I remember watching that Vikes game. The Ram players were as ready as they ever had been. They were quick off the line both ways and handing it to the Vikings. They fought hard for a 17 - 7 lead, ten points seeming an insurmountable obstacle for a team they had outmatched, and went into the lockerroom, body language as they trotted off the field both confident and determined.
Grant kept his team on the field for the full 15 minute halftime, some were on the bench, others up moving around, maybe rotating as a rock-jawed Grant paced the sideline, not saying much.
The Vikings were ready to play when the third quarter began. They had endured the cold and were ready for more - their bodily metabolism set for what was to come: fingers and faces nearly frostbitten,sinuses and bronchia ramped up, noses running, to moderate the cold air and keep lungs accilmated to extract oxygen from it, blood pulled to central organs and major muscle groups. They kept hydrated and kept moving just enough to rest some but not leave that cold air metabolic state.
Rams, meanwhile, went indoors. Heated lockerroom, warm drinks, blankets over cold feet and legs, coach's idea was to get their bodies fully warmed up, ready to hit the field in the second half.
But that's not the way bodies react to physical exertion in cold folowed by warmth and rest.
Skiiers in my part of the world will take only a short break between runs - rehydrate, maybe with warm Gatorade, and replace burned calories and protien with a small bowl of chili, served in a paper bowl and munched down outdoors with a plastic spoon, a potty break and then back on the lift for another run.
They know what the Rams didn't: Getting warm after physical exertion in the cold is good - if you intend to stay indoors. You might blow your nose a couple of times until mucous production, ramped up to combat the cold and protect nasal/bronchial tissues from cold air burn, drops back to normal. You might wind up taking an involuntary nap and blood flows from the central area to the extremeties.
Step outdoors again and your lungs feel the harsh bite of the cold. Your respiration slows down until mucous preoduction ramps up again. Blood is pulled to the interior again. Try to do too much, at first, and the muscles don't respond - they're blood-starved and fatigue easily. Everything slows down until you reacclimate to the cold-heat-then cold again states, compounded by physical demands of extreme performance.
All of that happened to the Rams coming out of the tunnel. They were torpid, sluggish. The nap, or nap-like state, left them like bears coming out of hibernation. Bud Grant anticipated this and his Vikings were ready to go on the attack again - their bodies ready for action.
Left on the field for halftime, glaring across at the Vikings while the Vikings glared at them, the Rams could have taken up where they left off. Instead, they were physically unable to handle a team that had remained acclimated and whose body metabolisms hadn't been put through the stress of cold then hot then cold again and expected to perform at optimum level. Grant's team didn't outplay the Rams - they simply outlasted a physically stressed and debilitated opponent in the second half.
