by Pioneer Press , St. Paul Pioneer Press

If Sunday's game were an SAT test to determine college eligibility, the Vikings would have to redshirt next week. Or attend a junior college. Or forget about Football and go to work selling raffle tickets. Clearly, their brains took a bye week against the Steelers.

The Vikings matched the physical Steelers blow for blow, play for play. They played hard, giving all-out effort. But 11 penalties and countless bad decisions doomed them to a 27-17 defeat.

"Self-inflicted penalties are the worst kind," said Sidney Rice.

Um, yes, I believe that's right, even though I can't think of any other kinds of penalties. Rice had a spectacular day, catching 11 passes for 136 yards. A lot of guys had spectacular days. But a team has to play smart, too. For example, trailing 20-17, Minnesota had a chance to get the ball at midfield with more than 3 1/2 minutes left. Allen Asher made a made a great play, coming up behind a scrambling Ben Roethlisberger and knocking the Football loose. It rolled toward Ray Edwards.

What's the first thing they teach about fumbles starting in grade school? Exactly, just fall on the ball. Yet Edwards, a 270-pound defensive end, tried to scoop it up in a crowd and wound up knocking it out of bounds. The Steelers kept possession and then punted, killing more time and pushing the Vikings further back.

Brad Childress wasn't exempt from the brain cramps that seemed to have infected the team. Even the Steelers were stunned by the Vikings' goal-line sequence in the third quarter. The Vikings were down by six at the time. After a run by Adrian Peterson netted no gain, they tried two straight passing plays from the 1-yard line and then settled for a field goal.

"You have the best running back in the world and you don't run it," said Steelers safety Ryan Clark. "That shows respect for our front seven."

"Maybe they showed too much respect for us," noted linebacker James Farrior.

That series was the talk of the Steelers' locker room. It should be noted, though, that one of those incomplete passes probably should have been caught by Jim Kleinsasser.

"It was catchable," Kleinsasser said. "If it hits you in the hands, it's catchable."

I have to agree with Jim there. If it hits you in the hands, you probably should squeeze it. But that's a chance you take when putting it in the air. I like Peterson's chances of scoring from the 1, especially when he has up to four chances. Apparently, Childress did not.

Then there was the fourth-quarter drive that should have been a resounding success but instead ended up a disaster because of penalties. Trailing 13-10, Minnesota got the ball at its 3-yard line with 14:08 left. From there, they were like salmon trying to swim upstream. They'd make some headway, then get knocked back, make some headway, then get knocked back.

A 35-yard completion from Brett Favre to Rice was called back because of holding on Bryant McKinnie. An 8-yarder to Greg Lewis came back because of an illegal shift, which was followed by a false start by Steve Hutchinson. A 10-yard touchdown pass to Rice was negated by a tripping call on Jeff Dugan.

The Vikings had the ball for 7:32 before it finally was knocked out of Favre's hand and returned for a touchdown by the Steelers. What should have been a go-ahead touchdown became a miserable experience.

"Yeah, that's frustrating," said Percy Harvin. "You can't have penalties like that."

Childress was upset with the penalty on Dugan, saying he'd seen him make that play "a thousand times."

"Jeff Dugan is sitting there with a knot on his thigh," Childress said. "He cut the defense end just like we (always) cut the defensive end."

Said Dugan: "I don't know. I have no answer."

But Childress' credibility in terms of determining fouls took a hit a bit later when he said that Benny Sapp had "launched himself" before Roethlisberger ran out of bounds and therefore didn't think he deserved to be penalized for a late hit. In reality, it was a flagrant penalty.

We also had a weird call on cornerback Cedric Griffin at just about the worst possible moment. On third and 3 with about 4:30 to go, Griffin was called for delay of game. That gave the Steelers a first down and allowed them to kill more time.

"I don't know what happened," Griffin said. "He flinched; I didn't. I couldn't figure it out."

Well, nobody could figure out anything on Sunday afternoon. The Vikings , who had played heads-up Football all season, did a lot of dumb things against the Steelers to counter an otherwise top-notch effort. Just one of those days, I guess. In fact, I heard that on the charter flight back to Minnesota they all had their little bags of MMs, and struggled to put the candies in alphabetical order.

Tom Powers can be reached at tpowers@pioneerpress.com .

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