National Football League

Too soon to panic? Not for the loser of today's Vikings-Cowboys game

Published Oct. 18, 2010 2:12 p.m. ET

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Forget the Desperation Bowl. The Vikings are just trying to play decent football.

Since starting last season 10-1, the Vikings are 4-7 in their past 11 games, including playoffs.

That the Cowboys and Vikings, both preseason Super Bowl contenders, are staring at a potential 1-4 record qualifies today's Metrodome collision as a desperation game.

But the Vikings have been plagued by turnovers and occasional mental lapses despite steady play from their defense and Adrian Peterson. Several Vikings players say cleaning up a few inconsistencies should result in some much-needed momentum.

'If we're going to turn it around, we've got to start now,' linebacker Chad Greenway said. 'You can't continue to say, 'Oh, next week we've got to play better.' '

The Cowboys and Vikings entered the season as trendy title picks. The stars in this game are undeniable: Brett Favre, Tony Romo, Randy Moss, Miles Austin, Peterson, Jason Witten, Jared Allen, DeMarcus Ware, among others.

But there's always something holding back these teams lately. For the Cowboys, 326 passing yards per game are offset by a minus-1.0 turnover margin per game.

One of three NFL teams worse than the Cowboys in that category, the Vikings (minus-1.5), can place the blame on Favre, who has 10 of the offense's 11 turnovers this year. The Vikings can't survive the turnovers with a passing game that ranks 21st in the league at 198.8 yards per game.

Considering that just five of 240 playoff teams since 1990 started the season 1-4, it might not be drastic to say today's game could define the season for both teams.

It's also not often that two 1-3 teams comprise what likely will be today's most-watched game.

"Who would have thought both teams would be 1-3?" Favre said. "There's still a ton of football left for both teams. Whoever loses will obviously be 1-4, but it's still wide open. That's not to say that it gives you a free pass to lose. We call it desperate. Whatever. Both teams are well aware of what's at stake."

If this week's locker-room scenes illustrate the moods of each team, the Cowboys are having a harder time letting go of the past.

According to a report from Greg Garber of ESPN.com , Witten was the only Cowboys player to make himself available to the media during Wednesday's 45-minute open locker-room session.

The Vikings, meanwhile, have kept a normal regimen with a locker room full of laughs, outbursts and Nerf basketball shootouts between wide receiver Percy Harvin and Peterson.

How's this for confidence: At least two Vikings players this week referred to going 13-3 on the season, which would require a 12-game winning streak starting this week. The last time the Vikings started 1-3, they finished 10-6 and made the playoffs.

"It's an attitude," defensive tackle Jimmy Kennedy said. "It's not like we went out there any week in our losing efforts and got blown out, even with our offense (sputtering) or our defense giving up touchdowns occasionally. We're in every game. Last year, we snuck up on a lot of people and made plays we needed to make. We need to make those plays again."

Vikings coach Brad Childress said he addressed his team not with talk of its 1-3 record, but with an analogy about avoiding reckless football -- or reckless driving.

"You get three choices when you're driving the car at night: you can look where the headlights are, 200 feet ahead; you can try to look out way far into darkness; or you can look in the rearview mirror and look back into darkness, the side view," Childress said. "The message is you need to stay on that 200-300 feet right ahead of you. Not that you don't need to check ahead or look behind, but if you look in the rearview mirror for too long, something real bad's got a chance to happen."

The Vikings' defense has been too consistent to get obliterated by the potent Cowboys offense. Even as the Jets moved the ball with ease at times during Monday's 29-20 win, the Vikings held them to four field goals in the red zone. The defense was on the field for almost 34 minutes, while the offense struggled with 52 total yards in the first half.

The Vikings had played 51 straight games without allowing more than 150 yards rushing before the Jets eclipsed that mark with 155.

The onus still falls on the offense to find balance. Staying on the field in the first half has been an issue. The Vikings failed to convert their first six third-down opportunities Monday.

Lack of execution won't alter the Vikings' style of play, Greenway said.

"We're going to be loose; we're going to have fun," he said. "You can't go into a game that you need to win and play tight."

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