WARE, England — The renowned Hanbury Manor is a sprawling estate tucked away in the English countryside roughly an hour north of London. Maybe escaping the hustle and bustle of the city will help the Vikings recenter themselves amid a disappointing start to this season.

After a frustrating 24-21 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers at Croke Park in Dublin, the Vikings are singularly focused on responding with a good performance against the Cleveland Browns at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on Sunday.

That was the message from head coach Kevin O’Connell on Tuesday morning as he spoke to reporters in a conference room on the property, giving something resembling a State of the Vikings while making it clear that they wouldn’t be defined by the injuries that continue to pile up.

“We’ve had to deal with some adversity as a team,” O’Connell said. “I don’t look at that as anything other than finding whatever path to winning that we have to find.”

What is his confidence in the Vikings being able to do that?

“The most encouraging part is the players and how it feels,” O’Connell said. “They just continue to play and try to find a way for 60 minutes.”

That resilience will be tested in the short term as the Vikings are now battling through a new set of injuries.

Not only will they be without right tackle Brian O’Neill for a while after he was diagnosed with a sprained medial collateral ligament, but they will more than likely play this weekend without edge rusher Andrew Van Ginkel, who continues to work his way through a neck injury, and center Ryan Kelly, who is navigating yet another concussion.

The injuries to O’Neill and Kelly up front help contextualize how pass protection has become arguably the biggest weakness for the Vikings, despite how much they invested in the offensive line last spring.

Whether it’s been young quarterback J.J. McCarthy or veteran quarterback Carson Wentz, the offensive line has struggled to keep them upright, allowing a league-high 18 sacks so far this season.

A deeper dive into the issue shows that the Vikings have been sacked a whopping 14% of the time they drop back to pass. Not often are NFL teams in the double digits when it comes to sack rate, and if they are, they almost never finish with a winning record.

Though some of the struggles stem from McCarthy and Wentz needing to get the ball out sooner, the injuries in the trenches have left the offensive line overmatched virtually every time they walk to the line of scrimmage.

“It’s not always going to be these circumstances,” O’Connell said. “The vision of getting all these guys back on the field together at some point is out there for us.”

In the meantime, Wentz will move forward as the starter this week, and McCarthy will continue to rehab a high ankle sprain with a chance of returning to practice in some capacity later this week.

“As we get into Thursday and Friday, I’m hoping we can at least get him out there (to practice),” O’Connell said. “It will all depend on where he’s at with the benchmarks of being able to go out there and start moving around a little bit.”

It’s unclear whether the Vikings will stick with Wentz for the foreseeable future or go back to McCarthy when he’s back to full strength. Whoever is under center, the Vikings need to be better across the board if they want to salvage this season.

Even if injuries continue to pop up.

“It’s about improvement and consistency, knowing what it’s looked like at times when we’ve been the type of team that we want to be,” O’Connell said. “Regardless of the adversity, we’ve got to try to be that team as much as possible.”

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