This NFC Championship has a lot going for it. Both the Saints and Vikings have been leaders all year and home field advantage was at issue until late in the season. Both Minnesota and the Saints had some stumbles along the way, with New Orleans having the most glaring failure with three straight losses.
But both the Vikings and Saints recovered nicely in the playoff, with Minnessota crushing the Dallas Cowboys and the Saints stomping the defending NFC Champion Arizona Cardinals. Both teams are relatively healthy and both have potent offenses and respectable defenses.
More obvious is the importance of the quarterback position. These are two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL right now and both have huge incentives to move on to the Super Bowl. Drew Brees has had a Pro Bowl year with freakishly efficient stats. Brett Favre has also been efficient and put up better numbers than he ever has. This game could boil down to which quarterback gets enough protection to work his magic.
I’ve looked at all this stuff for a week now and it seems to me that this game could go either way on a neutral field. The big advantage goes to the Saints playing at home in the Superdome. Minnesota will have to jump out big to shut up the crowd and that’s going to be difficult. Advantage Saints and I can’t wait till Sunday to let it rip.
