Dallas Cowboys at Minnesota Vikings Preview Betting Preview
Opening Line: Cowboys +2.5 / Vikings -2.5 O/U 46
Time: 1:00 PM EST Sunday January 17, 2010 on CBS
The Minnesota Vikings host the Dallas Cowboys this Sunday and the winner will be heading to the NFC Championship game. Last week Dallas won their first playoff game since 1996 and Tony Romo won his very first post-season game. The Vikings had concerns at the end of this season losing 3 of their last 5 games, but they looked great in smoking the New York Giants 44-6 in their season finale. In last week's Wild Card win over the Philadelphia Eagles Dallas played great on both sides of the ball and they head into this away game against Favre and company with a ton of confidence.
This season the Vikings were undefeated at home (8-0) and 9-6-1 ATS and the Cowboys were 5-3 on the road and 9-7 ATS.
The Cowboys were 3-5 ATS this season and 0-3 ATS as away underdogs and the Vikings were 3-5 ATS at home.
Brett Favre (4,202 yds 33 TD 7 INT) leads the Vikings and he was brought to Minnesota to lead them to the Promised Land. Luckily, he came into a great situation, as he does not have to carry the offense, as the Vikes have the best young RB in the league in Adrian Peterson (1,383 yds 18 TD). Favre's main targets are WR's Sidney Rice (83 rec 1,312 yds 8 TD) and rookie Percy Harvin (60 rec 790 yds 6 TD), who are both a threat to take it to the house every time they touch the ball. Dallas had the league's 9th ranked defense this season and while they are solid at defending the run they did give up an average of 225.4 passing yards per game. Even though the Cowboys beat the Eagles 34-14 last week Philadelphia had 284 passing yards and the Dallas secondary is a concern heading into this game.
Tony Romo (4,483 yds 26 TD 9 INT) leads the Cowboys and, much like the Vikings, the Cowboys have a well-balanced offense. Dallas averaged 131.4 rushing yards per game this season and in last week's win over the Eagles Cowboys' RB's Felix Jones and Tashard Choice were legit combining for 190 yards and 2 TD's. Romo has a few solid targets led by, perhaps, the best TE in the game in Jason Witten and Miles Austin, who averaged an impressive 16.3 yards per reception this season. Minnesota had the league's 6th ranked defense and they had the most sacks in the NFL this season (48), but their secondary gave up 218.4 passing yards per game.
Favre has the playoff experience and Romo is playing the best football in his life, but this game may come down to which team can play some defense.