Season On The Brink - Dallas vs Minnesota Today at 3:15 p.m.

Tony Romo (left) and the Cowboys have a must-win game against the Vikings as the two two teams meet this afternoon in a situation where the loser likely misses the playoffs. (AP Photo/Mike Fuentes)

In what is being billed by some as the "Desperation Bowl", two teams that came into the season with Super Bowl aspirations have had disappointing starts to the season, and now find themselves in do-or-die mode in week six.

"Who would have thought both teams would be 1-3?" Vike's quarterback Brett Favre said.


The Dallas Cowboys (1-3) and the Minnesota Vikings (1-3) square of today with neither playing the way they expected to coming into the season. The loser of this contest would fall to 1-4, almost assuring an early vacation come playoff time, and that fact is not lost on either of these teams.

"Both of us, it's no secret where our records are right now. Neither one of us are happy about it," Vikings coach Brad Childress said. "In my experience, typically in these kind of games, the most desperate team wins, the most desperate team that's clawing for a victory. Expect it to be contested tooth and nail."

Minnesota, 29th in the NFL in points per game at 15.8, recently traded for disgruntled New England Patriots receiver Randy Moss, hoping to shore up a passing offense that has struggled so far this season. Moss dominated Dallas in his previous tenure with the Vikings, and Minnesota is counting on some of that magic to reappear Sunday.

"I don't want to be a cancer to this offense, knowing I don't know what I'm doing, because I could get somebody really, really, really killed or really hurt out there, not knowing what to do," Moss said. "So I study every night. I take my playbook home. I just want to make sure I'm out there for the guys, because I know they're out there for me."

Dallas, on the other hand, has played reasonably well on both sides of the ball. The Cowboys are middle of the pack in points per game (16th at 20.3) and are third in the NFL in passing yards per game. Unfortunately for the Cowboys, every loss this season has come down to a few idiotic mistakes that a team with higher intelligence would not make. Cowboys' quarterback Tony Romo hopes to minimize these dumb pays against Minnesota.
"It's tough," Romo said. "They're good players combined with a good scheme, combined with a tough place to play. You stack it all together and it makes for a difficult place to go out and be perfect on every play. You just have to know going in that you're not going to be perfect on every play and try and minimize the bad plays and try and connect when the good plays are there."

Prediction:

Neither one of these teams will make the playoffs, it really doesn't matter what happens in this game. The addition of Moss, however, makes this game an easy W for the Vikings. Expect Moss to catch at least two touchdowns against a secondary that had trouble containing Kenny Britt last week.

Vikings 28 Cowboys 24

(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)