CLEVELAND — After rolling into the end zone with his first NFL touchdown, Vikings rookie wide receiver Percy Harvin had to absorb an unexpected hit.

Brett Favre flattened him.

"I thought we were going to bump chests or something," Harvin said. "He wasn't slowing down. I took it and we fell to the ground. It was a great feeling."

For Favre, the ageless quarterback with a boundless love for football, career touchdown pass No. 464 was as enjoyable as his first.

Favre looked pleasing in purple, throwing a 6-yard TD pass to Harvin in his debut with Minnesota, and Adrian Peterson scored three touchdowns and ran for 180 yards as the Vikings overcame a sluggish start to beat the Cleveland Browns, 34-20, yesterday.

"I had a blast," Favre said. "It wasn't a 400-yard passing game, but it doesn't have to be. As long as we win, that's what it's all about."

Making his 270th consecutive start after a will-he-or-won't-he flirtation that dominated NFL headlines this summer, the 39-year-old Favre showed he can still fire it with authority — and that he hasn't lost his joy for playing.

After hooking up with the speedy Harvin, Favre sprinted into the end zone and tackled the wideout who was just 4 years old when his QB began his storied career.

Peterson, the league's leading rusher last season, scored on a pair of 1-yard plunges and capped his day with an electrifying 64-yarder in the fourth quarter, breaking five tackles along the way, to make it 34-13.

Peterson was held to just 25 yards in the first half, when he needed treatment for a badly cut left arm. He felt light headed and received intravenous fluids at halftime.

On his long TD run, Peterson used a devastating stiff arm to get away from would-be tacklers before finally busting free and scoring.

"It was pretty good," Peterson said. "The only thing I did wrong was that I didn't go untouched. I was just determined to get into the end zone, and try to stick that dagger in."

Favre was 14 of 21 for 110 yards and appeared to be fully recovered from offseason surgery to repair a torn biceps tendon, an injury that plagued him down the stretch last season with the Jets.