In a literal last-second 23-20 victory, the Vikings keep the Packers down.

The teams seemed evenly matched in both enthusiasm and ability.

The first quarter ended in what should have been a delay of game. Obvious to everyone in the stands, including Packer fans, the play clock and official clock were a clear second apart; the play clock ticking to zero while the official clock still had one second on it. Sure, it's a picky thing, but when at 25-seconds remaining the Packers offense was obviously waiting for the end of the quarter, someone in an official capacity should have noticed and started paying attention. The result of the possession after the start of the second quarter was the first Packer touchdown. Would the five extra yards matter? Probably not, but maybe.

Sure, one could argue that within a second is no big deal, but why then do they stop plays that start with a snap as the play clock hits zero? It's happened to Vikings and opponents alike; doesn't this lack of a call mean there's supposed to be a rounding-error allowance, and that snapping the ball at 0-seconds is allowed?

Whatever. I'm not one to blame officials for wins or losses, often. Sometimes there's a critical play, and maybe this was one, but it sure didn't seem like it at the time, it just stuck out to everyone, and I mean everyone, who noticed inside the Dome. And it bugged many of us that the officials didn't notice.

The Packers came strong with 17 unanswered points in the second quarter, and the spirit of many Vikings fans seemed deflated. This isn't helped by the off-putting invasion of Packers fans into the Dome on game day. I don't think it's nearly the same when the Vikings play at Green Bay, 'cause the Dome is a half-hour drive from the Wisconsin border, while Lambeau is clear across the state. It's probably more like Bears-Packers games at either of those fields as they're much closer together. Sure, many Vikings fans make the trek, but it's hardly a mission for most of the Packers fans in attendance.

Additionally, because of the fanatic nature of Packers fans, it's the case that many Vikings fans heavily subsidize their season tickets by selling their seats to Packers fans for many times their face-value. As I understand it, it's hard to get seats at a Packers game in their own stadium, so they are easy prey for Vikings ticket holders. One fella I know has season tickets for "free," as he is able to sell the few games he doesn't want to attend (preseason) and the Packers game for the total package price he spends on his seats. This is how the stadium approaches half-Packer, I think. From my perspective, this is makes for a unique game environment.

The Vikings had an embarrassing 69 yards of total offense in the first half. The Packers had come to play, and did so with a huge bang.

The second half started with a different kind of bang. The Vikings answered those 17 points with 20 unanswered points of their own.

The first strike back was a field goal that had many in attendance actually booing. I don't understand this. If you're down by two touchdowns and a field goal, and play finally brings you to where you're fairly sure to get the field goal, do it. I'm all for going for it in most cases, but the game was really one-sided to this point, and momentum needed to be started. If nothing else, the shut-out needed to be stopped.

A touchdown, another field goal, and another touchdown later, and the Vikings were finally out in front. The clock was not our friend, or rather Favre's ability to beat the clock was our bane. The Vikings tried hard, and held the Pack out of the end zone, but allowed them to get close enough to try for a field goal. There had been one missed in the game already, so chance was on our side.

Unfortunately, the clock thing came back to haunt us. With about a minute left in the game, the Packer's offense stood about on the field, nearly lined up in field goal formation, but never committing to position. At about 40-seconds left, the fans all started chanting for a Vikings time out. They had one left, and I think it was obvious that we'd rather have forty seconds on the clock and no time outs than twenty seconds and one. Coach Tice didn't call a time-out, however, so the Packers were able to run the clock down to about 28-seconds before calling theirs. They then lined up and tied the game with the field goal.

The Vikings had their one precious time-out, but less than thirty seconds to move most of the way down the field. One play got them to mid-field, then they used their time-out. Eight measly seconds left on the clock. Eight. Big infinity, but sideways. One play's worth of time, maybe two, if the pass is incomplete fast enough, or they're able to hit the sideline.

Hit the sideline was what they were able to do. My eyes bounced from the receiver, dragging his toes across the field as he flew out of bounds, to the clock ticking down from four to three to two--would the official never blow his whistle? The clock stops with two seconds remaining. They're just Packer-side of the 40 yard line. It's first down, but the field-goal team trots out to the field.

The ball is long-snapped about 10-12 yards back from the line, and the goal posts are 10-yards deep in the end zone. Makes for what worked out to be a 56-yard attempt, right from the Packer 46-yard line, or just a few yards to our left as we watch the game. We've got what's turning out to be an excellent kicker in Paul Edinger. Not since the nearly perfect Gary Anderson have we had reliability in this position. This is a long kick, though.

The snap comes and it's off just a bit. Last week this caused Edinger to falter, and we didn't make the kick. Brad Johnson, our veteran Viking QB returned from his time at Tampa Bay, where he helped them win a Super Bowl, deftly handles the ball into position. Edinger never breaks stride, putting his trust into his holder, like he should have last week (Johnson then got the ball in position in time, too, but Edinger's falter stopped him short of kicking). The bauble wasn't as bad as last time, either, and may have actually be normal ball handling, just amplified with the tension of the moment.

The kick had some leg behind it. The instant it cleared the scrimmage line, we could tell from our seats high on the second level, overlooking the exact location of the kick, that the ball would have the distance. What we couldn't tell was if it had the right direction. My attention diverted to the fans in the end zone; the ones who could see if the ball had the direction, but perhaps not determine if it had the distance.

The clock had long hit zero. It'd be a game-winner or we'd have sudden-death overtime. Of course, we know now, and from the opening of this entry, that the kick was good, but at the moment, time suspended and the crowd didn't know.

The end zone stood up cheering. This could have been either half of the fans in attendance, but we could tell that it was the fans in purple doing the dance of victory. The cheers washed across the stadium and all of the purple-shrouded fans jumped up, adding to the ruckus.

The Vikings were spared the potential 1-15 season we were starting to dread. They launched themselves into a strong position in our division; tied for first, or alone at second or third.

The Lions game was still in progress. The Lions had recently gained the lead 20-17. Their game probably as exciting as ours was turning out to be. We could only tell from the revolving league scores on the scoreboard, and it still had the label of "4th" at the bottom before we'd left. We could only hope a comeback by the Browns to keep our chances of a three-way tie for first alive.

It didn't happen, so the Lions win put them at 3-3, solidly in first place of the division.

The Bears are playing in a late game at the Ravens, and it's probably not over yet; I haven't checked the stats of the game. A victory for them will keep them tied with the Lions in first place. A loss will tie them for second with the Vikings.

The Packers are alone in last place for sure.