,” said Moss. “There’s a lot of criticism throughout the world about Moss, but I think I turned a lot of heads tonight.”

Moss, who talks about “Moss” as if he’s somebody else, said it is not his goal to gain revenge on the 20 teams who passed on him on draft day, or his desire to prove a point.

“It’s just playing football,” he said. “You go throw it and Moss will go get it.”

And there might be no one better in football at just throwing the ball up for grabs than Cunningham, 67-45-1 in his career as a starter, but booed into retirement in Philadelphia after never proving himself to be anything more than just a scrambler.

But this year he has become a pocket passer, and standing his ground he has thrown 10 touchdown passes without an interception. More importantly, after taking over for starter Brad Johnson (broken leg) in the second game, he has kept the Vikings undefeated.

“I got a few memories of Randall’s days in Philadelphia,” said Moss, who was 8 years old when Cunningham began his career with the Eagles. “I remember seeing the guy sling the ball. I went to him a while ago and asked him if he had trust in me, trust in throwing the ball to me, and he said he did. That made a big difference.”

Cunningham threw a 56-yard touchdown pass to Jake Reed for the Vikings’ first touchdown. But it was Moss who deflated the Packers, splitting a pair of befuddled Green Bay defenders to catch a 52-yard touchdown pass to give Minnesota a lead at 17-10 it would never relinquish.

The Vikings rolled to a 37-10 advantage in the fourth quarter after Moss leaped over two Packer defenders to make another dazzling catch for a 44-yard touchdown.

“When I let go of it I knew I had underthrown it,” Cunningham said, “but I also knew somehow the kid would catch it.”

Said Moss, “If it’s in the vicinity, Moss will catch it.”