Jacksonville Jaguars at Minnesota Vikings: Key information and first quarter discussion

We are one hour away from the penultimate home game of the 2020 NFL season for your Minnesota Vikings, as they will play host to the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 13 NFL action. Three of the Vikings’ final four games are on the road, and they need to win this one and their Week 15 matchup with Chicago just to break even at U.S. Bank Stadium this year, so hopefully they can get that done.

Here’s everything you need to know about today’s game.

Date and Time: Sunday, 6 December, 2020, noon Central time

Location: U.S. Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Television Coverage: WCCO-4 in the Twin Cities, CBS affiliates around the country, DirecTV Channel 707

Radio Coverage: Vikings Radio Network, Sirius Channel 81, XM Channel 226, SiriusXM App Channel 820

Line: Vikings -10, Over/Under 51.5

Chris’ Prediction: Vikings 34, Jaguars 20

Three Keys

1) Don’t get cocky, kid - The Vikings come into this one as double-digit favorites at home, a situation they’ve found themselves in a couple of times over the past few seasons. Those situations have not gone terribly well for the Vikings. This is a game that they should win, but they’re not a good enough team at this point to assume that they can win just by showing up. They need to come out with fire and get things going early.

2) Open up the offense - The Jaguars’ defense is pretty bad against both the pass and the run. Adam Thielen will be back in the lineup this week, and Justin Jefferson continued his great rookie season last week in Thielen’s absence. The Vikings have enough weapons where they shouldn’t have to lean on Dalvin Cook quite as much as they have, but this team needs to come out aggressive.

3) Keep improving on special teams - Against a team like the Jaguars, the Vikings can’t afford to give up extra possessions and give them an opportunity to stay close. Special teams can give Jacksonville the opportunity to do just that, so the Vikings’ specialists need to be smart in their returns and make sure tackles when the purple are kicking or punting to keep from giving the Jaguars more opportunities.

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As is our wont, we will have a brand new discussion thread starting at the beginning of each quarter, so keep an eye out for those and keep the conversation moving accordingly.

Other than that, here’s hoping that today is the kind of game that we rarely see from our favorite football team. . .a game that they should win that they actually go out and win without any drama or last-minute insanity. We’ll be back here when it’s over to talk about it.

SKOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL VIKINGS!!!!