Jeremy: Toughen Up, Lose The Dome

I was cozied up on the couch in my comfy pants, my favorite hooded sweatshirt and a comforter as I watched Daunte and the Vikes drive down the field on their first possession against the Bears earlier today. It was a good drive. Balanced, time consuming, several players were involved. I was comfortable with my position on the couch and with the way the boys were playing. I thought to myself "Wow, they really look like they've figured it out!"
But, as often happens when I'm cheering on any of my beloved Minnesota teams, I forgot who I was watching, and the next thing I knew Daunte threw an interception, and the reality of being a Vikings fan would set in heavily over the next 3 hours.
On a mild late fall day in Chicago, despite Daunte's best efforts, the offense never found any momentum. They had three long, time-consuming drives that ended with zero points. The defensive pass rush was good, but as a whole we made yet another terrible, inexperienced quarterback look like a pro-bowler. And turnovers were a problem all day.
During the Mike Tice era the Vikings are 1-12 in outdoor games. 0-5 in 2002, 1-4 in 2003, and 0-3 so far this year. The Vikes DID beat the Texans at Reliant Stadium in Houston this year, which has a retractable roof, but I'm not sure if the roof was open or closed that day. Nonetheless, it took them overtime to win the game.
Trend?
The truth is that this isn't a new problem. The Vikings have never played well on the road, especially outside. Since the Denny Green years this team has been built for speed and finesse on astroturf with an emphasis on the offensive side of the ball.
But this might be the single most glaring problem that the Vikings have: they just aren't tough mentally or physically.
The lack of toughness comes through in many areas of the game. If the Vikings get behind early in a ballgame, you can bet that they won't have the intestinal fortitude to make a comeback. As stated before, anytime they have to play outside, they have almost no ability to adjust, and if it's even a little bit cold forget about it. The defensive line is built for a speed pass rush, but they are too small and the translation is that their run defense is just about the worst in the league. Anytime an opposing offensive line can get physical with our D-linemen, like the Bears did on Sunday, our guys are so tired by the end of the game that we might as well throw the practice squad on the field.
I've never been one to get involved in the stadium debate. I'm a huge Vikings fan, so I'd love to see them get a new stadium, but if it has to be funded by public dollars, I'm just not sure that I support it. Red McCombs wants a retractable roof stadium, but despite the fact that he bought this franchise for next to nothing, relative to other pro sports teams, because the stadium revenue was so low, he doesn't want to put a penny into a new building.
I do not support Red as the owner of the Vikings, but I am now placing myself squarely on the bandwagon carrying the folks who are pulling for a new Vikings stadium... with a couple of qualifications.
I think the Vikings should get a new stadium, but I think it should be an outdoor venue with no retractable roof.
Look at the Packers. Lambeau Field is probably the toughest place to play in the entire NFL. Part of that has to do with the amount of paint thinner Packer fans huff before each game. But the biggest advantage the Packers gain at Lambeau, especially late in the season, is that they are acclimated to the weather conditions and they are tough enough to play through those conditions when most teams are not. An outdoor stadium would give the Vikes a similar advantage and help them when they have to go on the road and play outdoors.
Right now the Vikings play a minimum of 9 games in domed stadiums each year (8 home games and one game in Detroit). Many years they also play games in other cities with domes like Seattle and St. Louis. But even if you could guarantee that they would win all of the games that they play in domes that would still be roughly just over half of their games, which would put them, at best, in the middle of the pack in the NFC.
In order to get to the level of the elite teams in the NFL you need to be able to produce double-digit win seasons year in and year out. They are nowhere near that level right now and it is my opinion that until Red & Tice can figure out how to toughen the team up they might ever get to that level. When the stadium finally does get approved, committing to an outdoor stadium, and getting back to the tough, hard-nosed football that the Vikings of the 70's were known for, is a good start down that road.