The Minnesota Vikings will take to the road in Weeks 4 and 5, and it’s an awfully long road, at that.
Yes, this coming Sunday will bring us the first half of the purple’s two-game sojourn to the European continent, and it will start off with the first-ever National Football League game at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland, as they face off with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Both of these teams come into this matchup with 2-1 records, with each of them winning their season opener, losing in Week 2, and getting back on track with victories in Week 3. Even though this is, at least on paper, a home game for the Steelers, the Vikings have been installed as a slight favorite in the early betting.
The last time these teams got together was a wild one on a Thursday night at U.S. Bank Stadium in 2021. The Vikings got a marvelous performance from Dalvin Cook, who ran for over 200 yards despite dealing with a shoulder injury, and held a 29-0 lead over the Steelers until just before the two-minute mark of the third quarter, when Pittsburgh finally dented the end zone. The comeback was on for the Steelers after that as they ran off three fourth-quarter touchdowns, and the game’s final play saw Harrison Smith knock away what could have been a potential game-tying touchdown pass to Pat Friermuth to preserve a 36-28 Minnesota win.
This isn’t even the first time these two teams have met overseas. They got together at Wembley Stadium in London in 2013, and the Vikings took a 20-10 lead into halftime on the strength of a 70-yard touchdown pass from Matt Cassel to Greg Jennings and a 60-yard touchdown run for Adrian Peterson. The Vikings had to hold off another Pittsburgh comeback to finish things off, as Ben Roethlisberger led the Steelers down to the Minnesota 6-yard line with time running down. The game ended when Roethlisberger was sacked by Everson Griffen, with Kevin Williams falling on the loose ball to save a 34-27 victory for the purple.
A quick reminder that this one will be kicking off early, as will the Week 5 contest against the Cleveland Browns. Kickoff is slated for 8:30 AM Central time on Sunday morning for both games, and both games will be aired exclusively on the NFL Network, though we will provide you with the local broadcast options for those of you in the Twin Cities area.
We’ll be bringing you all of the coverage of this one, folks, and we’ll put it all in one spot for you.
