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Vikings 2011 schedule announced

They'll open at San Diego Sept. 11, host the Packers Oct. 23 and travel to Green Bay Nov. 14.

April 20, 2011 at 2:09AM

Vikings safety Madieu Williams (Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

An NFL lockout could mean the Vikings season won't begin on time, but the league is moving forward and released its regular-season schedule on Tuesday. We knew the Vikings' opponents but here are the dates and times of their games.

Week 1 at San Diego, 3:15 p.m., Sept. 11 (Fox)

Week 2 vs. Tampa Bay, noon, Sept. 18 (Fox)

Week 3 vs. Detroit, noon, Sept. 25 (Fox)

Week 4 at Kansas City, noon, Oct. 2 (Fox)

Week 5 vs. Arizona, noon, Oct. 9 (Fox)

Week 6 at Chicago, 7:20 p.m., Oct. 16 (NBC)

Week 7 vs. Green Bay, 3:15 p.m., Oct. 23 (Fox)

Week 8 at Carolina, noon, Oct. 30 (Fox)

Week 9 Bye on Nov. 6

Week 10 at Green Bay, 7:30 p.m., Nov. 14 (ESPN)

Week 11 vs. Oakland, noon, Nov. 20 (CBS)

Week 12 at Atlanta, noon, Nov. 27 (Fox)

Week 13 vs. Denver, 3:05 p.m. Dec. 4 (CBS)

Week 14 at Detroit, noon, Dec. 11 (Fox)

Week 15 vs. New Orleans, noon, Dec. 18 (Fox)

Week 16 at Washington, noon, Dec. 24 (Fox)

Week 17 vs. Chicago, noon, Jan. 1 (Fox)

The Vikings already had released their preseason schedule but here it is again and now it appears all dates are set.

Saturday, Aug. 13 at Tennessee, 7 p.m. (KARE)

Saturday, Aug. 20 at Seattle, TBD (KARE)

Saturday, Aug. 27 vs. Dallas, 7 p.m. (KARE)

Thursday, Sept. 1 vs. Houston, 7 p.m. (KARE)

All the Vikings games will be broadcast by KFAN (1130 AM) and KTLK (100.3 FM). Also, flexible scheduling and the potential for games to be moved to Sunday nights on NBC begins on Nov. 20.

Judd's thoughts: I don't know if it's the lockout, but my excitement about this schedule just wasn't that high. This also might be a result of the Vikings coming off a 6-10 season and getting 11 noon kickoffs. I'm not complaining from a deadline perspective, but there is a definite lack of prime-time appearances.

I do think it's favorable in that there is a nice balance of home and road games. It always seemed weird to me the last two years when there were three-game homestands worked into the schedule. The Vikings only back-to-back home games come in Weeks 2-3 after they open at San Diego and the only back-to-back road games are broken up by a bye.

Having six of the last seven indoors also takes the cold weather element out of play for the most part. That's good for the team but it is always interesting to watch a December game in Chicago or Green Bay.

The Vikings will get a chance to potentially see Cam Newton in Week 8, if the Panthers use the No. 1 overall pick on the quarterback.

As for a potential record, that's really hard to say until we know who is going to be playing quarterback for this team. Righ now, I'd probably put the Vikings on seven victories.

Chip's thoughts: I agree with Judd that the schedule lacks some of the quirkiness that we saw in recent years. They had three straight home games last season (one was moved to Detroit, the other to TCF Bank Stadium). It also lacks stretches where you think the Vikings could be in trouble or get on a roll. Remember the four-game stretch last season: at Jets, home vs. Cowboys, at Packers, at Patriots. This schedule is basically home-away-home-away throughout.

I'm sure the Vikings are happy to have their bye in the middle of the season after eight games as opposed to last season when the break came after three games. That was a long strech to finish the season, especially the way things unfolded.

I also agree with Judd that it's difficult to predict the Vikings potential record because there are so many unknowns between the lockout, their glaring hole at quarterback and so many questions in terms of free agents. The Vikings have gone out of their way to say this is not a rebuilding job but it sure looks that way.