Vikings deny running up score on Cowboys in '09 playoff game

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- Coach Brad Childress said his Minnesota Vikings weren't trying to run up the score late in last season's 34-3 playoff victory over the Dallas Cowboys.

Brett Favre threw a touchdown pass to Visanthe Shiancoe with less than 2 minutes to play in the game for the final margin. The play prompted Dallas linebacker Keith Brooking to confront Childress on the sideline and call it "disgusting and classless," accusing Minnesota of running up the score.

"People can do what they want," Cowboys coach Wade Phillips said Wednesday. "That's what they chose to do. It's not what I would've done."

The Vikings led 27-3 late in the game when they had a fourth-and-3 at the Cowboys' 11-yard line. Favre found a wide-open Shiancoe for his fourth touchdown pass of the day with 1:55 to go.

Childress said Thursday the team was just trying to get a first down to keep the clock moving, and ultimately scored instead. He said the Cowboys were still blitzing aggressively late in the game, so the Vikings had no choice but to throw the ball.

"If you're slamming people at the formation, nothing says that you have to go in there and have everybody shorten their necks so they stop us," Childress said. "Now we have to make a decision, 'Do we have to kick a field goal?' The easiest thing is to get a first down.

"That's all we're trying to do is get a first down. We happened to score. It would probably be a good idea to cover the guy. Generally on defense, you have to cover the deep plays."

Shiancoe was equally baffled by the accusations. He pointed to the Cowboys using their timeouts late in the fourth quarter and continuing to blitz despite being down 24 points.

"You keep on blitzing though," Shiancoe said Thursday. "I mean c'mon man ... I'm not trying to say anything bad about them, but if you keep on blitzing, what do you want us to do? Just keep on taking hits to the mouth?"

Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press