I have been spot on during the playoffs except for the Green Bay game which was a wagering loss, but it gave me hope the playoffs were not going to be as bad as the initial three Wild Card games we had to endure.
This weeks spotlight game is Dallas at Minnesota. The Vikes and their 40 year old QB with all kinds of playoff experience meet the hottest team other than San Diego (which means whales vagina) in Dallas. Tony Romo has essentially been playing playoff football for a month and he and his teammates have come away with an A grade.
Since the Cowboys’ loss at home Dec 13 against the Chargers 20-17 they have reeled off 4 straight wins against the likes of @ New Orleans, twice against PhilLY (who at the time many thought were the NFC favorites) and lowly Washington. Its not that they won, but how they won. They have outscored their opponents 89-31 over this span including back to back shutouts which is the first time they have done so in franchise history. They won for the first time since Nov 1st by scoring more than 26 points so although on paper they have have looked solid their offense is still a little suspect. That being said who needs offense when you have a defense only giving up an average of a little more than 15 points per game.
The Vikings defense was getting riddled late in the year by the likes of Chicago, ‘Zona and Carolina, but still have similar overall D stats to the ‘Boys. What we have here is a game where the defenses will be the talk of the game and whoever doesn’t turn the ball over will be the victors. I know novel concept, but here is the difference. Dallas has issues on the road and Minnesota is 8-0 at home. The most points Dallas scored on the road was 31 game 1 at Tampa and their next highest was 26 in mid-October in OT against KC. Not exactly a juggernaut.
Farve is playing what quite possibly could be his last game and if so he and Kurt Warner will be giving us speeches 5 years from now in Canton. Brett needs to get rid of the ball quickly and hope his O-line gives him the 3 step drop time needed to carve out some yards so AP can then provide a solid runnig game and force Dallas to respect the rush. Remember this, Dallas has not played a team with a serious running game since New Orleans and Brees threw 45 times so the rush was not in play and only 2 teams in the NFL who are in the top 10 in rushing (Carolina and Saints). Yes they beat them but we still haven’t seen the defense go up against a team like the Vikings on the road and win.
I am betting the Vikings to cover -2 1/2