Coaches and players credited the horde of Vikings fans who traveled to Sunday night's loss in Denver, but on the field it still sounded like a road prime-time game to rookie linebacker Ivan Pace Jr.
Pace stepped into the largest role of his young NFL career against the Broncos, replacing team captain Jordan Hicks as the defensive signal caller responsible for relaying coordinator Brian Flores' words to his teammates over the crowd noise. Pace played every snap for the first time in his career and led the Vikings with nine tackles.
"They worked hard last week on the communication on the in-game adjustments," Flores said Tuesday.