THE LION’S DEN — Maybe you have heard some of the tales about Philadelphia Eagles fans.
If you look up “Eagles fans” and let Google fill in the rest, the suggestions are: Throw batteries, boo Santa Claus, flip car and throw snowballs. They cheered Michael Irvin getting seriously hurt. An Eagles fan once set off a flare in the stands. They installed a jail in the stadium in 1998.
Those are just the incidents everyone talks about.
When Minnesota Vikings fans traveled there in 2017, there were stories of fans in purple getting insults and beers hurled in their direction in the parking lot, one player’s mom being mocked in the stands after her son got injured and there was that memorable “F— Millie” sign outside making fun of a 99-year-old Vikings fan.
They greased the light poles to discourage fans from climbing them. On local TV a fan memorably screamed “Big D— Nick stepped the f— up.”
It’s quite different from the friendly Midwest tailgates where Vikings and Packers fans share brats outside of Lambeau Field and passive aggressively hint to opposing fans that their team might lose that day. Walking through the Lambeau parking lot a few years back and I recall hearing a Packers fan shout at someone wearing purple, “Hey, the Vikings suck… just messing with you, have a fun time today guys.”
It’s clear the experience for traveling Vikings faithful is more treacherous when heading to the East Coast but is the atmosphere inside The Linc outside the norm for players?
It turns out the answer is yes.
“It’s a really tough place to play,” former Viking Jeremiah Sirles said on the Purple Insider podcast. “The fans are just brutal. You can flush stuff out but when they’re right behind you and it’s all game and it’s constant and they are just berating you over and over. You see guys lose it on the sideline in Philly all the time because there is no line. The fans have no line that they won’t step over, they will say whatever they feel can get in your head the most and they are proud of it.”
Vikings tight end TJ Hockenson remembers his first trip to Philly in 2019 as a member of the Detroit Lions.
“You walk out of the tunnel and there is things being thrown at you, there is a lot of stuff happening in that stadium,” Hockenson said.
The Vikings are aware that Week 2 in particular will be turned up to 11. Not only is it the Eagles’ home opener, the game is on national TV. Offensive coordinator Wes Phillips points out that the timing leaves quite the opportunity for fans to prepare for the contest.
“It is a very hostile environment, they have very passionate fans and maybe they will have a few beverages by the time the Thursday night game gets kicked off,” Phillips said. “It will be rowdy.”
How does it actually impact the game though?
Along the offensive line the noise can be an issue in the biggest moments.
“They have such success at home [rushing the passer] because they are keying on the ball and it’s loud it’s rowdy and the crowd is into it,” Sirles said. “As an offensive linemen you are trying to peak out there to Brandon Graham who’s four yards outside of you and also look inside at the ball and time it at the same time. It’s hard, especially if you get behind. If you get behind in Philly, you are pretty much toast.”
Without center Garrett Bradbury in the game and with the Eagles grading as the No. 1 pass rush team in the NFL by PFF in Week 1, there is an extra layer of challenges with the noise element added in.
But Hockenson said the team can use the atmosphere as a galvanizing factor.
“With the crowd noise you have to be intentionally listening to everything going on,” the veteran tight end said. “It brings the unit together, we’re all looking forward to it.”
“Most of the teams I’ve been with embrace that,” Phillips said. “It’s an us-against-everybody type feel when you go into a hostile environment and we expect the guys to respond the right way.”
With the Vikings sitting at 0-1 after a rough loss to Tampa Bay, there is nothing they need more than a bounce-back win against the 2022 NFC Champs to get the season rolling. Special teams coordinator Matt Daniels said that can happen if the Vikings can get the crowd flustered early in the game.
“The thing about Philly is that their own fans will turn their back on their own team,” Daniels said. “How quickly can we turn the crowd against them? We have to get off to a fast start and do a great job of out-physical’ing them. We need to play our style of ball and see if we can take the crowd out of it early.”
Getting off to a good start would also benefit the inexperienced players who haven’t felt the wrath of The Linc before. Hockenson mentioned that he’s going to offer some friendly advice to rookie Jordan Addison, who could play a key role with the Eagles putting star Darius Slay on Justin Jefferson.
“I’ll talk to [Addison] about, get your mind right because those guys are nuts,” Hockenson said. “It’s fun. It makes it a special place because of the competitive nature of all of us… the passion is real.”
By the numbers, it would appear the advantage is real too. Since 2013, the Eagles are 53-33-1 with a plus-453 point differential at home. That’s the sixth best differential and they are third in points against over the last decade. On the road they are 45-40-0 with a mere plus-49 differential and rank 25th in points against away from The Linc. The Eagles are third in sacks since 2013 when playing at home and 11th when on the road.
The Vikings have gone 20-22-1 away from US Bank Stadium since Kirk Cousins joined the team in 2018 and they rank 10th in road points scored. Cousins is 45-28-0 in his career at home and 29-39-2 away and Justin Jefferson averages 14 fewer yards and has a 9% lower completion percentage on throws his way on the road.
Not that any of that locks in Eagles as winners. It merely says that the Vikings are facing an uphill battle by being in Philly’s madhouse and it will require that much more resilience to get their season on track.
“You can’t let all that get to you,” Hockenson said.
