The Minnesota Vikings are at the Pittsburgh Steelers in Dublin Ireland. The Vikings franchise is a NFL best 4-0 in international games and will have the pleasure of having two netural site games against
the Steelers and the Browns. The Steelers fan base does travel well, but these international games aren’t always full of Americans flying in. It’s expected to be a roughly 50/50 mix. That mix combined with the mix of fanbases they cheer for, will mean you’ll see plenty of Skol chants mixed in with the terrible towels and a bunch of other random fans.
The atmostphere around these games is electric. The game somehow feels bigger in the moment than a normal NFL game. Quite often, the field quality is questionable and/or the conditions are wet and slippery. The advantage will be to the teams that are more prepared for the conditions. The Vikings will take a positive experience from last year and utilize it the next two weeks.
It will be the 2nd consecutive year the team will face Aaron Rodgers internationally. Coincidentally, this will be my 3rd time seeing the team play Rodgers, 3 different countries, 3 different teams, and hopefully 3-0 for the Vikings. Rodgers had a nice opening game with the Steelers and it looked like they might be off and running. Sam Darnold and the Seahawks stopped that momentum quickly in Week 2. The Steelers beat the lowly Patriots last week and hope to stay away from their up and down trend.
How will the Steeler offense fare vs the Vikings? I’m not seeing them being able to move the ball. The run game for the Steelers has been fairly poor. The team is averaging 2.8 yards per carry and 63 yards a game. The passing game has been better, but D.K. Metcalf has yet to truly find his form. An offense struggling to get started does not want to see a Flores defense coming in. Isaiah Rodgers Sr. will be looking for his second consecutive defensive player of the week honors.
What about when the Vikings have the ball? The retun of Jordan Addison will be very highly anticipated. No one should be more excited about it than Carson Wentz. The Vikings haven’t seen what they had hoped when they brought back Adam Thielen. The Steelers defense has some studs up front with T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward. They’ll eat up blockers for LB Patrick Queen in the run game. The team will need a nice day from Wentz and I think they’ll get it. We’ll see our first 300 yard passing game of the season and the Vikings will win 27-13.
