The Vikings (11-6) find themselves in the unfamiliar role of underdog as they prepare for their trip to the St. Louis to face the top-seeded Rams (13-3) at the Trans World Dome in a divisional playoff Sunday.

They're planning to run the ball to keep the opponents' high-octane offense on the sideline.

Sound familiar?

That's what the Falcons did last year in their stunning upset of the Vikings in the conference championship at the Metrodome.

The Rams cruised through the regular season with a wide-open offense, an opportunistic defense and solid special teams, exactly what the Vikings did a year ago.

"They could be the Vikings of '98," Randy Moss said. "But some bad things happened to the Vikings of '98."

Like slipping up in the playoffs.

The Vikings, who are 9-2 since Jeff George took over at quarterback, don't view themselves as inferior in any way to the well-rested Rams.

"Both teams are fast," Robert Griffith said. "For lack of a better word, it's going to be a track meet. We just match up really well."

So how can the Rams be a touchdown favorite?

"I never look at it as though we're the underdog, but I never look at it as if we're supposed to win by 14 points, either," Cris Carter said. "So, whatever the spread, it doesn't really matter to me."

What does matter, Carter insisted, is playoff experience.

And the Vikings have much more than the Rams even though none of them have a Super Bowl ring like St. Louis lineman Adam Timmerman, who won a title in Green Bay in 1996.

"There's far more pressure than you've been under and you do get nervous and you do have anxiety and you do have concerns," Carter said. "The only teams that say experience is not vital are the teams that don't have any."

As topsy-turvy as the NFL has become, Carter would like to believe there's still such a thing as paying your dues, especially in the playoffs.

"It's a process that Dallas went through with San Francisco, it's a process that Green Bay went through with Dallas," he said. "It's a process that we went through with Green Bay and also that Denver went through. And all those teams, they had experience. And if you look at last year's Super Bowl, I think that Denver's experience outweighed Atlanta's."

But teammate Robert Smith isn't so sure.

"You know, a lot of people are going to use that against St. Louis and I'm sure they're tired of hearing about it," Smith said. "They're tired of hearing about how they don't have experience, how they didn't play anybody in the regular season, all those things. To me, they don't mean a whole lot.

"It's a whole new season. They've got talented players. We've got talented players. It's time to suit up and play, and let everybody else on the outside worry about what's going to happen in the game."

Coach Dennis Green also downplayed the significance of playoff savvy.