Injuries to right tackle Brian O’Neill, center Ryan Kelly further deplete Vikings offensive line

DUBLIN — On Sunday, the Vikings used their third starting offensive line combination in four games. Next Sunday, they could be headed for another change.

Right tackle Brian O’Neill left Sunday’s 24-21 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers with a knee injury he suffered when Will Reichard kicked a first-quarter field goal. O’Neill will have a magnetic resonance imaging exam Monday to determine the severity of the injury, Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said.

O’Connell said afterward that it sounded like the Vikings’ medical staff was “talking about his MCL [medial collateral ligament].”

“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 have absolutely tried to get back out there as quick as he could. We’ll evaluate him and see where he’s at.”

Center Ryan Kelly also sustained his second concussion of the season, the fifth documented concussion of his career. Kelly had returned from the concussion protocol for Sunday’s game, after missing last week’s win over Cincinnati. His history of head injuries could lead to larger questions for the Vikings as they try to plan for the 32-year-old’s return. Four of his concussions have come since 2023.

“The health of our players is always the beginning, the middle and the end of that conversation, so we’ll totally defer to the doctors, defer to the protocol, and, ultimately, we’ll make sure Ryan’s in a good place,” O’Connell said. “That’s not anything I ever want to mess around [with], so we’ll be smart. It’s definitely not my lane to weigh in on those things until the medical staff [does] or we get to that place.”

Second-year center Michael Jurgens replaced Kelly for the second time this season, while Justin Skule (who started the Vikings’ first two games at left tackle) stepped in for O’Neill. At one point in the third quarter, when Jurgens was in the medical tent for an injury evaluation, the Vikings prepared to start a series with Blake Brandel moving from left guard to center and Joe Huber stepping in at left guard, only for Brandel to return to left guard once Jurgens was able to return to the game during a TV timeout before the start of the series.

Carson Wentz was sacked six times Sunday and took an intentional grounding penalty while trying to evade pressure on the Vikings’ last drive. Also, two tipped passes of his were intercepted. Darrisaw was flagged for a false start, and Fries was called for an ineligible man downfield penalty.

“Obviously [losing O’Neill], it has some effect on the execution, but I don’t look at it as anything more than the next man up,” O’Connell said. “We’ve got to consistently do some more simple things early on in the game, from the standpoint of doing our job.”

O’Connell said the Vikings found out “about three minutes before the game” that the field-level play clocks at Croke Park would be turned off during the NFL’s first game in Dublin. It meant that instead of looking straight ahead through the middle of the defense to see how much time was left to snap the ball, quarterbacks would have to turn to the ribbon boards between the lower and upper decks to see the play clock.

It became a factor at the end of the game, when the Vikings were penalized for delay of game after spiking the ball on third down as they tried to get in range for a game-tying field goal. Wentz pointed to the end zone as O’Connell signaled for officials to reset the play clock; the penalty put the Vikings in a fourth-and-17 situation, and Wentz threw incomplete.

“We were dealing with the play clock,” O’Connell said. “It was a unique thing about coming to play here, and then you find out about three minutes before the kickoff that that end zone’s game clock and play clock would be turned off for the day. Trying to go as fast as we can, and the coach-quarterback system went out there at 15 seconds. Normally you have that clock right in front of the quarterback, it’s kind of registering, ‘I’ve got to get going,’ and it was just precious time lost. We’re trying to get as detailed of a play off as we possibly can to account for a lot of things: help on the edges, making sure we get things up front to give us a chance on the play to let our guys get downfield. That was a critical, critical penalty.”

The play clock affected the end of the game, and Justin Jefferson missed out on a touchdown before halftime when he slipped while trying to turn the corner on a 29-yard completion from Wentz.

“It was a little slippery out there, but it’s not really something we would put blame on or criticize,” Jefferson said. “It was just a little tricky sometimes trying to put your foot in the ground with grass coming up. I feel like, all in all, we still got to be able to run our routes and still won a good bit on our routes.”

Vikings players had mostly positive things to say about their Dublin experience. Safety Josh Metellus thanked the city for its hospitality as he said goodbye to Irish reporters Sunday, and Jefferson said the atmosphere from the 74,512 in attendance was “electric.”

The Steelers were the home team in a game that late owner Dan Rooney tried for years to bring to the country of his ancestry. Steelers fans made up a majority of the crowd Sunday, and the team brought familiar elements from its home games to Dublin, unfurling a custom “Terrible Towel” with an Irish flag during player introductions and playing Styx’s “Renegade” — a tradition at Steelers home games — at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said he was surprised by how many fans were in the stands two hours before kickoff.

For his part, the future Hall of Famer said the Croke Park playing surface was “pristine” and added he hoped the NFL would make games in Dublin an annual occurrence.

“We had a nice sunny Irish day. I feel like a normal Irish day is overcast and drizzling,” he said. “I thought it was extra, extra nice today. The whole experience was fantastic. Shoutout to the country and everybody who made this happen. Win or lose, I would have said the same thing. I just felt like the reception from the people here was outstanding.”