>EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (AP) – Brad Childress has invented his share of words over nearly two years of talking to and about his team.

The latest concoction from Minnesota’s head coach, “respondability,” was a postgame tribute to a successful follow-up to a lopsided loss at Green Bay the week before.

Though the Vikings had four turnovers in the first half and gave up passes of 46, 49, 31 and 28 yards, Sunday’s 29-22 victory over Oakland featured a balanced, productive offense plus plenty of pressure and a stiff defense against the run from the front seven.

Now, the challenge for Childress is to get these guys to play like that two games in a row. He urged them to bounce back from the embarrassment of that 34-0 defeat by the Packers with a you-never-know mentality that heeded the nothing-is-promised nature of NFL careers.

“That’s what it comes down to. It’s on us. Coaches give us the game plan every week, but on Sundays it’s about us making plays on the field,” cornerback Antoine Winfield said.

The defense, despite those long completions allowed by the secondary to former teammate Daunte Culpepper, showed some resiliency after giving up 488 total yards the week before. The best part about the performance was the five field goals they forced the Raiders to kick, three of them following lost fumbles.

Minnesota (4-6) gave Justin Fargas no room to run and moved back into first place in the league against the run, with an average of 74.4 yards per game given up on the ground.

“We all come from rough spots in our life, and we’re used to having our back up against the wall and responding to adversity,” defensive end Ray Edwards said. “That’s what you’ve got to do every time you get put on a short field: respond to adversity.”

Childress was certainly pleased.

“You can either kick the dirt and say, ‘Aw, this is a bad deal, a bad break,’ or you can bow up. I thought our defense had that card and I expected them to play that way. They rose up,” he said.