We’ve finally made it back to honest-to-God regular season NFL football, ladies and gentlemen. The 2018 regular season will kick off on Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium, as the Minnesota Vikings will play host to the San Francisco 49ers.
The Niners are one of the more intriguing teams in the NFL going into this season, due in large part to the way they finished the 2017 season. They started out with a 1-10 record, but after handing the offense over to Jimmy Garoppolo, they reeled off five straight wins to finish the season. They attempted to add to that offense during the offseason by signing former Vikings’ running back Jerick McKinnon, but “Jet” tore an ACL in practice just a few days ago and will be out for the season.
As far as the Vikings. . .well, everybody knows what the expectations here are, and they’re through the proverbial ceiling. After coming within one game of playing in the Super Bowl last season, the team went and upgraded on both sides of the ball with quarterback Kirk Cousins and defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson joining the team. Minnesota is on the short list of teams that are expected to be Super Bowl contenders once again in a loaded NFC, and this Sunday is going to be the first step towards realizing that dream.
We’ll have plenty of stuff for you on the first regular season game of 2018, and we’ll be keeping it all in one place here for your reading pleasure.