The Minnesota Vikings and the New Orleans Saints face off this Sunday in the NFC Championship Game. Last week, Brett Favre and company gave the Dallas Cowboys a good old fashioned whooping while Drew Brees and the Saints did the same to the defending NFC champion Arizona Cardinals. The Vikes and Saints last met last season with the Vikings winning 30-27 on a field goal in the closing seconds. We can only hope Sunday’s meeting is as good. Minnesota leads the all-time series 20-7, but NFL odds makers have listed the New Orleans Saints as 3.5-point favorite with the total set at 54.
Both of these teams hope to show much better than they did in their last trip to the NFC title game. Minnesota last played in an NFC championship game in the 2000-01 season when it was crushed 41-0 by the New York Giants. This game marks just the second title game appearance in the 43-year history of the Saints. Their first was a 39-14 blowout loss to the Bears in the 2006 season. Last week, we expected a high scoring game in the Superdome and we got one, but the Saints did all the scoring. This week, the Vikings will look to match the favorites to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl score for score. The Saints are the NFL’s highest scoring team, averaging 31.9 points per game, but the Vikings are right behind them, scoring 29.4 points per contest. While we have the NFL’s two highest scoring offenses facing off, odds makers expecting less points to be scored than we saw in the Saints versus Cardinals game last week. In fact, Sunday’s total is four points lower than last week’s line. I’m not going to go into detail about the greatness of Favre and Brees as I have so often this season. Instead, I’m going to discuss a couple other factors that could decide the outcome of the game. Favre and Brees have both done a superb job of taking care of the football this season so I don’t anticipate either QB falling into a multitude of picks or fumbles like Jake Delhomme did in last year’s playoffs, but Saints free safety Darren Sharper is certainly good enough to force Favre into one. And that could be the difference in the game. Sharper is very familiar with Favre, having played with him in Green Bay from 1997-2004. Sharper is one of the premier big play guys in the game. He has nine interceptions on the season, returning three for scores, and he even came up with a fumble recovery last week. If any defensive back can read Favre’s tendencies, it’s Sharper. It is worth noting that the Saints are 6-1 ATS in their last 7 games as a home favorite of 3.5-10.0 points. I think it is going to take another superb defensive effort for the Vikings to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. Led by defensive end Ray Edwards and his thee sacks, the Vikings lived in the Dallas backfield last week, sacking Tony Romo six times while forcing three fumbles. Brees was able to complete last week’s game unscathed so it will be up to Edwards and Jared Allen to make sure that doesn’t happen again. If Minnesota can bring the type of heat it did last week Sunday, the Vikings may just be Super Bowl bound. It is worth noting that the Vikings are 4-0 ATS in their last 4 meetings with the Saints. Jimmy Boyd is a perfect 4-0 his last four 5 Star Top Plays in this year’s NFL Playoffs after nailing his 5 Star NFL Playoffs Game of the Year on the Saints last week. Make sure you’re on board for Jimmy’s next huge 5 Star Play Sunday! Pick it up in Jimmy’s football picks package.
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