The Vikings' beleaguered pass defense isn't the only facet of the team that will face its stiffest challenge of the season at Pittsburgh on Sunday.

Kicker Ryan Longwell must take on the notoriously bad kicking conditions of Heinz Field, where the grass and wind are as natural and unpredictable as the Metrodome is sterile. It's not even Halloween yet, and the grass between the hash marks is being replaced this week.

"The surface is rough because you have high school games that are played there on Friday nights, and Pitt plays there, too, on Saturdays," Longwell said. "I know Pitt has a game this Saturday that's probably going to be in a rain storm. And then we have to play there on Sunday."

Steelers kicker Jeff Reed made a 50-yard field goal there in 2006. No one has made one longer than that since the stadium was opened in 2001.

"There's never been a 50-yard field goal into the open end," Long-well said. "It's angled toward the [Allegheny River], which is a nice view. But you get a lot of wind in your face there."

The Vikings haven't played a regular-season game at Heinz Field since 2001, before Longwell joined the team. Longwell, however, was with the Vikings when they played a preseason game there in 2006. He has made 11 of 12 field-goal attempts this season.

Passing fancy in the NFL The NFL has pointed out that it's on pace to pass for more yards this season than any other in its history.

The record is 109,725 -- or 428.6 per game -- in 2007. Through six weeks this season, the league is averaging 438.8 yards passing per game. That would give it more than 112,000 for the season.

Brock and Brett You're probably sitting there wondering what Dieter Brock and Brett Favre have in common, right?

Well, if the Vikings beat the Steelers on Sunday, Favre will tie Brock for the most consecutive victories to start a season with a new team. Brock won his first seven with the Los Angeles Rams in 1985.

Favre is tied for second with John Hadl of the 1973 Los Angeles Rams, Craig Morton of the 1977 Broncos and Kyle Orton of the 2009 Broncos. Orton and the Broncos have a bye this week.

Dome field advantage? The Wall Street Journal did a story recently on whether dome teams have an unfair advantage. Yeah, the Rams (0-6) and Lions (1-5) play in domes, but when you have a story idea, sometimes you just gotta run with it. As the paper notes, the Vikings, Colts and Saints are dome teams that are undefeated overall, while Atlanta, another dome team, is 3-0 at home.

"If you can design the right type of offense in a dome, it's incredibly hard to defend," Darrel (Mouse) Davis, a former NFL offensive coordinator who specialized in the Run-and-Shoot offense, told the paper.

Only two dome teams have won the Super Bowl: the 1999 Rams and the 2006 Colts.