We are just about an hour away from the start of Thursday Night Football from Lincoln Financial Field, as our Minnesota Vikings will do battle with the Philadelphia Eagles. Here’s everything you need in order to be ready for tonight’s contest.

Date and Time: Thursday, 14 September, 7:15 PM Central time

Location: Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Television Coverage: Amazon Prime Video, KMSP-9 in the Twin Cities

Radio Coverage: Vikings Radio Network, SiriusXM Channel 230 (Vikings feed), SiriusXM App Channel 820

Line: Vikings +6.5, Over/Under 49

Chris’ Prediction: Eagles 27, Vikings 17

Three Keys

1) Keep the interior pressure off of Kirk Cousins – The Eagles’ defensive front is one of the best in the National Football League. The Vikings’ interior offensive line. . .isn’t. And they’ll be without center Garrett Bradbury in this one, which will only make things worse. The Vikings are going to have to keep QB1 upright in this one, which could be a tall order against this Eagles’ defense.

2) Get pressure on Jalen Hurts – Hurts has proven himself to be one of the league’s elite quarterbacks, but he’s still susceptible to pressure. In Week 1, the Vikings had the highest blitz rate in the NFL, which is something that we expected to see under Brian Flores. Expect more of the same tonight, and the Vikings are going to have to get home to have a chance in this one.

3) Win on special teams – When you’re the underdog, special teams plays are a way to try to gain a bit of an advantage or some momentum at key times. The special teams for the Vikings were pretty good against the Buccaneers, and they’re going to have to keep that up against the Eagles. If they can steal a possession or two, they might have a puncher’s chance tonight.

Know the Foe: Bleeding Green Nation

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Here are our picks for this evening’s game, powered by the folks from Tallysight. Lines might vary slightly from person to person depending on when picks were entered into the system.

There you have it, folks! As always, we’ll have a new Open Thread firing up at the start of each quarter, so keep your eye out for those and keep the discussion moving along in an orderly manner.

Here’s hoping that in about three hours or so we can all talk about the purple pulling off an epic upset. I wouldn’t bet on it or anything, but stranger things have happened before.

SKOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL VIKINGS!!!!