NFC NORTH Vikings lose division crown on final play

The 18-17 loss to Arizona gave Green Bay the final playoff berth.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Any loss would have been painful for the Vikings and their fans. This one, though, left a hurt as big as Minnesota's Mall of America.
The Vikings were four seconds from clinching the NFC North title -- and their first playoff berth in four years -- when Arizona's Josh McCown took the snap on fourth-and-24 and rifled a touchdown pass to Nathan Poole as the game ended.
Final: Arizona 18, Minnesota 17.
In Green Bay, the fans cheered deliriously, and the Packers exchanged high-fives. Green Bay won the division, and the Vikings are staying home.
"I don't know what to say except we didn't finish the deal," Minnesota coach Mike Tice said.
Players, crowd stunned
Vikings' players fell to the field and stared at the sky. The vocal minority of the crowd that constituted Arizona fans erupted in victory. The purple-clad majority that had made this a home-away-from-home game for Minnesota, stood in stunned silence.
"I really can't put into words how I'm feeling right now," quarterback Daunte Culpepper said. "It's terrible to lose like that."
Culpepper tried to put a positive spin on it, saying the team can learn from this.
"I expect that we can be champions within the next year," he said.
Maybe, but the Vikings (9-7) joined the 1978 Washington Redskins as the only NFL teams to miss the playoffs after a 6-0 start.
End losing streak
Arizona (4-12) snapped a seven-game losing streak and gave Dave McGinnis a memorable victory in what might have been his final game as Cardinals coach.
"This is why I'm in this profession," McGinnis said, "to get a group of men to believe and pull together for something like this. To feel what we felt today when Nate Poole caught that ball in the end zone -- that's what it's about."
Poole caught the ball near the sideline in the end zone and was ruled forced out by Denard Walker and Brian Russell.
"It's hard that it has to come down to one play," Walker said.
Referees reviewed the play to see if Poole had control when he went out of bounds.
Packers 31, Broncos 3
In Green Bay, Wis., Brett Favre didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"I'm numb," Favre said after guiding Green Bay into the playoffs as improbable NFC North champions with a rout of Denver.
Favre did it on just one day's worth of practice after attending his father's funeral on Christmas Eve and returning to Green Bay on Friday.
"It's been a long week in some ways," Favre said, "and a short week in others." Favre passed for nearly 400 yards and four touchdowns in Oakland last Monday, less than 24 hours after the death of his father, Irvin. He wasn't nearly as sharp Sunday, going 12-for-21 for 116 yards and a touchdown in strong winds.
But it didn't matter because Ahman Green, the NFC's top rusher with 1,883 yards, ran for a franchise-record 218 yards, including a franchise-best 98-yard touchdown.
That followed an uplifting goal-line stand by a defense that was denounced during Green Bay's 3-4 start that had them 31/2 games behind the Vikings, who led the division from the season opener until the Cardinals capped one of the most dazzling comebacks in NFL history as time expired.