Pittsburgh Steelers 24, Minnesota Vikings 21 | Between the Lines

Pittsburgh Steelers 24, Minnesota Vikings 21 | Between the Lines

[Music] The first ever regular season NFL game in Dublin is over with. The Vikings fall to two and two after losing to the Steelers 24 to 21. This is Between the Lines. I’m Tam Ever. This is Ben Lever. And Ben, despite feeling out of the game there in the beginning, potentially those guys have no quit. This team, it came down to the final play in this one. What when you saw that fourth quarter comeback, the Jordan Addison catch, the Naylor touch, the Naylor two-point conversion, I mean, what what were you thinking? Well, I was thinking like here we go again. I mean, is this just going to be a repeat of game one? And um I think because of that now we’re all thinking that, you know, there is some hope every single game if we’re down that we can pull this thing back together. And so, you know, it was a grinded out sort of game offensively for us. And I know I don’t know if everybody at home was thinking and I don’t know if you were thinking it but I’m like we are one play away in the when the second half started I’m like we’re just one explosive play away from getting them on their heels getting our run game going getting some chemistry and some symmetry and getting into a rhythm and unfortunately that one play happened pretty pretty late. Yeah maybe a little too late maybe so but you you were able to talk to some of the players in the locker room after the loss. What were the sentiments shared that you know head coach Kevin Oonnell addressed to the team? Basically what Adam Thelen and Jonathan Allen told me was it’s about consistency and I think it’s consistency with everything. Um you know now I’m going to kind of interject my own thoughts here. I mean it’s not just about you know being down one game you know or being up in game one being down the second game crushing in the third game and coming out here and losing. You know I think it’s it is about individual play. It is about penalties which happen to be a big part of this game. It is about, you know, not just if we turn the ball over defensively, now we got to take the ball away. It, you know, it can’t come in just spurts and fits at times. And so, I think that consistency is something that you’re going to hear probably throughout the whole week in the media as as far as practice goes, hearing from the players. You know, it’s going to be the constant drum that’s beating uh until we play the Browns. How do you fix consistency, which is just something that obviously is all the little details that go into it, but as a as a coach and player, how do you go in and just say, “This is the thing we need to fix. This is how it’s done.” You know, it’s a great question because consistency can mean a lot of things to different guys. And, you know, you look at the offensive linemen that now have to come in because of injury. You know, it’s going to be about how they approach the game week as a starter. Yeah, you know, it’s going to be different when you’re a backup and and when you’re a starter, you got to ratchet it up a little bit more. And how can you be consistent with your mindset every day now as a starter? Uh so there is no drop off and really for every individual guy. And Adam actually said this, he’s just like it it is one of those things where we do have to look at each other in the mirror. And what what he means by that is you have to take you you get you are allowed to praise yourself for the things that you do well, but you really have to own up to the things that you’re not doing well. And it’s that accountability piece of these players, you know, it comes to consistency is like I’m not doing X, Y, and Z better. Now, now that I’ve recognized that and I own up to it, what’s the plan going forward to fix it? Not just in the game on Sunday, but to fix it for the next day in practice. It’s a really interesting point because I think it you you often hear that kind of coach speak, player speak, but as a player from your perspective, that really is the thing that makes a difference. It’s tough. It’s it’s um it’s a really raw honest assessment of yourself and it’s really hard for a lot of players. I mean, we often will get we’ll get told it through film review as they break down this game tomorrow and the coaches are going to tell them all the goods and the bads. It’s one thing to hear it from the coach. It’s another to believe it in your heart of hearts and understand that he’s he he’s correct, that coach is correct. I do need to fix that. If that’s a problem going forward, then I need to find out ways to get myself better. And it could be like really really little things. It could be your footwork. It could just be your hand placement on a on or off blocks. It could be the way that you catch the football. You know, it could be so minute, but it’s something that you have to own up to. Bright spot today, Justin Jefferson in his most active game of the season so far. Yeah. In fact, he is now third all time in receiving yards for career in this organization passing Anthony Carter. Now, when you think of the activity that JJ had, I mean, his first half he had 97 yards. Uh what what was either the Steelers not doing or the Vikings doing correctly that led to his high production? You know, I think the Steelers defense did a really good job of of not really blitzing when they needed to. They didn’t need to play risky football defensively. They actually played, you know, quite a bit of zone coverage against us. And you saw JJ open quite a bit in just like the short intermediate areas. And it’s like, why are they not being, you know, more sticky? Well, that I to me I think that was intentional. they were just going to play top down defense. They were going to make Carson Wentz and this offense really have to earn every single yard. So, there were plays to be caught. It’s just that we didn’t do enough to break some of those plays. And it was great to get Justin involved. Um, having those those uh, you know, almost 100 yards in the first half was great, but then he disappeared in the third quarter, you know. So, again, it’s about finding consistency within the offense. I think even even with how we we target some of our guys, if they’re going to allow some of those plays, let’s just take take those easy plays and move the chains. The Vikings made history by playing in the first ever NFL game here in Ireland. And now they’ll continue to make history by being the only team to ever play in two different countries in two different weeks. So Ben, we need to Irish goodbye and head our way on to London because now the Vikings will face the Browns at Tottenham Hotsour Stadium a week from today. Please be sure to follow Vikings.com because we will have all of your coverage from the team from across the pond. And uh we look forward to seeing you guys, whoever is able to make it in London.

Vikings Entertainment Network’s Tatum Everett was joined by Ben Leber to break down the Minnesota Vikings loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Dublin during Week 4 of the 2025 NFL season.

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