Dallas Cowboys coach Wade Phillips rested Tony Romo and most of his regular starters, and it showed. Dallas turned over the ball four times, leading to 21 Minnesota points.
"Some are going to say it's not pretty and it wasn't," Phillips said.
The Minnesota Vikings' preseason finale Friday night did nothing to help coach Brad Childress clear up his murky backup quarterback situation.
Tarvaris Jackson played well but only attempted four passes, and Sage Rosenfels threw an ugly interception in a 35-31 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
Despite only being in purple for a little over two weeks and still working on chemistry with his receivers, Favre watched the entire game from the sideline with the rest of the starters.
After hitting a wide open Dugan for a touchdown in the first quarter, Jackson led another scoring drive off a turnover by Jon Kitna before giving way to Rosenfels.
Rosenfels took the Vikings to the 1-yard line on his opening drive, but was stuffed by Patrick Watkins on a naked bootleg on fourth down.
It was the first of three big plays by Watkins, a fourth-year safety. He blocked a field goal by Ryan Longwell, then intercepted a pass by Rosenfels and returned it 23 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter.
"I had a feeling like I was going to have a good game, and I had a couple people send me text messages with predictions," Watkins said. "Someone predicted six tackles and an interception. Somebody else predicted eight tackles. So after that maybe I need more predictions to help me out."
Childress yanked Rosenfels for the next series, but Booty's first pass was intercepted by Steve Octavien and returned 44 yards for another score.
Kitna started and was just as shaky for the Cowboys. He went 9 for 14 for 100 yards, with a touchdown, an interception and a lost fumble.
Darius Reynaud, trying to make the Vikings as one of the last receivers and a return specialist, may have solidified his spot with an electric 81-yard punt return in the second quarter.
Two Cowboys defenders had Reynaud trapped when he squirted right between them and darted up field. He made a quick cut to avoid punter Mat McBriar and beat everyone else to the end zone for a 21-7 lead.
Dallas receiver Jesse Holley provided the winning margin when a punt by Chris Kluwe took a funny backward hop and landed in Holley's arms. He raced 82 yards for a touchdown.
"When the ball dropped right to me I thought, 'What the heck do I have to lose?"' Holley said. "If I fumbled it, what was the worst thing that was going to happen? They cut me. And if I kept it, what's the greatest thing that was going to happen? They keep me. So I just grabbed it."
