Dallas and Minnesota will try to avoid irrelevance

The Super Bowl can wait.

It’s time for the Desperation Bowl.

That’s what Sunday’s game between the Dallas Cowboys and Minnesota Vikings has become, a gasping matchup between 1-3 teams desperately hurtling toward irrelevance.

Was it just nine months ago that the Cowboys and Vikings played in an NFC divisional game in Minnesota — on the same field Sunday’s game will take place — when the Vikings won in a 34-3 blowout before falling one victory shy of the Super Bowl?

Now both teams are looking at the possibility of their seasons being over almost before they started.

“You keep working on what you’re doing,” Cowboys Coach Wade Phillips told reporters this week. “You can’t give up. You can’t quit. You’ve got to keep evaluating what you’re doing, who’s doing it and how you’re doing it, but I think I it’s going to come around.

“If I knew exactly why, we wouldn’t be where we are. I’d be a better coach, but I’m not.”

Things aren’t much better for Minnesota, even though the Vikings filled their dire need for a playmaking receiver by trading for Randy Moss. They lost at the New York Jets on Monday, 29-20, the game decided on the familiar — a Brett Favre pass intercepted and returned for a touchdown.

And unlike the Cowboys’ NFC East, in which three teams are tied at 3-2, the Vikings are losing ground to Chicago (4-1), which has a favorable schedule in the coming weeks.

There’s also the lingering possibility that Favre might have violated the league’s personal-conduct policy because of X-rated photos he allegedly texted to a TV reporter when they were both employed by the Jets. Not only is that a distraction, but also it conceivably could lead to some type of suspension.

After Monday’s loss, Favre declined to answer several questions about the off-the-field allegations. He said he preferred to talk about football, although that subject is a sore one too.

“We play a 1-3 team that’s a lot like us right now,” he said. “Scratching their heads going, ‘How did we get here?’ We’ll get the best from them and hopefully we can give them our best.”

Other games to watch:

Cleveland at Pittsburgh: This AFC North rivalry has an added twist with the return of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who served a four-game suspension for violating the personal-conduct policy. His team did better than expected in his absence, going 3-1 despite cycling through three quarterbacks.

The Browns have had quarterback headaches of their own and could wind up starting rookie Colt McCoy because of injuries to Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace. McCoy, a third-round pick, has yet to take a snap in a real game since playing in the BCS championship game for Texas.

Baltimore at New England: When these teams met in the wild-card round last season, Ray Rice ran for 159 yards and two touchdowns in a 33-14 blowout by the Ravens.

Baltimore’s running game is still rolling — the Ravens ran for 233 in a Week 5 victory over Denver — and the Patriots, coming off a bye, are looking to find some consistency on defense.

Indianapolis at Washington: The Colts aren’t accustomed to struggling as they have, and the Redskins are playing better than a lot of people expected. With consecutive victories over Philadelphia and Green Bay, Washington is starting to reap the dividends of bringing Coach Mike Shanahan and quarterback Donovan McNabb on board. Knocking off Peyton Manning’s Colts would be more validation that a turnaround is happening.

Oakland at San Francisco: The Raiders have long dreamed of reclaiming the Bay Area, and they’re certainly the better of the teams now. San Francisco is circling the drain at 0-5, and Coach Mike Singletary appears to be dangling by a thread. Still, 49ers President Jed York is predicting a playoff run.

“Mike’s our coach,” York told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I hired Mike. I’m not going to run away from that. People can say you need to make these changes, you need to make those changes. We need to make sure we execute. If we don’t execute, we’re not going to win.

“If we stop shooting ourselves in the foot, we can win a lot of football games. I believe in our team.”

sam.farmer@latimes.com