Turning point: Second-quarter slaughter

After a slow start to Sunday's game, the Vikings got contributions from the offense, defense and special teams to roll off 21 points and blow open their game with Seattle.

After playing in their first scoreless first quarter of the season, the crowd at the Metrodome Sunday was getting a little restless. But one of the most dominating quarters in recent memory followed, as the Vikings did everything right to turn a tight game into a blowout and, in the process, created the turning point of the game.

The Vikings started the second quarter with the ball on their own 18-yard line and Brett Favre went to work. He converted a third-and-3 play with an 8-yard pass to Chester Taylor and would never face another third-down situation in the drive. He mixed in passes of 14 yards to Visanthe Shiancoe and short screens to Taylor and Adrian Peterson with runs of 11 yards by A.D. and 14 yards by Taylor to get to the Seattle 23. On the next play, he fired a dart over the middle to Percy Harvin for a touchdown and the Vikings led 7-0.

With the crowd back in the game, the defense came up big, forcing backup QB Seneca Wallace to run out of bounds for a 9-yard loss from the Wildcat formation to quickly force a Seattle punt.

The Vikings took control of the game behind the arm of Favre. Starting from his own 30-yard line, Favre completed four of five passes – the big blow being a 24-yard pass to Sidney Rice, and capped the drive with a 9-yard bullet to Shiancoe, driving 70 yards is just two minutes, 33 seconds to give the Vikings a 14-0 lead with 4:57 to play in the half.

The special teams got in the act on the ensuing kickoff. Seattle return man Ben Obomanu had a solid return out the 35-yard line, but was stripped of the ball by Eric Frampton. Heath Farwell jumped on the loose ball and the Vikings were in business on the Seahawks 34-yard line, smelling blood and looking for more.

The Vikings wore down the clock with runs of 7 and 10 yards by Peterson and, facing a second-and-goal from the 3-yard line, Favre zipped a strike to Bernard Berrian for a 3-yard touchdown with 1:12 to play in the half to give the Vikings a 21-0 lead.

The domination in the second quarter was complete and relentless. The Vikings held the ball for 11:33 of the quarter, outgained Seattle 153-26, ran 22 plays to just eight for the Seahawks, and forced Seattle into committing seven penalties in the quarter.

On a day where it took the Vikings a while to get untracked, big plays on offense, defense and special teams made the difference in blowing the game open and creating a “shock and awe” version of the turning point.