(My Sportsbook) - The Minnesota Vikings, a week removed from their third win of the season, will travel to New England to take on the Patriots in a Week 12 battle on Sunday at Gillette Field.

The Vikings defeated the Green Bay Packers last week, 31-21. QB Daunte Culpepper, who had been benched in the team's prior game, completed 13-of-26 passes for 217 yards and two touchdowns and he also rushed for 48 yards. Everything wasn't positive, however, as the starting signal-caller did throw two interceptions and lost a fumble on the Packers one-yard line.

"Well, he was the winning quarterback," Tice said of Culpepper. "He made a lot of plays. He made some nice throws and he made some good plays with his feet. We had some errors, but in a big game like this, those things are going to happen. I was disappointed the outcome of the drive at the 1-yard line. I thought that we should have come away with at least three points, even if we kneeled on the ball three times."

The Patriots are coming off a 27-20 road loss to the Oakland Raiders, as the offense struggled to move the ball. QB Tom Brady completed just 18-of-30 passes for 172 yards, while RB Antowain Smith ran for just 49 yards on 15 carries.

"I think bad execution was the biggest factor," Brady said. "Not making enough plays. The fact is they made more plays than we did.

"When you don't play well you get beat, especially against good teams. That's the situation we've been in. We've played good teams and we really haven't played very well."

SERIES HISTORY: The Vikings have won the past two meetings between the two clubs, evening the series at 4-4. The last meeting occurred in September 2000, when Culpepper threw two touchdown passes to give the Vikings a 21-13 victory.

Tice has never faced the Patriots, but New England head coach Bill Belichick is 0-3 lifetime against the Vikings.

VIKINGS OFFENSE

The Vikings showed signs of life a week ago, gaining 425 yards of total offense against the Packers. The catalyst was Culpepper, who played like a man possessed just one week after taking a seat in favor of his backup Todd Bouman.

"Either you buck up or you don't buck up, and I know what type of person I am and the type of character I have," Culpepper said. "I know I'm not backing down from a challenge.

"It was an extremely hard week. But you know how I get out of that? By putting my head to the grindstone and work, and just believe in myself. I know I'm going to play like myself every week now. Whatever happens just happens."

His teammates were also impressed with Culpepper's ability to put the benching behind him.

"It shows the kind of competitor that Culpepper is and it was amazing, because when Todd was doing well, he didn't pout, he didn't act like a little boy," RB Moe Williams said. "He supported Todd. You look at the bench, you see Todd high-fiving him and running up and down the sidelines. Coach put this team together and made us close, and that's the kind of team we are, we support each other. We've had a disappointing year in regards to turnovers and such, but you know we're still together."

While Culpepper was solid, he had a lot of help from the team's running game. RB Michael Bennett rushed for 130 yards, including a 62-yard run late in the fourth quarter. Williams also contributed, rushing for 29 yards and a touchdown on six carries. Tice knows that in order for the passing game to be effective, they need a balanced offensive attack. So far, the Vikings offense has done better on the ground, leading the NFL in rushing yards per game (159.5).

"It's all about our offensive line," Bennett said. "They came out, they did a tremendous job. They were blocking down field, the wide receivers, the tight ends and our offensive was able to get into a great rhythm. We were running the ball here and there and throwing the ball deep to Randy Moss."

Moss also contributed to the win, catching six passes for 115 yards and a touchdown against the Packers. Moss' success greatly depends upon the ability of the quarterback to get him the ball, and despite Tice's plan to get Moss the ball at least eight times per game, this season has been a forgettable one for the Vikings' All-Pro receiver.

The Vikings have struggled all year in the passing game, averaging just 223.8 yards per game. Moss has only caught 62 passes for 764 yards and four touchdowns. While those numbers are very good, they are much less that what Moss was expecting this season.

PATRIOTS DEFENSE

The Patriots, who have done a very good job at defending the pass all season, had a lapse last week, when the Raiders threw for 297 yards. They did, however, limit the Raiders to just 97 yards on the ground.

That hasn't been the norm for the Patriots. On the season, they allow an average of just 187.8 yards per game through the air (fourth in NFL), but they also surrender 128.3 yards per game on the ground (25th in NFL).

The biggest problem for the Patriots in the Oakland game was that their pass rush was nonexistent. Raiders quarterback Rich Gannon had plenty of time to set up in the pocket and pick apart the Pats' defense.

"There were times when we didn't really get a lot of pressure on him," Belichick said. "There are times where I thought we had some disruption in the pocket. But other times we didn't. We tried some three-man rush and try to mix up the coverage but, you just can't send everybody in there every time against him.

"I think you have to try to change it up and I felt for the most part our coverage was competitive. We had guys near the receivers and a little bit disruptive. There were a couple of plays that they obviously hit us on. But, yeah, we could have used more pass rush at times."

The pass rush hasn't been a problem for the Patriots all year. Led by linebacker Willie McGinest's 4.5 sacks, the Patriots have tackled opposing quarterbacks 24 times behind the line of scrimmage.

This week, their biggest problem will be stopping Minnesota's rushing attack. Minnesota boasts a mammoth offensive line and that could mean trouble for the Patriots' front seven. Middle linebacker Roman Phifer, who leads the team with 65 tackles, will have to come up big this week.

When Minnesota throws the ball, the Patriots will most likely use CB Ty Law to cover Moss. If that's the case, the Vikings should have an advantage on the other side. However, if Otis Smith can continue his solid play, it will make life difficult for Culpepper.

PATRIOTS OFFENSE

Last week, the Patriots put 20 points on the board against a good Oakland defense, but it wasn't the offense that was finding the end zone. The Patriots scored touchdowns on a punt return and an interception return, so the offense was held without a touchdown.

One of the problems for the Patriots has been their inability to run the football. The team only runs the ball 23.1 times per game, and the result has been just 92.8 rushing yards per game (27th in the NFL).

The offensive line has struggled in all aspects of the game this season. Their inability to run the ball stems from a poor push up front, but they also haven't done a good job protecting Brady. The line has allowed 23 sacks so far, including four in the last game against the Raiders.

"Yeah, we had some trouble with pass protection," Belichick said. [The Raiders] have a good rushing front, and it was a tough situation, but we need to do a better job of that when we're throwing the ball. We need to be able to throw it better when we have to throw it, and there were points in the game when we did have to throw it.

"It was more disappointing for the protection to have trouble in the first half when the game was very competitive, and there weren't obvious passing situations. It certainly became more of a problem in the second half when the score and the crowd noise and the snap count and all that just became tougher. There's no question we had some problems with it."

Brady also struggled a week ago, but overall, he's having a fine year. The team is passing for 251 yards per game, ranking sixth in the NFL. He also is tied for the NFL lead in passing TD's, as he has thrown 21 scoring strikes on the year.

Brady's favorite receiver this season has been Troy Brown (62 catches, 571 yards), but his most effective receiver has been David Patten (41 catches, 613 yards).

VIKINGS DEFENSE

Despite a solid game against the Packers, the Vikings defense has struggled all season. As a unit, the Vikings surrender 27.8 points per game (29th in NFL), and allow an average of 383.9 yards per game (31st in NFL). Their biggest weakness has been defending the pass, allowing opposing teams to throw for an average of 284.4 yards per game (31st in NFL).

However, the defense came to play a week ago, limiting Brett Favre and the Packers' offense to just 367 yards of total offense. Favre was intercepted three times, twice by middle linebacker Greg Biekert and the Vikings, who had broken up only 27 passes through nine games, broke up nine against the Packers.

"They're tired of hearing about how we're not any good in the back end," defensive coordinator Willie Shaw said. "They stepped up. We've played well in spurts in the past, but then we'd step up and shoot ourselves in the foot. [Against the Packers] we didn't. We tried to shoot ourselves in the foot, but we didn't."

The Vikings made some changes on their defensive unit, and it seemed to work. First, they moved Corey Chavous from cornerback to strong safety. In his vacated position, they gave rookie cornerback Brian Williams his first start. Chavous, who moved back to cornerback late in the game in the prevent defense, enjoyed the switch.

"[Free safety] Ronnie Bradford helped me out a lot," said Chavous. "I tried not to have any busts out there. I still messed up a couple of times, but I had to battle through that."

"He is a nice kid, isn't he?" Tice said of Brian Williams. "Getting Brian on the field and getting Corey at strong, it didn't solve two problems, but it helped make them better."

The biggest problem for the Vikings was the pass rush, which has been a concern all season. The team, which failed to record a sack against the Packers, has just 17 sacks on the year. To make matters worse, the pass rushers took some penalties, getting flagged three times for roughing the passer against Favre. Tice believed some of the flags were unwarranted.

"What concerned me was the flags coming out whenever we breathed on him," Tice said. "I felt that our quarterback got hit a little harder than theirs. But, that is football and he is a great player. He deserves the respect that he gets and he is the best player in the National Football League.

"You have to be smart. You don't want to finish a pass rush to the point that you could be inflicting damage on one of the great players in the league. It is something that we have to look at the film on to see which ones were warranted and which ones weren't. Guys are out there trying to play hard, and at times that happens. I would rather that they play hard than pull up."