Cowboys and Vikings Meet for Trip to NFC Championship Game

Who: Dallas Cowboys (12-5, NFC East Champions) @ Minnesota Vikings (12-4, NFC North Champions)

When: Sunday, January 17, 1 PM FOX

Where: Mall of America Field, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Line: Minnesota by three

Why Watch: Dallas comes into this game after dominating Philadelphia for the second time in two weeks. Last week's 34-14 drubbing of the Eagles marked the first time that the Cowboys had won a playoff game since 1996.

Tony Romo continued his stellar play with 244 yards and two touchdowns, but the real offensive story was Dallas' running game. Despite having no production from Marion Barber, the Cowboys still ran for 198 yards, 148 of which came from Felix Jones. The ability to run all over the Eagle defense enabled the Cowboys to hold on to the ball for nearly 40 minutes of the game.

On the flip side of the ball, the Dallas defense continued its recent strong play, forcing the Eagles into four turnovers. Quite frankly, the Cowboys have looked like the best team in football the last month or so. If you don't count the "garbage time" touchdown by Philadelphia last week, the Cowboys defense has only allowed seven points in their last three games, and that was a 76-yard pass from Michael Vick to Jeremy Maclin.

If Dallas can shut down either Adrian Peterson or Brett Favre, they will have a strong chance of moving on to New Orleans.

The Vikings had a legitimate chance at home-field advantage, but they lost two of their last three to fall to the second seed.

Brett Favre was phenomenal in his first season with the purple and gold, throwing for 4,202 yards and 33 touchdowns. The most important aspect, though, was that Favre didn't seem to falter down the stretch, as he did with the Jets a year ago.

Adrian Peterson had another ho-hum year, as far as he as concerned, with 1,383 yards and 18 touchdowns. Behind the outputs of Favre and Peterson, the Vikings ended up as the second-best scoring offense, with 29.6 yards per game, and the fifth-best offense yards-wise, with 380 yards per game.

The defense also did its job, thanks, in part, to Jared Allen's 14.5 sacks. Minnesota ended up with the second-best rushing defense in the league, only allowing 87 yards per game. In addition, the Vikings only gave up 19.5 points per game, which was good enough for fifth in the league.

Since they are the higher seed, the Vikings have the advantage of playing in front of what is quite possibly the best home-field advantage in the entire league. That alone may make the difference in this one.

Prediction: Vikings 27, Cowboys 24