What We Learned About the Vikings in Emotionally Draining Loss vs Steelers

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Minnesota Vikings vs Pittsburgh Steelers - NFL - Croke Park Views
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Minnesota Vikings fans woke up on Sunday excited for some early morning action. I mean, what could be better than football with your weekend coffee? There was really no reason for pessimism, either.

The Vikings came into week 4’s matchup in Dublin previously undefeated internationally, and coming off an extremely convincing victory over the Bengals in week 4. On top of that, the Steelers have struggled over the past two weeks to move the ball on offense and stop it on defense.

What We Learned – Minnesota Vikings vs Pittsburgh Steelers (Wk 4)

Of course, NFL games are not played on paper or by panelists at ESPN. And “any given Sunday” is cliche for a reason. Because it’s true. And from pretty the opening whistle in Ireland, the Minnesota Vikings looked like a shell of the team we saw mop up the Bengals just one week ago.

After falling behind by 18 points entering the 4th quarter, the Vikings’ lights turned on. But they ran out of juice in the expiring moments, outscoring the Steelers 15-3 in the final period, but still falling 24-21, when the clock hit 00:00. In the end, it was a dragging, depressing loss… with a flash of late-game devastation thrown in.

Vikings offensive line issues made worse by more injuries

Their struggles started on the offensive line, mostly due to injury. Ryan Kelly returned this week, after sitting out one week with a concussion. Unfortunately, he was pulled in the first half after suffering his second concussion of the season and fifth of his career.

Minnesota’s issues up front became desperate, however, when Brian O’Neill suffered a knee injury while blocking for a field goal attempt. With Donovan Jackson out coming into this game, after undergoing wrist surgery on Monday, the Vikings o-line played most of week 4 with backups at left guard, center and right tackle.

That led to Carson Wentz being under fire all morning. The Pittsburgh Steelers piled up 6 sacks on the day, along with 13 total QB hits. While the newly acquired veteran created plenty of his own problems (keep reading), it’s difficult to foresee any Vikings quarterback having success with the type of pressure Pittsburgh was getting today.

While injuries are mostly contributed to luck, the MN Vikings do not get to hide behind that excuse. They were the ones laughing off the risk of signing so many players who have had issues staying on the field during their career.

Now here we are, just a month into the season, and half of those oft-injured players are not contributing, including LB Blake Cashman, C Ryan Kelly and EDGE Andrew Van Ginkel. And while right guard Will Fries has remained healthy, he has not been the dominant interior presence we were sold on this offseason.

Inconsistent Minnesota Vikings defense

Let’s go back to that paper we were talking about earlier. Because when you look at the boxscore from Vikings vs Steelers, you will see a game where Minnesota was the better team in many categories.

Minnesota totalled more yards (372) than Pittsburgh (313). The Vikings also won the time of possession battle pretty decisively 33:34 to 26:18 and ran 19 more plays than the Steelers. But a closer look starts to unveil the story of Sunday’s contest.

After a slow start on the ground, backup running back Kenneth Gainwell and the Pittsburgh rushing game got going as the afternoon in Dublin wore on, eventually totalling 131 yards to the Vikings’ 70. And while Minnesota’s defense held Aaron Rodgers to 200 yards and just 1 touchdown, they failed to turn the Steelers over even once.

Overall, just like too many games so far this season, the Minnesota Vikings defense gave up too much, even if they weren’t the biggest reason for a loss. This team desperately misses Blake Cashman, but the former Gopher cannot be relied on to stay healthy, a reality that continues to bite Brian Flores & Co in the butt.

The Carson Wentz rollercoaster is a wild ride

All in all, Carson Wentz gutted out a performance overseas on Sunday that deserves more praise than it does ridicule. He was dealing with half of an offensive line that, for much of the first three quarters, couldn’t block anybody.

He finished the game 30-of-46 (65.2%) for 350 yards and 2 touchdowns. But there were way too many times where he should have gotten rid of the football and didn’t. He also makes decisions, every once in a while, that leave those watching wondering wtf he is thinking.

More time in the MN Vikings offense will help Carson Wentz settle in, but his performance next weekend in London will likely go a long way in deciding how quickly Kevin O’Connell hurries the injured JJ McCarthy back onto the active roster, out of the bye week.

Don’t look now, but during the game, a report came out that the Vikings may play McCarthy as their scout QB during practice this week, not only to give the No. 1 defense a really good look, but also to test his readiness to get back under center.

No matter what the Minnesota Vikings decide to do at QB in the near future, you’d rather choose as a 3-2 team than a 2-3 team, especially given that they have a gauntlet schedule out of the bye (Eagles, @ Chargers, @ Lions, Ravens).

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