That was a good weekend of football. We saw some really good, close games and some thoroughly dominating offensive and defensive performances leaving us with one Cinderella team, the Jets, one Cinderella story, Favre and the Vikings, and two teams that delivered after promising regular seasons.

NFC Divisional Games

The Saints made the Cardinals look bad. I felt this game had blow-out potential, I just wasn’t sure which way it would go and the Saints poor play down the stretch had me leaning away from the Saints.

Way to prove me wrong.

I loved how the Vikings completely dismantled a hot Cowboys team. The combination of good preparation, the right game plan and a veteran quarterback like Favre who can bring it all together makes Minnesota a threat to any team.

As good as their respective offenses played, much of the credit has to go to the defenses who were in lock-down mode. It will be interesting to see whether it’s the veteran savvy of Favre or the overwhelming force of Drew Brees and the other Saints stars that gets the upper hand on the defenses.

Early NFL conference final odds have the Saints favored by four points. I don’t want to under-estimate the Saints after underestimating them last week, but I’m going to have a long hard think before betting against the Vikings.

AFC Divisional Games

The Chargers-Jets game played out almost exactly as I expected, although I didn’t account for the Jets ability to wear down opposing defenses and thought they’d be up early. The Jets aren’t going to play any pretty games, or at least they aren’t going to win them, but it’s nice seeing a team buck the trend to pass-heavy offenses and succeed.

Too many coaches are like sheep always building teams that emulate the most recent Super Bowl winners when there’s more than one way to win.

I also got the Ravens-Colts game right except that the Ravens surprised me with how much they passed. When the Ravens got the early field goal, it felt like Manning just decided that there was no way the Ravens were going to outplay the Colts and immediately quelled any doubt.

The AFC Final odds favor the Colts by 7.5. It’s a lot to cover and you know the Jets will play them tough, but the Colts are better equipped to deal with the Jets than the Chargers who really didn’t match up well.

The Minnesota Vikings fresh off of two weeks rest face one of the hottest team in the playoffs when the Dallas Cowboys visit the Metrodome on Sunday January 17th.

The Vikings (-150) are 2.5-point NFL playoffs betting favorites over the Cowboys (+130) and the over/under is 45.5.

Minnesota finished the season with a dominating 44-7 victory over the New York Giants showing that the Vikings are playing well and ready for the playoffs.

They won’t get the same results as they did against New York, but you can be sure that Minnesota will be in top form when they play the Cowboys.

Dallas is the hottest team in the league right now. They ended New Orleans’ perfect season and then knocked off the previous hottest team in the league twice in a row and in convincing fashion.

Cowboys running back Marion Barber has been missing practice with a knee problem and might not be ready to go for the game. But Dallas has some very capable replacements in Tashard Choice and Felix Jones.

Choice and Jones picked up 190 yards between them last week against the Eagles while Barber was limited to just three carries.

Having three good backs can really make a difference if the game plan is to wear the defense out on the run, but the Minnesota defense is probably hoping to see a lot of runs.

The Vikings defense has allowed just an average of just 87.1 rushing yards per game, so don’t expect any big rushing plays like the 72-yarder that Jones had last week.

As good as Dallas’ running game has been, this offense hinges on how quarterback Tony Romo distributes the ball and Romo has been doing a particularly good job of keeping defenses off balance of late.

Minnesota hasn’t lost at home all season, but then New England hadn’t lost a playoff game at home in like forever and we all know what happened there.

There are a lot of good reasons to like Minnesota in this game, but given the way Dallas is playing and how Romo is improving I smell a good chance for an upset.

Much was said about the comments that the Philadelphia Eagles made publicly trying to downplay their shut-out loss six days ago. The importance of the game last week was down played as well, to Andy Reid’s credit, not by him. Many will speculate that Donovan McNabb should not have a chance to quarterback this club next year, with his contract guaranteed through 2010, I do not see many other choices. Wide receiver, Deshawn Jackson was running his mouth through his writing on twitter, yet another avenue for players to reach fans, and in the process put their feet (both of them) in their mouths. Jackson did just that. Jackson said that Cowboy football, corner backs included could not cover him. I guess it is not a good idea to upset players, when you have not had too much success against them to start off with.

Jackson did just that. The Philadelphia Eagles spiraled out of control on the field, and when DeMarcus Ware slapped the ball out of the grip of McNabb’s hand last night, the ball and the Eagle’s season went to the ground and out the window. The Dallas Cowboys are off to Minnesota for Sunday’s game next week. I cannot sit here and write like Jackson did, truthfully I do not know enough about the Vikings to do that. What I do know is the Cowboy Football is peaking right, regardless of the opponent. Romo keep your magic working, Defense keep your philosophy – “See someone, hit someone”. The game will take care of itself. For Deshawn Jackson, tweet this!

This is our year… Cowboy Football

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