No doubt crowd noise is a big advantage. I wonder if our OL would have started better against the Bengals if at US Bank and changed that outcome. I think we are better at home but also worse on the road. The Vikings of the dome era seem much better on turf and indoors (all home, some away) than on grass or outdoors (all road). All outdoor teams have varying advantages of knowing how to deal with their own wind/rain, heat/cold, stadium shadows, cleat selection, etc. They’re good when things are perfect but being adapted to ideal isn’t necessarily an advantage.
Matt E, you bring up an interesting point with the Metrodome-era Vikes teams where the turf vs. grass subject was a regular point of discussion. A lot of those Metrodome teams were built for speed at the cost of size and they often looked like a very different (inferior) group when playing outdoors on grass.
I don't hear that subject come up at all these days for the Vikings or any other teams for that matter. Perhaps that's because the new artificial fields are supposedly much closer to real grass?
That aside, I think there's one point lost here when it comes to home field and the advantages it provides: It doesn't matter whether you're in pee wee, high school, college or the pros, it's all human beings playing the game. And human beings tend to execute better on any task when they have the loud emotional support of several thousand people.
No doubt crowd noise is a big advantage. I wonder if our OL would have started better against the Bengals if at US Bank and changed that outcome. I think we are better at home but also worse on the road. The Vikings of the dome era seem much better on turf and indoors (all home, some away) than on grass or outdoors (all road). All outdoor teams have varying advantages of knowing how to deal with their own wind/rain, heat/cold, stadium shadows, cleat selection, etc. They’re good when things are perfect but being adapted to ideal isn’t necessarily an advantage.
Matt E, you bring up an interesting point with the Metrodome-era Vikes teams where the turf vs. grass subject was a regular point of discussion. A lot of those Metrodome teams were built for speed at the cost of size and they often looked like a very different (inferior) group when playing outdoors on grass.
I don't hear that subject come up at all these days for the Vikings or any other teams for that matter. Perhaps that's because the new artificial fields are supposedly much closer to real grass?
That aside, I think there's one point lost here when it comes to home field and the advantages it provides: It doesn't matter whether you're in pee wee, high school, college or the pros, it's all human beings playing the game. And human beings tend to execute better on any task when they have the loud emotional support of several thousand people.