Adaptability to crazy world events
This one oversteps the realm of football. For the foreseeable future, the Vikings will not have fans at U.S. Bank Stadium, and this casts home-field advantage into jeopardy. No one knows what home-field advantage will feel like, if there will be one at all, or if the advantage chugs along without missing a beat. In the last five years, Minnesota is the NFL’s third-best team at home and eighth-best team on the road. Contrary to popular belief, the Vikings are not doomed if home-field advantage dissipates. However, the team is extremely successful at U.S. Bank Stadium. They’re elite at home and damn good on the road. The win-loss records don’t lie.
Not to be considered an afterthought, there is also the element of losing players for two to three weeks at a time. If Vikings players contract COVID-19, they will be disqualified from active team activities for at least two weeks. It’s the plight of every sports team and seemingly each American, if not human, everywhere right now. How long does it take to recover? What are the lingering side effects? These are the questions that anyone beset by the virus encounters.
From a football standpoint, it will be a matter of which teams overcome adversity more efficiently.