Sid Hartman: Aikman says Favre is aging nicely

Troy Aikman will go down as one of the greatest quarterbacks to play in the NFL, having played on three winning Super Bowl teams and being the big reason the Cowboys dominated the NFL in the early 1990s.

Now a member of the top Fox NFL broadcasting team along with Joe Buck, Aikman couldn't say enough good things about Brett Favre after watching the 40-year-old quarterback lead the Vikings to a 36-10 victory over the Bears.

"No, he has not lost anything," said Aikman, who competed against Favre for the last time in a 45-17 loss to the Packers in 1997. "I've marveled watching him over the years, and especially this year.

"As I said during the broadcast, I stood on the opposite sideline when he was winning league MVPs and playing against him in some very meaningful games, and then watching him 15 years later and to me he's the exact same guy.

"I mean, other than he's got a bad beard now, and it's gray, he's still doing all the things that he did back in the early '90s."

Aikman said Favre has gotten better with age.

"And that's really saying something considering he is a three-time league MVP," Aikman said. "But at 40 years old, to be playing the best of his career, he's one of those few athletes that comes along -- Nolan Ryan was one of those guys, and there's others that we've seen -- that have gotten to an age to where others can't even think about going and doing the things that they're doing, and yet they're not only doing it but they're doing it at a high level."

Home field big Aikman is high on the Vikings but he believes home field will be important if they have to play the Saints to go to the Super Bowl.

"I think [the Vikings] are really good," he said. "I think it's the most complete team, certainly in the NFC, maybe in the NFL -- without having seen all of the teams in the AFC," Aikman said.

"But the one thing that I think is that when you look at the two teams right now that are the best in the NFC, it's New Orleans and Minnesota.

"New Orleans, if they're playing at home, that's going to be awfully difficult for anybody to go into New Orleans and win that game. I think it comes down to ... who gets home-field advantage.

"This is a big game Monday night now between New England and New Orleans, and I'm sure these Vikings players will be sitting around the television watching this one with great interest."

Praises scouting Aikman was very complimentary of Rick Spielman, Scott Studwell and the Vikings personnel department for building this great team.

"When you think about the fact they go out and they get Steve Hutchinson, then they bring in Jared Allen last year and, of course, Brett Favre this year, but then look at the draft that they have: Phil Loadholt, to be their right-tackle and playing like he's playing. Sidney Rice, the verdict was out on him over the last two years; he was banged up, this year he comes in and he's tremendous," Aikman said. "Signing a guy like Bernard Berrian, Adrian Peterson, drafting him, I mean there's just a lot of playmakers.

"You think about the places that Brett Favre threw the ball today, well, that speaks to the fact that there's a lot of options for him, and that's dangerous for whoever they're playing against."

History for Longwell Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell doesn't miss extra points often, and he didn't miss one Sunday. But one went bad when holder Chris Kluwe bobbled the snap on the Vikings' final touchdown and Longwell never got a chance to kick.

"The operation just wasn't as smooth as we normally do, so we didn't even get the foot on the ball," Longwell said.

Longwell has made 522 extra points in 528 tries in his career. He last missed in 2007. "I don't even remember," he said.

Kluwe said he realized quickly that Longwell wouldn't be able to kick on Sunday's failed play.

"I bobbled the snap a little bit, tried to get it back up, but Ryan was too close to the ball at that point to save it, so I picked it up, looked to see if anyone was open and figured at that point we're up by so much there's no reason to get hurt, so I just took a knee," Kluwe said.

"I think I dropped one other one my very first time at Washington on 'Monday Night Football,' but other than that I think that was only the second one I've kind of dropped like that."

High on Rice Vikings coach Brad Childress talked about Rice, who caught six passes for 89 yards Sunday.

"He's an explosive guy and he's a good football player, he likes football," Childress said. "He has a great relationship with the quarterback, he's tough, he'll block you, he'll catch in a crowd."

Childress said Rice has a great relationship with Favre: "He [Favre] trusts him, and he trusts that he'll be in the right spot and he'll put that ball right there. As long as the quarterback knows you're going to be in the right spot he'll lay it up there to you.

"He's made some great ones, right in that category."

Rice made a special catch Sunday, a 33-yard pass on which he made a twisting grab at the Chicago 2.

"That was a great ball," Rice said. "[Favre] put it on my back pad, and I was able to adjust to it. We talk about things like that. That's the great thing about it: It's just communication throughout the whole game, and those things come along and we're able to execute on them."

Hicks happy Artis Hicks, starting at right guard for injured Anthony Herrera, came out of the game satisfied.

"It felt great," he said. "Any time you get to be out there and part of a great offense, great defense and a great team win like this, I mean it's great. It's the most fun I've had all year."

He expected a tough game from the Bears.

"If you study those guys and you watch them on film you know that they fly around," he said. "They're going to get after it, they're going to play hard."

Said left guard Steve Hutchinson: "I think it's probably the most complete game we've played against them. ... As a complete team I think this is probably the best we've played since I've been here."

Sid Hartman can be heard weekdays on WCCO AM-830 at 6:40, 7:40 and 8:40 a.m. • shartman@startribune.com