With Johnson at the Helm, Vikings Don’t Miss the Boat

As the Indianapolis Colts continue to prove there is such a thing as winning too many games too soon -- Tony Dungy is 13-0 and about to lead the league in second-guesses the rest of the regular season -- we pause to contemplate a top three that was unthinkable in August.

NFL quarterbacks with the longest current winning streaks: 1. Peyton Manning, 13-0 after Indianapolis’ 26-18 victory over Jacksonville Sunday.

2. Matt Hasselbeck, 9-0 after Seattle’s 41-3 walk-though against San Francisco.

3. Brad Johnson, 6-0 after maneuvering Minnesota past St. Louis, 27-13.

This is partly because Kyle Orton’s 8-0 run -- certain to be remembered by pro football historians as one of the strangest eight-game winning streaks ever recorded -- came to an end amid snow and Jerome Bettis flurries in Pittsburgh, 21-9.

But it is mostly because Johnson, who began the season on the Vikings’ bench after losing Jon Gruden’s faith in Tampa Bay, has thrown together numbers worthy of postseason-award consideration.

NFC comeback player of the year?

Oh, right. There is that.

How about NFC most valuable player?

Think for a moment before handing the award to Shaun Alexander or Tiki Barber. Sure, Alexander is having a great season and scored his 23rd touchdown in the rout of San Francisco and seems certain to break Priest Holmes’ single-season touchdown record of 27. But 14 of those touchdowns have come in six games against the dregs of the NFC -- a.k.a. the rest of the West division -- and another four were against the Houston Texans.

Alexander the Great?

More like Alexander the Fortuitously Scheduled.

Barber has been the all-purpose catalyst in the New York Giants’ revival, and he rushed for another 124 yards in their 26-23 overtime victory at Philadelphia.

But first, the Giants need to reach the playoffs, and at 9-4 with back-to-back games against Kansas City and at Washington, they have clinched nothing yet.

Think of where the Vikings were before Johnson replaced the injured Daunte Culpepper as starting quarterback.

They were 2-5 and left for dead in the water of Lake Minnetonka, leading the league only in “Love Boat” jokes.

Since Johnson replaced Culpepper, who appeared shell-shocked by the departure of favorite target/security fall-back Randy Moss, the gut-wrenching and game-crushing turnovers have stopped for the Vikings, as have the defeats.

If ever a ship required an even keel, it was the Vikings’ -- and Johnson has provided exactly that. In his six starts, he has not passed for more than 256 yards in a game, but he has completed 65% of his passes with seven touchdowns and -- most significantly -- only two interceptions.

The result has been a six-game Minnesota winning streak, including an impressive road victory over the Giants on Nov. 13.

Sunday’s triumph over St. Louis was typical Johnson: 25 attempts, 16 completions, 146 yards, no touchdowns, no gaffes and a 14-point victory that, incredible to say when considering where the Vikings were on Halloween, pulled Minnesota to within one game of first place in the NFC North.

That’s because the Bears went to the well with Orton one too many times, bringing their let’s-see-if-our-defense-can-bail-out-the-kid-again act to Pittsburgh, home of a Steeler team desperate for victory after consecutive defeats to Baltimore, Indianapolis and Cincinnati.

It was now or wait for 2006 for the Steelers, who were 15-1 in 2004 and not used to this scuffling-around-at-7-5 business. They got a helpful assist from the weather gods, who began the day elbowing one another in the ribs and laughing about how Orton, who has enough trouble on a cloudless day, might handle a snow storm.

The snow fell at Heinz Field, and so did the Bears. In the process, the Steelers supplied the NFC with the template on how to beat the Bears in the playoffs: Get an early lead.

With their no-pass attack, the Bears cannot win while playing from behind, unless Rex Grossman gets the call soon and suddenly morphs into Jim McMahon Version 2.0. At the moment, at 9-4 with Orton in the lineup, the 2005 Bears look a lot like the 2001 Bears, who were a startling 13-3 during the regular season before going 0-1 in the postseason, losing at home in a divisional playoff game to Philadelphia, 33-19.

With three games left, Seattle leads Chicago by two games in the race for home-field advantage throughout the NFC playoffs.

Good news for the Seahawks: The Bears play Atlanta next and close the regular season at Minnesota.

Hope for the Bears: Seattle must play Indianapolis on Christmas Eve ... and is plumb out of games against NFC West opponents.

The Seahawks swept the rest of the West, going 6-0 against the 5-8 Rams, the 2-11 49ers and the 4-9 Arizona Cardinals. In those six games, it was Seahawks 206, Dregs 106.

After 14 weeks, which is the best team in the NFC?

Not to rub the Bears’ noses in it or anything, but can we, ahem, take a pass on that one?

Carolina, the biggest tease in the conference, lost at home to Tampa Bay, 20-10, with the “newly resurrected” Panther running game headed back underground again, netting just 82 yards against the Buccaneers.

Tampa Bay now leads the NFC South standings via tiebreaker despite convincing no one it will still be there this time next week. On Saturday, Chris Simms tries to win on the road against New England.

In the NFC East, Dallas won a big interconference game against Kansas City, 31-28, but needed Chief kicker Lawrence Tynes to pull a Jay Feely and push his last-second 41-yard field-goal attempt wide right.

And the Giants had to go overtime to beat the injury-ravaged Eagles -- and had to resort to Feely to win it. With visions of Feely’s three missed attempts in the loss to Seattle still slam-dancing in the heads of Giant fans, Feely this time held it together and converted a 36-yarder with 3:55 left in overtime.

That produced an easy feel-good angle for Giant beat writers and columnists. But cross-your-fingers-for-the-kicker is hardly the preferred way to send a team on its way into January.