It was a feel-good game all-around: the Vikings beat the rival Packers on national TV, moved to 2-0, witnessed a fantastic debut by Sam Bradford, saw a repeat star performance from Stefon Diggs, and opened their shiny, new, bird-murdering stadium.
Just one potential hiccup: the fans were so rowdy, and the new building so resonant, that the Vikings offense had trouble hearing the the snap count. Guard Alex Boone gave fans a helpful reminder to keep it quiet when Minnesota has the ball.
“[The crowd noise] was great when the defense was up, it was phenomenal,” Boone said. “When the offense is up, just shut up. I can’t say it any simpler than that. It’s starting to screw us up a little bit.
“It’s loud, for some reason, in the stadium. There’s a lot of times where we can’t hear the center. We could barely hear the snap count today a couple times—a couple false starts, because guys wouldn’t know when the snap was going. I’m not saying it’s the fans’ fault, but I’m just saying, it would be nice if they would shut the fuck up a little bit.”
They were excited! Let the fans be excited, at least until Adrian Peterson’s leg falls off and Bradford goes back to being crap and Diggs falls into a manhole and Blair misses a big kick, you know it’s coming.
And there’s another upside to Vikings fans displaying some pride: they drowned out the visitors.
“Maybe for the first time in my career,” LB Chad Greenway said, “I didn’t hear a lot from the Packers fans during a home game.”