Sunday is The Big Game: Our Minnesota Vikings take on the hated Cowboys (remember Drew Pearson's push-off 35 years ago?) for the right to go on to the NFC championship game. But win or lose, it's been a remarkable year for the Vikings. To refresh our sports memories as we await Sunday's game, here's a game-by-game review of the Vikings' season by MinnPost's Jim Klobuchar with a little help from Steve Aschburner.

WEEK 1
Favre debuts in a supporting role for Vikings' 'Brett and Adrian Show'
By Jim Klobuchar | Monday, Sept. 14, 2009
Leaving aside Jay Leno's wisecrack about Favre, it was Adrian Peterson who played the hero's role as the weekly NFL drama began a new season.

WEEK 2
Coming Sunday: A battle of early-season unbeatens
By Jim Klobuchar | Monday, Sept. 21, 2009
After dispatching Detroit, the Vikings now face the surprising San Francisco 49ers, a team reshaped by no-nonsense coach Mike Singletary.

WEEK 3
At 00:02, The Warrior returns triumphant for Vikings
By Jim Klobuchar | Monday, Sept. 28, 2009
When Brett Favre signed with Minnesota, the deal was that he would perform selected acts of magic drawn from nearly two decades of late-game theatrics. On his third Sunday, he delivered.

WEEK 4
Despite hoopla, Favre's victory over Packers really just a speed bump Vikings had to cross -- or is it?
By Steve Aschburner | Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009
Should the team accomplish its "other" season goals, we'll look back on this game not only in February but for years to come as the spark, a turning point as much as anything can be in a steady 4-0 start. Unless, of course, it's not.

WEEK 5
Bye week for Jim Klobuchar, but the Vikings won.

WEEK 6
The Ravens ran out of heroes, and the Vikings escape unbeaten
By Jim Klobuchar | Monday, Oct. 19, 2009
The accredited superstars had delivered abundantly for both teams, leaving the game's outcome up to a young field goal kicker who seemed miscast in the climactic moment of Sunday's bizarre football game.

WEEK 7
Fourth-quarter mugging brings the Vikings back to Earth
By Jim Klobuchar | Monday, Oct 26, 2009
The Vikings lost for the first time in seven games but that hardly qualifies for heartbreak and baying at the moon. There are still more than three months to go and the crises usually arrive weekly after this — beginning next Sunday when Brett Favre returns to Green Bay.

WEEK 8
On his biggest stage Favre delivers -- again
By Jim Klobuchar | Monday, Nov. 2, 2009
Brett Favre has a reputation for embracing the pressures of the Big Moment. No one in big-time professional sports does it with more relish.

WEEK 9
The search for the real Brad Childress: some insights into the Vikings' enigmatic coach
By Jim Klobuchar | Monday, Nov. 9, 2009
With his team now ranked in the NFL's top echelon, why is Brad Childress still rated behind eight coaches whose teams have lost more games? Is he some kind of bearded pariah as a big-time coach in the judgment of the amalgamated bloggers of Minnesota and the USA?

WEEK 10
Vikings' Rice is no longer a side dish
By Jim Klobuchar | Monday, Nov. 16, 2009
Sidney Rice is maturing into one of the NFL's emerging stars at 23 with confident hands and a sense for the ball that defines great receivers.

WEEK 11
Amid touchdowns and records, Favre embraces his team
By Jim Klobuchar | Monday, Nov. 23, 2009
The thunder of the crowd had receded and so had the usual cacophony of the winning locker room. But Brett Favre, the aging ballplayer who had ignited much of it, seemed less triumphant than grateful.

WEEK 12
Super Bowl ahead for Vikings? (But roll your eyes when you say it)
By Jim Klobuchar | Monday, Nov. 30, 2009
As the Vikings crushed the Bears Sunday, a witness who had officiated in the NFL for 22 years reached a conclusion about Brett Favre and his team. "The Vikings," he said, "look like Super Bowl to me."

WEEK 13
Vikings lose a game -- and their admired E.J.
By Jim Klobuchar | Monday, Dec. 7, 2009
For the "out-tempoed" Vikings, there is more to rue than the 30-17 loss to Kurt Warner and the Arizona Cardinals: E.J. Henderson was carted off the field with a broken bone in his leg.

WEEK 14
Atoned Vikings romp into playoffs
By Jim Klobuchar | Monday, Dec. 14, 2009
The Vikings called it a game of atonement. It was also a game of good, hard cash because today for the second straight year the Vikings are securely installed in the NFL playoffs with their 30-10 romp over Cincinnati.

WEEK 15
Vikings go belly-up, win a title and restore a soap opera
By Jim Klobuchar | Monday, Dec. 21, 2009
The Brett Favre soap opera is alive and fully restored today with a new and juicy variation: Who runs the team?

WEEK 16
Homesick Vikings blow another -- and the near future may be seedless
By Jim Klobuchar | Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009
After the Vikings' loss to Chicago on the road last night, the major parallel story of the next few weeks will be a reprise of the Brett and Brad tap dance.

WEEK 17
Peace, redemption and a second seed for Vikings
By Jim Klobuchar | Monday, Jan. 4, 2010
The transformation of the Minnesota Vikings in the adoring bedlam of the Metrodome Sunday was sudden, utter and virtually uncontested. Today for the Vikings, peace and redemption reign.

FIRST ROUND BYE
For the Vikings and Cowboys, it's high noon at the Metrodome
By Jim Klobuchar | Monday, Jan. 11, 2010
The warning flags for the Vikings are rattling in the wind today. But while acknowledging the Cowboys' sudden late-season metamorphosis into one of the NFL elites, the Vikings' head coach says: "I feel good where we are."