Irish

To be a sports fan is to be at the mercy of events beyond control or influence. One day it may lead to elation while another brings misery. Being confounded by the events on fields and courts has been a common occurrence for fans of the Minnesota franchises going back to the first snaps in 1961.

What happened in Ireland is just a blip against the many postseason exits but in the wake of the historic defensive performance one week ago it has more a sting than the average defeat. That's also partly due to the fact that despite the leadership's best efforts, the OL group was shown to be lacking again. Such would be the case for every team dealing with as many injuries as our Purple have been trying to overcome. But the decades of misfortune have a compounding effect, it's just tiring to never have it come easy or smooth.

Every moving piece increases the difficulty of evaluating Carson Wentz. Gone was the veteran calm as Pittsburgh got home for six sacks and closed on two interceptions. A rough day to be sure but opposite Aaron Rodgers, Wentz was still the more prolific passer for the day.

Because he had to be while Rodgers got the wrecking ball of Kenneth Gainwell. Jordan Mason's encore to his breakout game was a pedestrian effort.

Which all adds up to Pittsburgh's defense not being nearly as doomed as many had tried to claim.

Justin Jefferson was really the only one able to find success - yeah, I know Addison had his own breakout but aside from the 81-yard redzone call he was a non-factor in his debut.

Even for all of it, they had a chance to force overtime. That is the moral victory of the otherwise less-than-stellar performance.

That chance came because the defense did enough to keep Minnesota in the game.

Jalen Redmond shined

The rest of the stars muddled-through

So they did enough but I'm still calling it an off-day

But If an off-day finishes with 24 points against then that is the most positive thing to store in the synapses

Now the defense will get a more offensively-challenged operation in London while K.O. will have to figure out some ways to keep Wentz from taking another beating against a defense which has show more than Pittsburgh so far this season. Can he wave a magic wand and make it happen? That is the question for next Sunday.

C-

Managed to make it interesting in the fourth quarter to avoid a failing grade

C

Back down to .500 and with plenty of questions to be answered, being middle of the score may be generous but a D doesn't seem deserved.

Let's hope it stays that way and improves going forward!

What say you?