Week 1 at Tennessee Titans (Sunday Sept. 11, 12 PM CT, Fox)
The Vikings kick off the 2016 regular season with a trip to Tennessee to visit the Titans. The Vikings certainly will want to get off to a better start than they did in 2015, when they went to San Francisco and got their butts whupped.
The Titans struggled last year as their 3-13 record showed, but again as we learned last year with San Francisco, it’s not a good idea to under-estimate a supposedly “bad” opponent. There’s every reason to believe that Tennessee will be an improved team in 2016, with Marcus Mariota going into his second season.
Tennessee and head coach Mike Mularkey will definitely be amped up and looking to send a message by knocking off a playoff team in their season opener in front of their home fans. Knowing Mike Zimmer, I’m sure the Vikings will be more mentally prepared for this game than they were for their horrible 2015 opener against the 49ers.
Yes I keep bringing up that San Francisco game. That was a tough pill to swallow and even all these months later, it’s difficult to understand how the Vikes managed to come out and lay such a huge egg against a team they should have been able to handle. The Vikes will be favored against Tennessee but I’m sure they will downplay that big-time.