MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — In January, Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings were NFL darlings, a feel-good story of a team and a quarterback that finished one play away from the Super Bowl.

Just over 10 months later, Favre and the Vikings are a punchline, a 3-7 self-described “embarrassment,” that got its coach fired during the season.

After being soundly beaten by division rivals Chicago and Green Bay in successive weeks led to the firing of coach Brad Childress, the Vikings have spent the past few days contemplating just what went wrong to cause such a spectacular collapse.

In a word — everything.

“We’re 3-7,” tight end Visanthe Shiancoe said in an impassioned postgame blasting of the team on Sunday. “You go 3-7 you always want to blame somebody else. Sometimes you can’t blame somebody else. Sometimes you have to focus on yourself and what you’re doing wrong. And that’s everybody. Not just one individual. Not just a couple of guys. It’s everybody.”

From Favre being in the middle of an NFL investigation and turning the ball over at an incredible rate to injuries to ill-fated roster moves, nothing has gone the way the Vikings planned when they brought back all 22 starters from last season’s charmed division champion.

Even after Favre spent another summer waffling about his plans to play and finally decided to rejoin the Vikings in mid-August, the expectations were still sky high. He went through the same song and dance last year after all, and put up what he calls the best season of his career — a 33-touchdown, seven-interception masterpiece at age 40 that guided the Vikings all the way to the NFC title game.

The second time around has proven to be far more difficult. Favre leads the NFL with 17 interceptions and his 69.8 quarterback rating ranks 32nd in the league, ahead of only Carolina’s Matt Moore.

Off the field, it’s been just as rocky for the 41-year-old. The NFL is investigating allegations that Favre sent inappropriate messages to a game-day hostess when they both worked for the Jets in 2008, a salacious, tabloid-style storyline that teammates and coaches have had to address throughout the season.

Favre isn’t the only player in purple who isn’t earning his paycheck. The defensive line of Jared Allen, Kevin Williams, Pat Williams and Ray Edwards, which led the league in sacks last season, is not putting enough pressure on the quarterback.

Pro Bowl receiver Sidney Rice waited until August to have surgery on his injured hip and just played in his first game last week. And other high-priced players such as receiver Bernard Berrian, safety Madieu Williams and most of the offensive line have underperformed as well.

“I don’t think there’s anybody on our team that can stand back and say, ’You know what? I’ve done my part. I’m not the reason we’re 3-7,”’ interim head coach Leslie Frazier said. “And if we have a guy like that, that guy has been a selfish individual.”