Home Enterprise bank What if the Minnesota “Seahawks problem” was just an advantage on the court?

What if the Minnesota “Seahawks problem” was just an advantage on the court?

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The Minnesota Vikings last beat the Seattle Seahawks in 2009. Brett Favre connected with Percy Harvin for the game’s first touchdown, one of four touchdown passes he completed that day. Minnesota won the Matt Hasselbeck– led the Seahawks, 35-9, who Tarvaris jackson finished the game.

Hasselbeck is now an ESPN personality, Favre joined Peyton and Eli in using what must have been dial-up internet to deliver poor analysis last Monday night, and T-Jack tragically died in a car crash last year. . It had been a long time since the Vikings defeated Seattle.

Three years after that game, Minnesota drafted Harrison smith. In his first year with the Vikings, they lost to the Seahawks, 30-20 – the first of seven straight losses to Seattle. When asked what he remembered from the game, Smith gave a brief smile.

“I’m sure it was in Seattle,” he replied dryly. “That’s pretty much where they all are.”

He’s not wrong. Since the 2009 game, which was held at the Metrodome, only two games have been played in Minneapolis. Both were in 2015-16: a 38-7 loss in the regular season and a 10-9 loss in the playoffs – the Shank at the Bank. TCF Bank Stadium ie. House of the Gophers.

In each of the past three seasons, the Vikings have played in Seattle. The 2018 game sacked former offensive coordinator John DeFilippo. They made a comeback in 2019 but lost. And last year, Mike Zimmer got into it with Alexandre mattison on the quarter and the thumbs and came just short. Minnesota has a lot of history with the Seahawks.

“We might as well be in their division,” joked defensive coordinator Andre Patterson.

Look, the Seahawks routed the Vikings the last time they played in Minnesota. But that was six years ago. Seattle is a notoriously difficult place to play. I was there in 2019; the 12th man is real. I left with a headache, convinced I was at 30 decibels from having a sound embolism. Have you seen Scanners? It must not be easy to play football in these conditions.

Imagine if the Vikings only played the Green Bay Packers in Lambeau every year. Ironically, they were more successful in Wisconsin than in Washington. But it wouldn’t be hard to imagine a five-game losing streak at Green Bay, as hard as it may be for any good Skoldier to admit. Still, that wouldn’t mean the Vikings can’t beat the Packers. It’s that they always have to go into a hostile environment to beat them.

It seems too simple to say that this is an advantage on the pitch. But the effect that a crowd of over 60,000 people has on a football game cannot be underestimated. Teams rely on verbal and non-verbal communication, and the adrenaline rush they experience upon exiting the tunnel or after a big game has moderate benefits.

The Vikings haven’t had fans at US Bank Stadium for over a year due to COVID restrictions, and players have spent a lot of time this week talking about how much they miss fans and how bad it was. strange to play in an empty stadium. Part of this is commercial: The NFL needs people to pay for tickets, seat licenses, concessions, etc. to be a billion dollar company. But we know that the home advantage is real and that it is not equal in every stadium.

The Vikings had communication errors in Cincinnati, and it may be related to playing in front of a crowded stadium for the first time in over a year. What made this loss so difficult to understand, other than the fact that it came against an inferior opponent, was that it was not played in one of the most hostile environments in the league. The stadium was not full and there was a lot of purple in the crowd.

Likewise, there were a lot of Viking fans in Arizona. Some were transplant recipients living in Phoenix or Scottsdale, but many had traveled from the Twin Cities to watch the game. The Vikings would have loved to play their first two home games, but from all starting points Cincy and Glendale were manageable road games.

Lumen Field must have been 80% Seahawks fans when I was there. It was designed to be loud, making it one of the hardest places for opponents to play. But the same can be said of the Bank. It is closed and rarely has a large number of opposing fans. We didn’t see how Seattle plays at US Bank Stadium because the last time they went to Minneapolis they played Dinkytown.

Look, Seattle is one of the NFL’s model franchises. Pete Carroll and Russell wilson are Super Bowl winners, and they’re still some of the best teams in the NFC. The Vikings are a cut below, of course, in part because they can’t seem to beat teams like the Seahawks.

That may change this week, however. For the first time since the construction of US Bank Stadium, we’ll learn how important a change of venue is.

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