Vikings to Play a Half-Game at U.S. Bank Stadium Next Friday

Without any preseason games this year, it's going to be difficult for coaching staffs to get their players fully prepared for Week 1. Normally, those games allow players – especially rookies – to get acclimated with playing in NFL stadiums, both at home and on the road. Even though they don't count towards the standings, preseason games are able to effectively prepare teams for the real thing.

With that in mind, Mike Zimmer and the Vikings are taking several steps during training camp to try to replicate some of that experience. They've already begun practicing game situations, including two-minute drills with makeshift referees, and have pumped in noise through the speakers. With just over three weeks until the opener against the Packers, the Vikings are going to continue to ramp up those game-like scenarios.

This Sunday, the Vikings will play the final ten minutes of a fourth quarter, Zimmer told media members on a video call. Then, next Friday, practice will move from TCO Performance Center in Eagan to U.S. Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis, where the Vikings will play an entire half of a simulated game.

"We’re going to do it exactly how it’s going to be in a game," Zimmer said. "Part of it is, a lot of these guys have never been in the stadium. They’ve never seen the locker room. They don’t know the pregame routine; they don’t really know anything about it. So I’m just trying to acclimate them a little bit to that, and we’ll have the scoreboard going and all the lights and all that stuff, and the crowd noise that they’ll hear during the game."

"You know, these kids have never seen a 12-minute halftime before. So we’re just going to do all those – try to get them as used to it as they possibly can so the first day it’s not a shock."

When the Vikings do take the field against the Packers on September 13th, at least it won't be the first time their rookies have ever been inside U.S Bank Stadium. It'll still be strange, though. The team is hoping to have fans allowed at some point this season, but it's unlikely that'll happen early on.

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