I suppose I could have started my headline by stealing part of the line of a popular eighties movie, stating that these teams are both desperately seeking a second win, but that would have been too obvious and easy. We all saw this coming a mile away at the beginning of the season, didn’t we? If someone would have told me at the beginning of the season that Minnesota and Dallas would be meeting this week to see who could come away with victory number two first, I would’ve wondered about their level of sanity in the first place, and then had a very hardy laugh at them afterwards. Two teams that had real Super Bowl aspirations at the beginning of the season, are meeting Sunday and fighting for their playoff lives. Only one team in NFL history has ever started the season 1-3 and then went on to win the Super Bowl, and that would be the New England Patriots. No team has ever started the season 1-4 and then went on to win the Super Bowl. Both of these teams come into this week’s game at the Minneapolis Metrodome sporting the exact same records of 1-3, and one of them is coming out of this 1-4.

I was contemplating the other day, which one of these teams actually has a better chance to pull themselves out the nosedives their in, and I came away thinking that it should be the Vikings. This team just has way too much talent to be 1-3 and keep heading in this direction, especially with the newly acquired Randy Moss at wide receiver. This game will showcase many things to watch for, with the least of them not being two legit NFL starting quarterbacks. We all know about Brett Favre and all of the records he has under his belt, but Tony Romo is no slouch himself. Romo has put up some pretty consistently good numbers the last couple of seasons. I can’t say the same about him come playoff time and that’s where the Favre/Romo comparisons stop, but Tony Romo is a very serviceable NFL quarterback to say the least, and I’d probably have to put him in my top ten list, if I was pressed to break all quarterbacks in the NFL down on an individual basis.

Romo’s passing numbers are actually better than Favre’s this season. Romo overall is 119 of 174 for 1346 yards and seven touchdowns. If anyone is doing the math at home, that’s two more touchdowns than Favre has thrown this season, and Romo has also thrown for more yards than Favre. In the last three head to head matchups between these two teams, Minnesota holds the edge, winning two of the last three. Both of these teams have very good if not exceptional defenses and are able to get to the quarterback, with the Vikings holding a slight edge. I think sometimes stats can lie though, because the Vikings defense has been faced with more scoring drives against them, because of how many times Favre has turned over the ball this season. Also, the Minnesota Vikings have Jarred Allen lining up on defense, and he is a threat to put opposing quarterbacks on their backs on virtually every snap of the ball when he’s on the field.

One other thing that I’ll be watching in this game, as I’m sure many fantasy players will be keeping their eyes on as well, is the matchups at wide receiver. Minnesota also holds an edge here as well though. If you like watching great wide receiver play though, this is a must watch game for you. Randy Moss and Percy Harvin will be lining up for the Vikings, while Miles Austin will be lining up for the Cowboys. I also think that Adrian Peterson is going to have a monster game rushing and receiving this week, and much of it will be because of the new threat Minnesota has at wide receiver with Randy Moss and a healthy Percy Harvin. Getting back to my article headline, I guess I could’ve also called this game “winner take all”, because I think this game is just that important for both teams.