Vikings vs. Cowboys: Top Storylines to Watch in NFC Showdown

Chaos follows the Dallas Cowboys around, and the Minnesota Vikings have not exactly played the prettiest football this season. While more bizarreness could ensue when the two meet on Sunday, expect Dallas to calm the noise with a soothing victory.

The Cowboys held a victory firmly in hand last Sunday. Then a holding penalty allowed the Detroit Lions to get the ball with time left to spare, and Matthew Stafford drove the ball 80 yards in a minute before scoring the game-winning touchdown on a sneak everybody (including his teammates) thought was a spike.

Yep, that seems like a traditional ending to a Cowboys game.

They can wash the bitter tastes out of their mouths by disposing of the Vikings, who dropped to 1-6 after getting trampled by the Green Bay Packers last Sunday night.

A win seems like a safe bet for Dallas, but the Cowboys never do things the easy way—not to mention Adrian Peterson and Jared Allen can always wreak havoc for a roster otherwise devoid of much talent.

Here are three keys to monitor for Sunday's clash.

Key Information:

When: Sunday, Nov. 3 at 1 p.m. ET

Where: Cowboys Stadium, Dallas, Texas

TV: FOX

Top Storylines

Which Unit Is Worse: Minnesota's Passing Offense or Dallas' Passing Defense?

Playing musical chairs at quarterback to no success, the Vikings are miserable at moving the football through the air. Then again, the Cowboys are terrible at stopping the passing game.

Which side will experience a rare good day on Sunday?

Christian Ponder, Matt Cassel and Josh Freeman have combined to complete 58 percent of Minnesota's passes for a league-low five touchdowns. Ponder, who will get the nod against Dallas, completed 14 of 21 passes against Green Bay but made little of his strikes with 145 passing yards.

Luckily for him, Dallas ranks last with 315 passing yards surrendered per game. But one could poke holes in that stat by showing that the numbers are skewed by 902 combined yards from Peyton Manning and Matthew Stafford, two passers much better than Ponder with considerably better weapons.

Sam Bradford and Alex Smith each fell below the 250-yard mark, so a breakthrough outing should not be expected from Ponder. Any signs of Greg Jennings' existence would at least be nice after catching one pass against his old team on Sunday Night Football.

Will Dez Bryant Successfully Change the Subject?

Call it a tantrum. Call it a passionate plea to motivate his teammates. In the grand scheme of things, Dez Bryant's sideline conflict doesn't matter.

He fell 257 yards short of Calvin Johnson's tally, but Bryant still caught two touchdowns to up his total to eight. Throw in 45 catches for 641 yards and the fourth-year wideout is emerging as one of the NFL's finest wide receivers. 

If Dallas loses, someone finds him momentarily frowning on the bench and uses that to condemn Bryant for ruining the Cowboys—and probably attempting to eliminate Thanksgiving and Christmas in the process.

Hey, it's not as bad for blaming Tony Romo for losing a game in which he posted 506 passing yards and five touchdowns.

If the Cowboys win, however, all the nonsense goes away. Maybe some of those same grumpy skeptics looking for an easily digestible theme now credit Bryant's boisterous antics for lighting a fire under the team.

The actual numbers show that Minnesota allows 288 passing yards per game, the league's fourth-worst mark. Jordy Nelson just filed a seven-catch, 123-yard, two-touchdown performance last Sunday night with virtually every other Green Bay receiver out of commission.

Minnesota's flimsy secondary could look even weaker, as ESPN.com's Ben Goessling reported that cornerback Chris Cook and safety Jamarca Sanford both missed practice late in the week. With rookie Terrance Williams emerging as a prominent threat on the other side, stopping Bryant will be a tall task for the Vikings.

Can the Vikings Pressure Tony Romo?

Minnesota provided Aaron Rodgers with a clear pocket, and the former MVP pounced, completing 24 of his 29 passes for 285 passing yards and two touchdowns without his regular group of receivers.

Give Romo the same time and the underappreciated signal-caller will also strike.

Bashing Romo is now more American than baseball and apple pie combined, but he's sporting a 66.1 completion percentage with 2,216 passing yards and 18 passing touchdowns. It helps that he has only been sacked 16 times.

Minnesota, on the other hand, has generated just 14 sacks, which rates 27th in the NFL. Outside of Jared Allen's 2.5 sacks in the team's only win of the season, the usually ferocious defensive end has two sacks in the other six contests.

Now that the trade deadline has passed without his changing uniforms, lofty expectations will continue to be tossed on Allen in order for Minnesota to avoid a further collapse.

With a bad secondary battling injuries, Allen and Co. need to make Romo's life difficult at the point of attack. If he's allowed to survey the field and scramble around with ease, Dallas will pick Minnesota apart all day.

Pressuring Romo provides the Vikings with their only chance of keeping the game from blowing out of hand.