DUBLIN — It wasn’t simply that the Vikings lost to the Los Angeles Rams in the playoffs roughly 10 months ago. It was the way the Vikings lost, getting absolutely mauled up front.
It wasn’t a fair fight as former quarterback Sam Darnold spent a good chunk of the game peeling himself off the turf.
That prompted head coach Kevin O’Connell to stand at the podium afterward and declare the need to revamp the interior of the offensive line.
That statement served as a compass for the Vikings as they aggressively fortified the trenches from the inside out. They signed center Ryan Kelly to a two-year, $18 million contract, then signed right guard Will Fries to a five-year, $88 million deal. They continued to lean in by selecting left guard Donovan Jackson in the first round of the April draft.
The masterplan this spring was to have Jackson, Kelly, and Fries hold down the fort in the middle while left tackle Christian Darrisaw and right tackle Brian O’Neill served as the bookends.
Not once has that group been healthy enough to play together this fall, and after what happened on Sunday afternoon here at Croke Park, it doesn’t look as if that group is going to play together anytime soon.
To say the Vikings lost more than the game in their 24-21 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday would be an understatement. After losing O’Neill to a knee injury early in the game, they lost center Kelly to a concussion after halftime.
Those injuries forced backup right tackle Justin Skule and backup center Michael Jurgens into action, which at least to some degree played a role in quarterback Carson Wentz being sacked six times. The scary part for the Vikings is that it doesn’t seem like it’s going to get any better in the short term. The initial prognoses for O’Neill and Kelly didn’t sound promising.
The initial fear is that O’Neill injured his medial collateral ligament in his knee. He was set to have imaging done on Sunday night to determine how much time he will have to miss.
“I know he was trying to do everything in his power to tape it up and see if he could go,” O’Connell said. “He’s one of the toughest guys on our team, so I know he would’ve absolutely tried to get back out there if he could.”
The path could be a little more complicated for Kelly as he navigates the aftermath of his fifth documented concussion.
“We’ll totally defer to the doctors and defer to the protocol,” O’Connell said. “Ultimately, we’re going to want to make sure Ryan is in a good place. That’s not anything I particularly ever want to mess around with. We’ll be smart.”
Though he admitted that the loss of O’Neill and Kelly had an effect on the offense, O’Connell refused to use it as an excuse both in the present and in the future. The Vikings are set to play Cleveland next Sunday at Tottenham Stadium in London.
“I expect everybody to be ready to rock and roll,” O’Connell said. “It’s next man up.”
It might be that way for the foreseeable future.
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