Childress: Tarvaris Jackson 'Perfect' in Vikings' Preseason Game

MINNEAPOLIS -- The best quarterback on the field Friday night played for the Vikings, but he didn't wear No. 4 and he's nowhere near 40 years old. The best Vikings quarterback in this game was Tarvaris Jackson, who lost his chance to be the starter when the team signed Brett Favre earlier in the week, who might still get traded before the season starts and whose performance was summed up by Vikings coach Brad Childress with a single word.

"Perfect," Childress said. "Look up the numbers. It was perfect. That's what the numbers say. He was perfect."

And indeed he was. Jackson's quarterback rating for the game was a 158.3, which is the highest number attainable by the byzantine formula that calculates that statistic. He completed 12-of-15 passes for 202 yards and two touchdowns, including a 64-yarder to Darius Reynaud in the third quarter. And if teams were looking at this game to see if they might want to trade for Jackson, he didn't do anything to hurt his case.
"This week was hard, but I just tried to focus on what I had to do," Jackson said. "I tried to separate what I can handle and take it one day at a time. Tonight I just wanted to go out there and have fun."

It looked like he had plenty, which was a nice change of pace from the rest of the week. Jackson was the Vikings' second-round draft pick in 2006. He led the team to impressive victories down the stretch in 2008, and he's long been regarded as a personal project of Childress' and the Vikings' quarterback of the future. But the events of this week, which handed the keys to the Viking offense over to Favre, have left Tarvaris Jackson wanting out, listening to talk that he might be headed to the Rams, to the CFL, or who knows where.

In the meantime, his teammates were happy to see him perform well, no matter where it might lead.

"I'm very happy for T-Jack," said Vikings tight end Visanthe Shiancoe, who caught Jackson's 13-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter. "He's still grinding, still scratching. I think this is the best thing that could happen for him, to sit back and make sense of things and really watch a Hall of Famer."

That may be, and there exists the chance that Jackson could stick around all year as Favre's backup. But for one night at least, he seemed happy to focus on what was happening on the Metrodome's artificial turf.

"It felt good," Jackson said. "It was a long week, but it just shows you that good things can happen if you maintain focus."