It wasn’t all that long ago that Mike Zimmer’s Minnesota Vikings and Jay Gruden’s Washington Redskins were both on lengthy winning streaks.

Minnesota opened 5-0; Washington won four in a row at one point. When the Redskins (4-3-1) host the Vikings (5-3) on Sunday, the clubs will be trying to put an end to winless ruts that threaten to curb their playoff ambitions.

“It is a pivotal point. We need to put all our energy, our focus physically and mentally, into this game and into these next few weeks,” Washington defensive lineman Ricky Jean Francois said. “This next stretch is going to tell you who’s making the playoffs or not; if we’re going to win the division again or not.”

His coach, Gruden, concurred.

The third-place team in the NFC East comes off its bye week after a loss and a tie that followed its four-game winning run, and after the Vikings come to town, the Redskins’ schedule does not get easier: vs. Green Bay, at Dallas, at Arizona, at Philadelphia.

“You hate to make one game more important than the other, but these next two games in general are going to be important. They’re two home games that are very, very big for us,” said Gruden, who was the offensive coordinator in Cincinnati when Zimmer ran the defense there. “We’re in a position where we don’t have a lot of room for error.”

The NFC North-leading Vikings, meanwhile, have dropped three consecutive games.

“After the first five weeks, we were extremely confident. … And the last three weeks, the confidence level has gone down, right?” Zimmer said.

“But that’s why this game is not just about the physical part of it, but it’s about the mental part of it, and the way the team feels about itself,” he said. “You start out a season and you’re 0-2, everybody thinks you’re awful. You start out the season 2-0, everybody thinks you’re great. But there’s so many fluctuations and emotions throughout a 16-game season.”

Here is what else to know about Sunday’s game:

No Pro Bowl tackle

Washington’s Pro Bowl left tackle, Trent Williams, begins his four-game suspension for violating the league’s drug policy, a major loss for a team that will plug in Ty Nsekhe at that key position. Nsekhe is a 31-year-old who’ll be making the third NFL start of his career. “Trent is in a class by himself at tackle, he really is,” Gruden said, “but when you’re talking about tackle in the NFL, Ty belongs, and I think he’ll do fine.”