Thursday, April 19, 2018

2018 Vikes schedule full of great challenges


The 2017 season ended not the way I wanted but looking at the record and seeing just how good it was including winning the NFC North title the next season will reflect on the previous year and thus you are given a first place schedule.

The speculation for as long as I can remember was the first game of the year would be a Thursday night trip to Philadelphia which made logical sense to me but when I watched the NFL schedule reveal show it did show in fact the rumor was wrong. I will admit I saw most of the afternoon on twitter that the first game was leaked so I had a hunch.

Yes,Week 1 the home opener vs the up and coming San Francisco 49ers and we as Viking fans will see the return of Jerick McKinnon.

The first month we see 2 home and 2 away games and all 4 games are going to be extremely tough because after facing the 49ers the team gets to go to Lambeau and face a hungry Aaron Rodgers and company. What an early showdown this will be.

The next 2 sees the purple play at home vs the Buffalo Bills and then head west to face 2017 surprise playoff team although the way the Rams played last season the playoff was well earned. This is a very scary team as we have seen the Rams dump a lot of money in free agency to better the defense and I believe they succeeded. The game is also magnified even more as it is a Thursday night prime time game.

The month of October again sees 2 home and 2 away and the first away game of the month? None other than the Super Bowl champion, Philadelphia Eagles. Are we going to hear a lot more of horrifying fans stories and this game is a 3:25 Fox National TV game so I believe there will be tv viewer records shattered with this game.

The end of September saw the Vikes go west to face the Rams and the next week fly out east for the big rematch vs the Eagles. Can you say frequent flyer miles?

The team will come home after the Eagles game and face Sam Bradford and the Arizona Cardinals. I would love to see Sam do great in 2018 except vs the Vikings. I am also wondering if this will be the last year for Super Star Wide Receiver, Larry Fitzgerald?

The Vikes get to fly east again as they go play the New York Jets and for the 2nd week in a row face a quarterback on last year’s roster in Teddy Bridgewater. I have no idea if he will be the starter but just know he will be on the Jets roster.

The team comes back home to end the month of October and who do they face? The New Orleans Saints with this game I believe will be the most intense home game of the 2018 campaign knowing the last home game of 2017 with the Minneapolis Miracle catch by Stefon Diggs. I feel very secure in saying the Saints will have not forgotten losing a game on a miracle play.

The month of November sees only 3 games as the Vikes will have a bye in Week 10. The month starts out with a home game vs the Detroit Lions so this will be the 2nd home game in a row following the Saints game.

The bye follows and then it’s off to the Windy City and face the tough Bears in their own stadium. It’s hard to get a win there although last season the Vikes pulled off a Monday night win.

The next week another NFC North team comes to US Bank for a Sunday night National TV game as we see the Green Bay Packers come back to the scene where Aaron Rodgers got hurt and ended his season very early on. I can’t even imagine the 2 fan bases and just how loud it will be as I can only imagine.

The last month of the season sees 5 games with 2 home and 3 away with the first one at New England for a 3:25 tilt. The next week sees the team flies west again for a Monday night game at Seattle in the stadium with the 12th man. The team then comes back and faces the Miami Dolphins then goes to Detroit before closing out the 2018 regular season campaign with the Chicago Bears once again for like the 100th time in a row. I love NFC North battles but honestly can’t the NFL change the last week opponent just one time?

Overall it is great to get 2 out 3 at home to start the season and 2 out of 3 at home to end the season.

The draft is next weekend and each of these teams will be adding draft choices but I just wanted to speculate about the potentials.

Football is a sport I just can’t get enough of and when I have a chance to wrote my thoughts I want to take full advantage.

Thanks for reading

Purplestick




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