Whether he is at Chili's enjoying chips and salsa or at his western suburbs home enjoying a vodka the size of Judd Zulgad's head, Vikings coach Brad Childress will presumably be locked in on Saturday night on the Eagles-Cowboys first-round matchup.
While doing so, he needs to adopt former coach Mike Tice's one-time mantra: Go Eagles; E-A-G-L-E-S!
Why? Dallas is the worst possible opponent for the Vikings.
Quarterback Tony Romo's first two playoff games -- both losses -- would be an afterthought and he is the type of signal-caller that can give the Vikings fits.
Romo established team records this season for passing yards (4,483), attempts (550), completions (347) and 300-yard games (eight) to go with 26 touchdown passes and nine interceptions. He has at least one touchdown pass in 12 straight games. The Eagles don't allow 300-yard passers very often; Romo did it in both regular season meetings. In the year of the quarterback, he deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Manning, Favre, Rivers, Brees, and Rodgers.
After breaking down film of Dallas' 24-0 win over Philadelphia in Week 17, NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger said of Romo: "He's in a zone right now." Even with Rodgers' brilliance and Brees' skill-set, Romo is the quarterback the Vikings least want to see the rest of the way. He has 11 touchdown passes and only two interceptions in the last six games.
The recipe to scoring on the Vikings: Three-step drops with quick-strikes, which Romo pulls off as well as anyone in the NFL. Vikings defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier will have to take his mind off the Buffalo Bills head coaching job long enough to game plan for such occurrences. That won't be a problem, but his safeties will.
Tight end Jason Witten, on his way to his sixth straight Pro Bowl, is very capable of causing headaches. He could easily do what Green Bay's Jermichael Finley (6-120-2 TDs) or San Francisco's Vernon Davis (7-96-2 TDs) did versus the Vikings. According to footballoutsiders.com, the Vikings are the 9th-worst team defending tight ends in the NFL.