That it took until Week 17 for Jackson to flourish as Minnesota's unquestioned starter is remarkable, considering where he stood less than a month ago.

Benched in favor of Gus Frerotte, and marginalized while the Vikings recovered from a 0-2 start and clawed back into contention, Jackson faced an offseason of soul searching and uncertainty.

Instead, Jackson spoke confidently about his first postseason, which begins next weekend against the Philadelphia Eagles. He recounted how he positioned the Vikings to earn their ticket with a 20-19 victory over the New York Giants in the regular-season finale.

Jackson rebounded from a potentially devastating interception in the end zone at the end of the third quarter to lead the Vikings on consecutive scoring drives in the final period.

He hit Bernard Berrian for a 54-yard touchdown to pull Minnesota within 19-17 midway through the fourth. Then he completed a pivotal third-down pass to Visanthe Shiancoe with 1:11 remaining to set up Ryan Longwell's game-winning 50-yard field goal as time expired.

Jackson survived a fierce Giants blitz to complete 16 of 26 passes for 239 yards, season highs in accuracy and yardage. He also finished the season with nine touchdown passes against two interceptions.

To snuff any doubts entering the playoffs, coach Brad Childress announced Jackson would be his starter next week. The declaration punctuated a tumultuous season in which Jackson reclaimed his job after Frerotte injured himself three weeks ago in Detroit and won three of four games to finish the season.

"It just shows you that you got to stay in it. You got to work hard," Jackson said. "Everything happens for a reason. I never thought it would happen like this from the offseason. I never knew that I would be benched.

"I thought I would have a great season coming into it, but it didn't happen like that. But we are still here and it was a team effort. That is what it is all about."

It was still a grind, however.

Trailing 16-10 late in the third, Jackson drove the Vikings deep into Giants territory and faced second and goal from the 6. His pass to Berrian in the end zone was picked off by James Butler and returned to midfield, with a frustrated Jackson smacking the safety late out of bounds to tack on 15 yards for the Giants.

The interception -- Jackson's first in 13 quarters dating to the season opener at Green Bay -- led to a field goal that gave New York a nine-point lead early in the fourth quarter.

Childress shot down a postgame question about whether he considered replacing Jackson with Frerotte at that point.

"Tarvaris had done enough good things and made enough plays," Childress said. "Obviously, it was a tough way to learn a lesson when you're at the 6-yard line. But I didn't think about Gus, and I certainly didn't think about taking out Tarvaris."

Jackson redeemed himself on the next drive when he connected with Berrian, who was wide open along the far sideline and had clear sailing into the end zone. Giants cornerback Terrell Thomas had fallen down in coverage.

"I was going there anyway," Jackson said. "We had a one-on-one matchup with Bernard. We'll take that all day. The guy ended up falling, so I just tried to put the ball on him and give him a chance to make a play."

So Jackson is back where he began, coming out of training camp almost four months ago, though he hardly resembles that player and teammate.

"Different guy out there," Shiancoe said. "He had to step back and make sense of everything. Obviously, he did. He worked hard while he was out. He came back and showed he's a fighter."