The two highest powered offenses in the league will meet up on Sunday as the Minnesota Vikings head to New Orleans to take on the Saints for the right to advance to the Super Bowl. The Vikings were efficient on offense in dispatching of the Dallas Cowboys last weekend, but it was the defense that proved most impressive. They held Dallas to just 3 points and 248 total yards en route to a 34-3 victory. Brett Favre continued his terrific season by throwing 4 TD passes, including 3 to his new favorite target, Sidney Rice. Adrian Peterson continued to struggle however, managing just 63 yards on 26 carries, numbers that have to be at least a little concerning to Vikings fans.

As impressive as the Vikings were offensively this year, the Saints were even better. They quickly eliminated any doubt that existed after dropping their last 3 regular season games, in which they only managed 17 points in each, by absolutely making the Arizona Cardinals look silly. The final score read 45-14 in the Saints favor, but I'm not even sure it was actually that close. Tim Hightower broke off a 70 yard touchdown run to put the Cardinals up 7-0 on their first play, but the Saints responded, with a vengeance. By the time the first quarter ended, it was 21-7 New Orleans, and the Saints didn't look back. New Orleans got contributions from everybody on offense while piling up 418 yards, but Reggie Bush was the star of the day. Bush had 5 carries for 84 yards, including a 46 yard touchdown run, and also added an 83 yard punt return touchdown to put the finishing touches on the game. Drew Brees tossed 3 touchdowns in another solid effort, while 4 different receivers had at least 4 catches. The defense also played fairly well, holding the high powered Cardinal offense to just the two scores.

Based on what we've seen all season long and thus far in the playoffs, there is no reason to doubt that this game will be anything short of an offensive slugfest. So the question becomes which defense can do just enough to propel their team to victory? Well, at first glance, the Vikings defense seems to be the stronger of the two and Tony Romo would likely verify that for you if you asked him. Romo was sacked 6 times and hit another 4 as he was under pressure all day long against Minnesota. The Vikings forced 3 turnovers and had 11 tackles for a loss as well on the day and really prevented Dallas from moving the ball successfully at all. Granted, New Orleans has a better offense and more options to attack with, but they aren't going to be facing the Cardinals again. Arizona's defense was torched 2 weeks in a row and didn't put up much resistance against the Saints. New Orleans did manage to hold the Cardinals in check for the most part, forcing Arizona to pass a great deal once a big lead was established. The Cardinals put up decent numbers in the passing game, but again, it's tough to tell if that was because New Orleans was relaxed with a big lead or not. It is clear though that the Saints could not get to the quarterback anywhere near as successfully as Minnesota did.

From the Vikings point of view, that amount of pressure is going be needed again this week. If they can get to Drew Brees and disrupt his timing, it will go a long ways towards slowing down the Saints offense. This is of course easier said than done though. Brees is much like Peyton Manning in that he is very intelligent at reading defenses and knowing what's available to him before the snap. This results in a relatively low number of sacks as Brees gets rid of the ball quickly for the most part. It doesn't hurt that he usually has a ton of options to throw to either. Between Marques Colston, Robert Meachem, Devery Henderson, Jeremy Shockey, and Reggie Bush out of the backfield, somebody is usually relatively open. One thing is for sure, if the Vikings fail to get pressure on him, it won't be for a lack of trying. They're going to bring the heat all day and live or die by it. On the offensive side of the ball, it would greatly benefit Minnesota if they could finally get their star running back to return to previous form. Adrian Peterson dominated for about the first 3 quarters of the season, but his production has slowed greatly since. Whether this is due to Brett Favre becoming pass happy and audibling out of run plays or not is still a bit of a mystery, but the results have been obvious. Peterson hasn't topped 100 yards since Week 10 against Detroit and has had games of 19, 35, 54 and last week's 63 yards during the stretch since. Being able to control the ball and therefore keep it out of the hands of Drew Brees would be extremely beneficial in helping the Vikings reach the Super Bowl.

It would stand to reason that the opposites would be true for New Orleans. If they can keep Brees upright and give him time to make throws, he'll prove why he is one of the best quarterbacks in the game. This depends directly on the success of the Saints rushing attack. Last week was probably the best ground attack the Saints have managed in awhile, but it was also against an Arizona defense that has looked like Swiss Cheese as of late. Still, the reemergence of Reggie Bush had to be a welcome sight for Saints fans, as he has had more downs than ups as of late. If he can combine with Pierre Thomas and Mike Bell to carve out even a decent day on the ground, it should help to buy the Saints some time with their pass block. If they fail to do so, letting the Vikings tee off all day is going to be tough to deal with. Defensively, the Saints should fair a little better against Favre and the Vikings passing game. The Cowboys are rather weak in the secondary and really showed no effort in trying to stop Sidney Rice last week. I expect the Saints DBs to put up a much better fight. They did a solid job keeping Larry Fitzgerald, Early Doucet, and Steve Breaston in check just a week after all three tore up Green Bay. Brett Favre threw very few interceptions this year, but it's something he's been prone to in the past due to forcing plays more than he should. If the Saints could get him to turn the ball over a couple of times and get Brees and company some extra possessions, they would be pretty tough to defeat.

Almost everybody I've seen is picking Minnesota with a fair bit of confidence this week. I understand that if their defense plays like it did last week, New Orleans is in for a very long day, but for some reason, I don't see them having the same success. Instead, I'm imaging a game more like the Vikings contest against Arizona in Week 13, where Favre attempts a ton of passes and ends up throwing some costly interceptions. The Cardinals completely shut down Peterson in that game, so it is certainly attainable for the Saints. I think turnovers determine the winner and Drew Brees makes the most of his chances.

My Pick: New Orleans (-4) over Minnesota

AFC Championship: Indianapolis (-7.5) over NY Jets

I think the matchup of New Orleans and Indianapolis with perhaps the 2 most talented quarterbacks in the game would be amazingly entertaining, not to mention the thought of a Minnesota/NY Jets Super Bowl complete with 2 weeks of Favre Hype and Rex Ryan quotes gives me severe indigestion. It's the Super Bowl, and since my team is never involved anymore, it needs to appeal me on some level, so I'm totally picking with my heart this weekend.

Arizona Cardinals @ New Orleans Saints: Saturday, 1/16/10, 4:30pm on Fox

If Arizona's game against Green Bay from last weekend is any sort of indicator, we should be in for some more offensive fireworks this Saturday. The Cardinals managed to advance past the Packers by virtue of a 51-45 victory in overtime, where the only time defense was featured was on the game winning play. In the highest scoring game in NFL playoff history, Kurt Warner turned in an absolutely masterful performance, showing why he is one of the greatest playoff quarterbacks we've ever seen. Warner finished the game 29 of 33 with 379 yards and 5 touchdowns. All that without Anquan Boldin playing as well. The entire Cardinal offense chipped in though as Early Doucet and Larry Fitzgerald each had 2 touchdowns and Steve Breaston filled in as the #2 WR with a touchdown of his own, to go along with 7 catches for 125 yards. Beanie Wells added in a solid day on the ground to top it all off, gaining 91 yards on 14 carries.

The Cardinals needed every bit of that offense though as their defense had no luck in trying to stop Green Bay from moving the ball all game long. Despite causing some turnovers earlier in the game, the defense really didn't shine until overtime, when Michael Adams hit Aaron Rodgers in the arm and knocked the ball loose. The ball bounced off Rodgers' foot and right into the hands of Karlos Dansby who had a short trip into the end zone to finish off the game. The Cardinals defense looks to have its hands full again this weekend when they head to New Orleans to deal with a Saints team that showed its ability to put points on the board early and often this year.

The Saints lead the league in both yards per game at just a shade over 400, as well as points per game, averaging 31.9 on the year. Drew Brees finished 2nd in the MVP voting this year behind Peyton Manning, but his numbers were very impressive in their own right. Brees finished the year with 4,388 yards and 34 touchdowns, while throwing just 11 interceptions. Some of that success can be attributed to having so many targets to get the ball to. 7 different receivers had at least 35 catches on the year, lead by Marques Colston with 70. Colston, along with Robert Meachem, also had 9 touchdown receptions. Their ability to spread the ball all over the field is what made the Saints so potent all year long. Their running attack was solid as well, with multiple backs dispersing the load. Pierre Thomas lead the way with 793 yards and 5 touchdowns, but Mike Bell added 654 yards of his own. Bell and Reggie Bush also had 5 touchdown carries apiece. Injuries have been a concern at that position all year for New Orleans, but a bye week in the playoffs added some extra time for everybody to get healthy. Thomas, who has been dealing with a rib injury, is expected to be available on Saturday.

That offense is going to have to be on top of its game come Saturday though, because the defense for the Saints struggled a bit all year. They finished up 25th overall in yards allowed per game, and were particularly troubled against the pass where they ranked 26th, allowing 235.6 yards per game. After the display the Arizona offense put on last Sunday, Saints fans have to be at least a little worried. Injuries to the secondary contributed to some of the issues for New Orleans, but Jabari Greer, who missed 7 games on the season, is back and healthy. Darren Sharper is as well, which is good news considering he tied for the league lead with 9 interceptions on the season, 3 of which he returned for touchdowns.

So by just looking at the numbers, this game would figured to come down to which offense can outperform the other, much like the Cardinals/Packers game. I'm not so sure about that though. Arizona's defense is capable of much more than they showed last week, at least based on their season stats. Additionally, the New Orleans offense, while unstoppable early on in the year, slowed greatly down the stretch. New Orleans scored at least 24 points in each of their first 13 games while going undefeated, reaching the 40 point mark 4 times along the way. However, the team went 0-3 to finish the season, scoring 17 points in each of those games. Sure, they didn't really put in much effort in Week 17 because they had the #1 seed locked up, but the two previous games they were definitely still trying. Also, one of those games was against a Tampa team with an awful defense. I'd be rather nervous about that stretch if I were a Saints fan. It's hard to turn that type of thing around, but with the pressure on in the playoffs, they absolutely have to. Relying on their defense to win this game is going to get them a trip to the golf course and little else.

I'm not sure Arizona can repeat their offensive performance from last week, but they don't exactly have to either. If the defense steps it up a bit against a struggling-as-of-late Saints offense, Kurt Warner and company can probably do enough to get the win. The Saints on the other hand absolutely need their offense to show up back in early season form and for the defense to put in one of their best efforts of the year. This one is very tough to pick in my book.

New Orleans are 7 point favorites as of the writing of this article and I see no way they cover that spread. I think the Saints can pull out a win, but I'll take Arizona +7 happily.

Baltimore Ravens @ Indianapolis Colts: Saturday, 1/16/10, 8:15pm on CBS

I picked New England to beat Baltimore by 9 last week... boy did I mess that up. The Ravens came flying out of the gate on Sunday and took it right to the Patriots in Foxboro. By the time the first quarter was over, the scoreboard read 24-0 in favor of the Ravens. The game finished up with Baltimore advancing by the score of 33-14, due in large part to their running game. In fact, Joe Flacco contributed next to nothing as he was 4 of 10 with 34 yards and an interception. The combination of Ray Rice and Willis McGahee took care of things offensively for Baltimore though. Rice had 159 yards and 2 touchdowns, including an 83 yard score on the Ravens first play. McGahee chipped in with 62 yards and a touchdown of his own. That coupled with a very lackluster performance from New England's Tom Brady (3 interceptions) was enough to allow the Ravens to hand the Patriots their first ever postseason lost at Gillette Stadium.

For the Ravens, it really was as simple as falling back on their strengths to get the win. Defense and running the football have been the staple of the Ravens attack for a long time now, and they showed why on Sunday. Causing 3 of the 4 New England turnovers in the first quarter helped propel the Ravens out to a lead that the Patriots simply couldn't recover from. Baltimore was highly impressive in dispatching New England from the postseason, but they are going to need to keep it up if they want to do the same against Indianapolis.

The faces may change a bit in Indianapolis, but the story has stayed pretty much the same. There is a new head coach in Jim Caldwell, and a crop of new receivers behind Reggie Wayne, but there is one big constant that allows the Colts to be so successful. Peyton Manning brought home his 4th MVP trophy this season, and deservedly so. 4,500 yards and 33 touchdowns from Manning helped Indy clinch the top seed in the AFC with a 14-2 record. Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark each finished up with 100 receptions, 10 touchdowns, and over 1,000 yards, but Austin Collie and Pierre Garcon both emerged as reliable targets for Manning as well. Joseph Addai was steady as always out of the backfield with 828 yards rushing, 51 receptions, and a combined 13 scores. As usual, the Colts were a top 10 offense, but the defense also allowed the 8th fewest points in the NFL.

The defense for the Colts is going to have to find a way to slow down the running game of Baltimore to be successful this Saturday. That won't be the easiest task in the world either, as Indianapolis gave up 126.5 rushing yards per game this season, only good enough for 24th in the league. The Ravens succeeded despite Joe Flacco not performing well at all against New England, so if the Colts can find a way to force Baltimore to throw, it would be highly beneficial. The pass rush of Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis can cause a lot of headaches and mistakes for opposing quarterbacks, and despite this being his 4th playoff game already in just 2 seasons, Joe Flacco is still rather young. Forcing Flacco to make plays in order for Baltimore succeed must be the number one goal of the Indy defense, because otherwise Ray Rice and company can run all day long and keep the ball out of Peyton Manning's hands.

For Baltimore, the opposite proves true. The Colts were the worst rushing team in the league this season and are highly dependent on Manning's ability to dispense the ball all over the field. The problem from the Ravens point of view is that there is really not much hope of making the Colts try to run the ball. Simply put, blitzing the Colts really doesn't work. Here is a list of Manning's sack totals each year, going backwards from this one: 10, 14, 21, 14, 17, 13. I could go on, but you get the point, Manning is extremely difficult to bring down. This is a combination of the Colts having a pretty solid offensive line coupled with the fact that Manning is simply the smartest quarterback in the game. Between reading coverages and calling audibles, and his ability to deliver the ball quickly, he just doesn't give opposing defense a chance to get to him. The best the Ravens can hope for is their secondary to make some very good plays on the ball and create some turnovers that way, though that's not real likely either.

Essentially, if the Indianapolis defense can find a way to slow down the Ravens rushing attack and make Joe Flacco win the game, they should be in great shape. And conversely, if Baltimore can keep the ball in the hands of their running backs and eat away the clock, keeping Peyton Manning off the field, that gives them their best chance. The problem with the Ravens strategy is that even if it's successful, Manning has a knack for making the most of little time. I could very easily see the Ravens having a huge edge in time of possession and still coming up short in this one.

Indianapolis is favored by 7 at home in this game, but much like the New Orleans/Arizona game that seems like too much. I think the Colts win this one late, but the Ravens are going to keep it close with ball control. Colts win, but I'm taking Baltimore +7.

Sunday Games:

Dallas @ Minnesota (-3) - The Cowboys have been absolutely impressive, but they need their defense to step it up again to slow down the Vikings. I think they do it and win outright, promptly begging the question "Will Brett Favre Retire?"

NY Jets @ San Diego (-8) - San Diego has been the best team in the league coming down the stretch and the layoff hurts them a bit in my mind. The Jets combination of defense and running has been great, and Sanchez couldn't have been asked for more than his performance on Saturday. I think he costs the Jets this week though. I hate this line, the spread is too big when a defense like the Jets have is involved, so I'm taking the Chargers to win, but the Jets will stay within the 8 point spread.