Buccaneers At Vikings: Game Time, Broadcast Info, And More

The Minnesota Vikings and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have the NFL stage all to themselves tonight at the Metrodome in Minneapolis, as they will clash in this week's Thursday Night Football match-up. Let's take a look at all the particulars.

Kickoff Time: With this being the Vikings' only (scheduled) prime-time appearance of 2012, kickoff is scheduled for 7:20 PM Central time. We'll have the Game Thread and the inactive lists up by about 6 PM Central or so.

Broadcast Info: This game will be handled by the NFL Network, meaning that the announcing team will be comprised of Brad Nessler and Mike Mayock. Vikings fans should be pretty familiar with Mayock, as he had been working Vikings' pre-season games for a few years prior to this season. For those of you that do not have the NFL Network in the Twin Cities area, I'm of the understanding that the game will also be carried on KARE-11.

Our Canadian friends will be able to see this game on SportsNet One, while our British friends can see this one on Sky Sports. For our men and women serving overseas, you can catch this one on AFN Xtra. For the military folks, coverage starts at approximately 0200 on Friday morning in Central Europe, 0430 in Afghanistan, and 0900 if you're in Japan or Korea. As Robin Williams once intoned in Good Morning, Vietnam, the "0" stands for "Oh my God, that's early."

Radio Info: Once again, you'll have to find your local Vikings Radio Network affiliate, with the flagship station being KFAN-FM 100.3. On the satellite radio side of things, you'll be able to find the game on XM Channel 226 for the Vikings Radio Network feed, or on Channel 88 (Sirius NFL Radio) for the Dial Global Network national feed. If you have a Sirius radio, the Vikings' feed is on Channel 93, with the Buccaneers feed on Channel 92 and the Dial Global national feed again on Channel 88.

Weather Info: By the time kickoff comes around tonight, temperatures in the Twin Cities will be down in the upper 30s to lower 40s with winds out of the northwest at around 20 miles per hour. However, since this game is taking place inside of the Metrodome, that's not going to affect any of the on-field action.

Full disclosure for this one. . .yours truly is here in a billeting room that does not include the NFL Network as part of its cable package, and apparently is not close enough to Tampa to be considered "Buccaneers territory." So, barring some kind of fluke where I flip around the channels prior to kickoff and find this game on one of the local affiliates, I'll be stuck with the audio feed for this one. So, my reactions and stuff might be a bit behind most of you out there. However, we will persevere, and we will bring you the same great coverage you've come to expect from us. This will be the only week that I have this issue, thankfully.

We're. . .checks watch. . .about nine hours from kickoff at the Metrodome, folks. I know I'm already excited for this one. I hope that you are, too, as we get closer to a prime-time edition of Minnesota Vikings football.