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NEW ORLEANS -- We’ve spent plenty of time this week discussing the challenge the Vikings will face this evening relative to crowd noise at the Superdome. They’ve tested custom-made ear plugs. My colleague Ed Werder reports quarterback Brett Favre will have a play sheet on his wristband for the first time all season.

Here’s another way the Vikings could combat the decibel level: Starting fast, something they’ve done better than most NFL teams this season.

The Vikings outscored opponents 69-29 in the first quarter of regular-season games this season. More interestingly, their performance on the first offensive and defensive drives of each game was among the NFL’s best.

Their offense scored at least a field goal on their first drive in eight of 16 games. The resulting 44 points ranked No. 5 in the NFL, according to unofficial statistics compiled by the team.

Their defense? It was the NFL’s best during the regular season on opponents’ first possessions, giving up a total of six points in 16 games.

And if the crowd recharges at halftime, the Vikings will have this performance to fall back on: Their offense led the NFL with 54 points on its first possession of the second half. Their defense ranked No. 4 by giving up 12 points in the same scenario.

Starting fast is a standard cliché in the NFL. Every team wants to do it. But with kickoff about six hours away, we can say this: Minnesota has been one of the league’s best teams at doing it all season. I can’t think of a better way to deal with what is expected to be unprecedented crowd noise at the Superdome. It won’t be as loud as the cover band I heard on Bourbon St. last night, but it will be close.

NEW ORLEANS -- Good (late) morning. I’m smack dab in the middle of downtown New Orleans, which is ramping up for the biggest sports moment in its history.

From everything I’ve heard, Minnesota is expecting all hands on deck for the NFC Championship Game. Aside from the standard disclaimer noting the unpredictable nature of injuries, I’d be really shocked if defensive linemen Ray Edwards (knee) and Kevin Williams (knee) don’t play Sunday. How effective they’ll be is another question. If nothing else, the Saints would be well-advised to test both players early in the game.

As for receiver/kick returner Percy Harvin, it would be a surprise if he doesn’t play as well. My ESPN colleague Ed Werder reports Harvin is still feeling some lingering effects of his latest migraine episode, but not to the point where he will have to sit out the game.

Nothing else to do around here, so I'll plan on continuing our coverage throughout the day.

NEW ORLEANS -- Greetings from the French Quarter, where I was greeted at my otherwise normal hotel by a man dressed in a pink toga. I always forget you have to change your, uh, horizons when you get to New Orleans on a Saturday night.

Minnesota’s players and coaches are holed up in a hotel across the street, and as you know by now, that contingent includes receiver/kick returner Percy Harvin. Vikings left tackle Bryant McKinnie posted an “interview” with Harvin on his Twitter account, one apparently shot Saturday morning in the Vikings locker room.

Harvin looked pretty run-down in the short clip, but you can judge for yourself here.

Ok, time for me to do some man-on-the-street reporting. Have a lovely evening.

I'll be out of pocket for most of Saturday afternoon as I make the trek to New Orleans. We're all monitoring the status of Minnesota receiver Percy Harvin, whose migraine headaches have threatened his availability for Sunday's NFC Championship Game. Afternoon updates -- including whether Harvin boards the team charter -- should be available on our NFL index page here.

I'll check in this evening from New Orleans. Have a wonderful day.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- Rarely do you see such a fluid news story 48 hours before a conference championship game. But I can tell you with utter sincerity that no one knows whether Percy Harvin -- Minnesota’s second-leading receiver, the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year and a Pro Bowl kick returner -- will be available to play Sunday at New Orleans.

Frankly, it’s not even clear whether Harvin will be able to board the team’s charter flight Saturday afternoon. He spent Friday at home while suffering through a second day of migraine headaches, and the Vikings can do nothing but wait for the symptoms to subside. Will that happen tonight? Tomorrow morning? Sunday? Next week? There is absolutely no way to predict it.

Friday, coach Brad Childress said Harvin’s previous dealings with migraines have all varied in terms of intensity and time period. He acknowledged that travel “could” exacerbate the symptoms, but that’s assuming they subside first. If his symptoms this time are as debilitating as they were earlier this season -- forcing him to remain in bed with the lights turned off for several days -- it’s hard to imagine him traveling Saturday.

NFL coaches are often intentionally vague on the status of their injured players, but I think Childress was being entirely truthful when he said: “[W]e’ll just have to see how he comes along. It’s less than ideal, but he’s played under the same circumstances this year.”

By that, Childress meant Harvin missed practice time earlier this season before recovering in time for a game. But he also missed a game because of them last month against Cincinnati.

Without him, the Vikings would have to compensate in a number of ways. Darius Reynaud would take over as their kickoff returner, and Reynaud would probably share time with veteran Greg Lewis in Harvin’s role as the slot receiver.

But at this point, quarterback Brett Favre said, it’s too late to make many schematic or game-planning adjustments.

“I have no idea what’s going to happen,” Favre said. “We hope he plays. But we have to prepare as we’ve been doing, like Percy’s playing. And if Percy’s not playing, we still go on and play it the same way as if he were going to play.”

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- The early news from Minnesota’s final practice of NFC Championship week was all expected: Defensive linemen Kevin Williams and Ray Edwards were back on the field after nursing knee injuries for most of the week, but rookie receiver/kick returner Percy Harvin was not on the field during the portion of practice open to the media.

I’ve felt all along that Williams and Edwards would both find their way to the field Sunday at New Orleans. How limited they will be is less certain. Harvin’s status is anyone’s guess. The Vikings will have to wait and hope his migraine headaches subside by Sunday.

I’ll bring you the official injury report and post-practice reaction later Friday afternoon.

On Wednesday, I expressed some skepticism of Minnesota’s plan to use custom-made earplugs in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game. (To refresh: The Vikings took molds of their players’ ears over the summer and have given them the option of using the plugs in the Superdome if they want.)

An earplug might muffle crowd noise, after all, but what about a quarterback’s voice? Minnesota might use a silent snap count Sunday, but at some point in the huddle, quarterback Brett Favre is going to have to call the play. Ear plugs aren’t like mouthpieces. You can’t really take them in and out between plays.

Well, our Black and Blue readership is a diverse group. Ben of Pasadena, Calif., is an acoustical engineer and explained for us how, in fact, the earplugs could have a double positive effect: Blocking crowd noise while enhancing the voices of individual teammates.

In other words, Earplugs = Good.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s pretty interesting and a nice change of pace from our otherwise constant discussion of X’s and O’s. Ben, take it away:

I think it's quite possible that ear plugs would help the Vikes communicate in the Superdome, for two reasons:

1. The effectiveness of passive noise protection (e.g. earplugs) is highly frequency dependent. It’s much more effective at higher frequencies. This can lead to blocking out what you might consider background noise while allowing other sounds to get through, improving the “signal to noise” ratio.

2. Speech intelligibility, as it's called, is dependent on background noise in a nonlinear fashion. This leads to what is known as the “cocktail party effect." In essence, if everyone's volume is reduced by the same amount, speech intelligibility will improve, even though the relative signal to noise ratio is the same. Incidentally, this is opposite of what people naturally do when they can't understand each other … which is why it's so hard to communicate at a party.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- I don’t think it’s a national secret anymore than Minnesota tailback Adrian Peterson's production has dipped in the second half of the season. But regular observers of the team also know this: He’s been utilized more extensively in the passing game over that period, gobbling up significant chunks of yardage on swing passes that continue to catch defenses out of position.

Take a look at the chart below. In his past six games, including last week’s divisional playoff victory over Dallas, Peterson is averaging 13.1 yards on 17 catches. Included in that mix are receptions of 63, 28, 21 and 19 yards.

On a relative scale, those figures are not far behind Peterson’s rushing totals over the same period. In those six games, he has totaled 362 yards on the ground on 110 carries for a 3.3 yards-per-carry average.

As we approach the 48-hour countdown for the NFC Championship Game, I think it’s important to consider the ways Peterson could help the Vikings other than in the traditional running game. This is one of them.

For reasons mostly well-deserved, Peterson doesn’t get much attention from defenses in the passing game and doesn’t always play on those downs. His hands weren’t always reliable earlier in his career, and the Vikings prefer to have Chester Taylor in the backfield as a blocker against the blitz.

But when the circumstances present themselves, Peterson has demonstrated enough improvement to be a factor in this area Sunday. Regardless of his struggles on running plays, he remains an elite open-field runner who can capitalize open spaces as well as anyone. That dynamic could prove especially important Sunday if slot receiver Percy Harvin is sidelined or limited by migraine headaches.

“I am very confident,” Peterson said this week. “As a running back unit, we have been contributing to this offense in the run game and the pass game, and most importantly we’ve been winning …. So whatever I can do to contribute to the offense, that’s what I’m doing.”

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- A quick update from Minnesota's Thursday practice: Receiver Percy Harvin was not on the field during the portion of practice open to the media. Harvin was not listed on the injury report Wednesday, so we don't have an immediate explanation as to what happened.

Harvin has suffered from migraines at various points this season and missed one game because of them.

Defensive linemen Ray Edwards (knee) and Kevin Williams (knee) were also not practicing. More to come later Thursday.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- Not long after Reggie Bush returned a punt 71 yards for a touchdown last Saturday, and a day before Minnesota earned its berth in the NFC Championship Game, Chris Kluwe was already hearing it.

The lowest moment in Kluwe’s career as the Vikings’ punter came last season at the Superdome, when Bush returned two of his punts for touchdowns. Afterwards, coach Brad Childress publicly lambasted him for failing to get the punts out of bounds as assigned.

“I was needling Kluwe on Saturday already,” placekicker Ryan Longwell said. “I saw him return it and it brought back memories, some not so good.”

The Vikings consider Bush one of the primary threats New Orleans will pose Sunday in the NFC Championship Game. But there are two truths we should acknowledge as the game approaches:

When you take a look at the numbers, Bush has been an average punt returner for most of his career.

Both Kluwe and the Vikings’ coverage units have made substantial progress since last year’s debacle.

On the first point, take a look at the chart that accompanies this post. As much of an every-play threat Bush might be, the vast majority of his career punt returns have been harmless. This fact doesn’t minimize the threat, but it perhaps it should reduce the hysteria surrounding this aspect of the matchup.

On the second: Bush appeared to have regained his speed and form in the Saints’ 45-14 romp over Arizona last weekend. Less obvious, however, was the scintillating performance that Kluwe and the Vikings’ punt coverage team produced in a 34-3 victory over Dallas.

Kluwe averaged 41.7 net yards and the Cowboys did not gain a single return yard on five punts, a big reason why their average drive started on the Vikings’ 25-yard line.

Kluwe has spent most of the season working to reduce his distance while improving hang time and direction, and Longwell said: “He’s actually a much better punter than he’s ever been and he’s a better weapon for us going into this game than he was last year.”

Longwell added: “He has a home run leg, just as strong as anybody in the league. And [special teams coordinator Brian Murphy] has asked him to dial it back and hit more hang time, and he’s done that this year. [It’s] a lot tougher to return on that.”

Kluwe, for his part, said he has worked hard to have a short memory.

“That was just one of those things where you have to just put it behind you,” he said. “It’s the NFL. You’re going to have ups. You’re going to have downs. … I mean, he’s a dynamic returner. Obviously, he always has that possibility to make something happen. But we’re just going to go out and cover like we did last week against Dallas, and hopefully try to keep him from breaking anything big.”

Sidney Rice arrived in Minnesota five months before his 21st birthday. He was a “Great Dane,” coach Brad Childress recalled, a gangly and loping receiver whose limbs were “all over everywhere.” In fact, what stood out more than anything in Rice’s first minicamp was neither his speed nor his receiving ability. It was his arm.

Yes, Rice gunned the ball during pre-practice warm-ups -- so much so that the Vikings incorporated a reverse pass for him in their playbook. They used it twice, both for completions, during the 2007 season. As a receiver, however, Rice showed only glimpses of why he was a second-round draft choice that year. He made a few acrobatic red zone catches, but a slow recovery from a knee injury left him with 46 receptions over his first two NFL seasons.

Those circumstances have made Rice’s emergence this season all the more amazing. A receiver once noted more for his arm, and then seemingly pegged as a red zone specialist, will be one of the most-feared offensive players in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game. Rice punctuated an 83-catch regular-season performance with a historic playoff debut last Sunday against Dallas, putting his name among the most explosive receivers in the history of the NFL’s postseason.


How did it happen? Let’s recount the ways:

Knee issues

In September 2008, Rice suffered one of the most frustrating knee injuries a receiver can have: a sprained posterior cruciate ligament. There is no surgery to speed recovery, and typically it’s not serious enough to require extended time off.

So Rice limped through much of the year and, as it turned out, the offseason as well. It wasn’t until July 15, 2009 -- 10 months after the injury -- that Rice began running without a knee brace. Rice chronicled the day in a moving entry in his personal blog, one that describes a workout with Arizona receiver Larry Fitzgerald and former Vikings receiver Cris Carter, now an ESPN analyst:

“I turned over a new leaf today. What a great day.

First of all, I worked out full speed without my knee brace for the first time in 10 months and felt no pain.

Second it was one of the toughest workouts I ever had. …

I partnered with Larry Fitzgerald through the whole workout and he stayed on me all day making sure I was doing everything right. Near the end we did acceleration drills and then we did four 300-yard shuttles. It was by far my hardest complete workout of the offseason.

I didn’t think I would make it through the whole thing. But I was running alongside Larry and he just kept talking to me, motivating me the whole way. After the second 300 I was hurting real bad, and when it came time for the third he said we had to make a better time than the last one. After that one I couldn’t feel my legs. I went down to the ground, gassed, and he was like, get up. He made me walk with him for active recovery, they call it.

I was going just on spirit after that. For the fourth one Cris jumped in next to me. I thought my legs were about to fall off but he pushed me through it and I was able to finish.”

When he reported to training camp, Rice was a different player. He was faster, in far better condition and armed with a number of new body-positioning techniques gleaned from Fitzgerald and Carter -- two of the NFL’s more physical receivers in recent years.

(Read full post)

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- I’ve seen NFL players use tinted contact lenses in an attempt to ward off the sun’s glare in outdoor stadiums. Now they’re using ear plugs in hopes of limiting crowd noise.

On Wednesday, Minnesota tight end Visanthe Shiancoe displayed a purple, custom-made ear plug that he plans to test out in practice this week. I have to believe there are some kinks to work out -- among them, how you would hear a play call or audible with your ears plugged up -- but it’s probably worth a track as 70,000 New Orleans fans gear up for Sunday’s NFC Championship Game at the Superdome.

“It’s going to be loud down there so we're going to wear them today in practice,” Shiancoe said. “It's going to be loud every day in practice this week. They're going to turn it up. We're going to try [the ear plugs] out. If you like them, keep them. If you don't, do whatever you want to do with them.”

I just got back from the open portion of the Vikings’ practice. They weren’t simulating crowd noise at that point, but coach Brad Childress said they would do so during the “communication” period of practice.

More in a bit.

As we ramp up coverage for this week’s NFC Championship Game, you’ll hear plenty about the historically anemic road performance of indoor teams.

As you can see in the chart below, teams that play their home games in a dome are 1-11 all-time when playing a championship game on the road. I suppose that doesn’t bode well for Minnesota, which will travel to New Orleans’ Superdome this weekend.

But if you look closer, you can see that only one of those 12 games were played in another dome. That instance came at the end of the 1998 season, when Atlanta upset -- yes, -- the Vikings at the Metrodome.

My own opinion? The Vikings were 4-4 on the road this season. But in relative terms, they are in position to minimize many of the Superdome’s inherent advantages, including the jarring claustrophobia. The facility also has the same FieldTurf playing surface as the Metrodome.