How penalties, run defense, stadium quirks hurt Vikings in Ireland defeat

The Vikings had all kinds of issues that they couldn't quite overcome in their loss to the Steelers.

Sep 28, 2025; Dublin, IRELAND; Pittsburgh Steelers player Kenneth Gainwell is tackled by Minnesota Vikings player Joshua Metellus in a NFL International Series game at Croke Park. / Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters via Imagn Images

All kinds of things went wrong for the Vikings in their loss to the Steelers on Sunday in Dublin. They almost overcame all of it, but their 24-6 hole was just a bit too big to climb out of in a 24-21 loss that drops them to 2-2 on the season.

Sacks and turnovers were glaring issues. Carson Wentz was sacked six times, with both offensive line injuries and his own tendency to hold onto the ball too long playing into the Steelers' success. On a day where he threw for 350 yards and two touchdowns, Wentz's two deflected interceptions made up much of the difference.

And it certainly doesn't stop there. Let's dive into a few other factors that hurt the Vikings in their Ireland defeat.

Penalties

One of the Vikings' biggest problems through the first month of this season has been in the penalty department. They were called for eight of them against the Steelers, which marks their fourth consecutive game with at least eight penalties. They had eight in each of the first two games, and their whopping 13 penalties last week against the Bengals were easy to overlook in a 38-point win.

As of Sunday afternoon, the Vikings' 37 infractions this season were the most in the NFL.

"Penalties continue to be a critical factor," Kevin O'Connell said. "It's something I've gotta get fixed. Specifically, the pre- and post-snap penalties when we give away yards or we get things stacked against us, creating third and longers for our offense or earned first downs that aren't necessarily happening between the whistles against our defense."

The Vikings had an ineligible man downfield on an early red zone play that led to them setting for a field goal. They had a false start in the second quarter that made a third down even longer. A shameless Steelers flop led to a Byron Murphy Jr. 15-yard flag. There were two special teams penalties, including a holding call that wiped out a 54-yard kickoff return. Dallas Turner picked up a blatant 15-yarder.

And in the final minute, Wentz committed an intentional grounding call to avoid a seventh sack after the Vikings' offensive line failed to pick up a stunt. That was the critical play that ended realistic hopes of getting into field goal range to send the game to overtime. Then, following a spike, Wentz took a delay of game that set the Vikings back five yards in the final seconds.

It's something that absolutely has to be cleaned up moving forward for Minnesota.

Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Run defense

This wasn't a banner day for the Vikings' defense. They allowed the Steelers to rip off nearly six yards per play, didn't force any takeaways, and had just two sacks all day (both from Jalen Redmond). Early on, the biggest issue was Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers' quick passing game. One of the key plays in the game was an 80-yard touchdown where Rodgers got the ball out to DK Metcalf and let his No. 1 wide receiver do the rest.

Over the course of the game, another issue emerged: run defense. The Steelers were without their primary running back in Jaylen Warren, but that didn't stop backup Kenneth Gainwell from piling up 99 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries. This was Gainwell's 70th career game and his first one with more than 78 yards on the ground.

"We hold ourselves to certain standards," safety Josh Metellus said. "When you could get a guy like Aaron Rodgers to sit back there and control the game off of running the ball when they don't even got they starting running back in ... it wasn't like they was hitting us for, like, Bijan (Robinson), 200-yard game, but they did enough to keep them in the drives and make the time of possession even with our offense. We gotta be better, for sure."

The Vikings, largely due to the huge rushing game for the Falcons that Metellus mentioned, have allowed over 130 yards per game on the ground this season — and that's despite holding the Bengals to 53 rushing yards last week.

Jonathan Harrison, Vikings On SI

Stadium quirks

To preface this next section, it should be noted that the Vikings have no excuses for how Sunday's game turned out. They brought that loss upon themselves with poor execution and self-inflicted wounds on both sides of the ball.

With that said, there were a couple things that popped up at Dublin's Croke Park that likely wouldn't have been factors had this game been played in Minneapolis or Pittsburgh or anywhere else stateside.

One of those had to do with the play clock. The Vikings, according to O'Connell, found out just before the game started that the play clock in the end zone would be turned off for the game. That meant Wentz didn't have a play clock to look at, like he normally would, which may have contributed to the delay of game he took on the Vikings' final possession.

"It was a unique thing about coming to play here, 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," O'Connell said. "Normally that clock right in front of the quarterback is registering 'I gotta get going,' and it was just precious time lost."

"Yeah, that was weird, I'm not gonna lie," said Wentz, who took the fault for the delay of game. "It was weird looking behind me, looking over my shoulder on the side. Thought we handled it OK. Obviously, it got us at a very bad time in the game, unfortunately. That was a little different."

The other thing that popped up was that the Vikings slipped a few times on the Irish grass. The most notable example came when Justin Jefferson slipped on a 29-yard reception late in the first half. He was wide open and would've had a shot to make one guy miss for a touchdown on that play if he had kept his footing. Instead, the Vikings settled for a second field goal to make it 14-6.

"It was a little slippery out there," Jefferson said. "But it's not really something that we would put blame on or criticize. We were aware of the surface. It just was a little tricky sometimes, trying to put your foot in the ground and grass coming up."

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