Entering their game with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys had a great opportunity to take a one-game lead for the final Wild Card spot in the NFC because the Atlanta Falcons lost to the New Orleans Saints earlier in the day.

After tying the game 3-3 just before halftime, the Cowboys built a 13-3 lead just before the start of the fourth quarter after Terrell Owens caught a 12-yard touchdown pass from Tony Romo and Nick Folk converted on his second field goal of the day.

Earlier in the fourth, Dallas also came up with a huge goal line stop on fourth down, but they couldn’t carry the momentum from the play and finish the Steelers off. Pittsburgh managed to cut the Cowboys’ lead to 13-6 on a Jeff Reed field goal, then scored a touchdown four minutes later when Heath Miller caught a 6-yard pass from Ben Roethlisberger.

Then disaster struck for the Cowboys as Romo was picked off by Deshea Townsend, who returned the gift 25 yards for the game-winning touchdown as Pittsburgh held on for a 20-13 victory. On the interception, it appeared that tight end Jason Witten ran the wrong route.

Even with the loss, the Cowboys still hold onto the sixth and final playoff spot in the NFC because the Falcons’ loss to the Saints goes against their conference record. But that said, Dallas can’t feel too good about practically handing the Steelers a victory. It hurt not having Marion Barber on offense, but the defense played well enough to win and had Witten run the right route on the interception, the Cowboys might have drove down the field or at least forced overtime.

The Steelers did not look good offensively, but their defense is sick. And the funny thing is, because the offense hasn’t looked particularly sharp, this team continues to fly under the radar. But even with how good the defense has been this year, the Steelers still have some glaring, underlying issues. The offensive line is being held together by duct tape, Roethlisberger still holds onto the ball way too long and every once in a while, Mike Tomlin shows his inexperience as a head coach. For example, Dallas made a great play on that goal line stand, but Tomlin’s decision to go for it instead of making it a one possession game with the entire fourth quarter left to play was a questionable decision to say the least.

That said, even anyone thinks that the Steelers aren’t a Super Bowl contender, you’re dreaming. Their defense is that good.

Before the season started, the addition of Jared Allen to the defensive line and then the continued development of quarterback Tarvaris Jackson had many NFL purists believing the Minnesota Vikings were the team to beat in the NFC North.

But Jackson was replaced by the ageless wonder Gus Frerotte, the team lost three of its first four games and suddenly the Vikings were like many other annual chic picks in the NFL – overrated.

Minnesota appears back on track, however, winning four of their last five games and seizing control in the NFC North by soundly beating the Bears 34-14 on Sunday Night Football. So the question is – were the purists right all along and the Vikes just needed time for things to fall into place?

The Vikings have a couple of key elements that make them a sound football team. They can run the ball (Adrian Peterson was a beast in their win over the Bears) behind a solid offensive line, they can stop the run and Allen gives them a dominant pass-rush. They still have some issues stopping the pass and both of their defensive tackles could be suspended soon, but they’re clearly the best team in the weak North division at this point.

Assuming Minnesota wins their division, the question now becomes – how far can they go? Peterson is such a weapon, but we saw Sunday night how much of a physical pounding his body takes because of how hard he runs. Frerotte has been a major upgrade over Jackson, but does his play have a ceiling? It’ll be interesting to see if not only the Vikes can wrap up the division, but also whether or not they can compete with the Panthers, Falcons, Cowboys or any other Wild Card team they would face in the first round.