Christian Ponder Improving

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Purple bruise
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Re: Christian Ponder Improving

Post by Purple bruise »

jackal wrote:If he can lay anywhere near where he did on a consistent basis we finally have a NFL QB and not a old man one year gap fill project.

I still think he reminds me of Steve Young a lot with a little bit of Rich Gannon mixed in for good measure.
I see a lot of a Rogers/Brees type potential.
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Delaqure
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Re: Christian Ponder Improving

Post by Delaqure »

I love it! Ponder had improved everyweek. With three games under his belt he has played very well. This is exactly what I was hoping for. Guys we have our quarterback! He certainly is not a bust and has huge potential going forward. Most likely he won't continue this trend without some bumps. Sooner or later he's going to throw some picks and some of you are going to wail and whine about how rotten he is. To you I say "Aw Nuts"

This kid has huge potential and I look forward to him getting Simpson back and the ability to stretch the field a bit. I think that's where he is actually going to get some picks trying to get the ball down field more. Hopefully he'll learn from that too. For now GO PONDER! :v):
hibbingviking
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Re: Christian Ponder Improving

Post by hibbingviking »

Not sure how much of it is because of the improvement of the offensive line but ponder is looking pretty good. Better than luck or RG3. Hope it continues. Most raised there eyebrows when he was drafted so.high including myself
DanAS
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Re: Christian Ponder Improving

Post by DanAS »

Purple bruise wrote:
Just out of curiousity, what are the other skills that you mentioned that he did not show :?:
He wasn't called upon to throw long. But again, that wasn't meant as a criticism. He played well in this game. He did what he had to do.
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Re: Christian Ponder Improving

Post by John_Viveiros »

PurpleMustReign wrote:My biggest concern is how he doesn't seem to look past his first or second reads. I think. I guess, on his second TD to Rudolph, AD was WIDE open. Easy 6. But he threw the floater to Rudolph.
I have Rudolph in my fantasy league. I'm in a tight battle this week. I'm ahead a TD, with Marshawn Lynch tonight against my opponent's Aaron Rodgers. I needed the Rudolph TD!

For as maligned as the Vikings were at the beginning of the season, you can do pretty well in your fantasy league with Ponder, Peterson, Harvin, Rudolph, and Walsh. Ponder scores a bit on the low side (missed the TD barrage that the other QB's tend to get) but the others are all pretty steady performers.
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Re: Christian Ponder Improving

Post by mondry »

John_Viveiros wrote: I have Rudolph in my fantasy league. I'm in a tight battle this week. I'm ahead a TD, with Marshawn Lynch tonight against my opponent's Aaron Rodgers. I needed the Rudolph TD!

For as maligned as the Vikings were at the beginning of the season, you can do pretty well in your fantasy league with Ponder, Peterson, Harvin, Rudolph, and Walsh. Ponder scores a bit on the low side (missed the TD barrage that the other QB's tend to get) but the others are all pretty steady performers.
Hah yeah, I have Rudolph and my gf has harvin, 10 of 12 players are from minnesota, everyone but Ponder started this week, that may change going forward!
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Re: Christian Ponder Improving

Post by PurpleJarl »

Greetings all! I for one loved watching the Vikings beat the 49ers. Who, I have found to be the most annoying fans in the NFL world when they think their team is great. While it seems that everyone has a different opinion about what people think is a strength or a weakness relating to Ponder (arm strength, speed, etc) What I like most about him is his apparently intelligence. I look to last year, and his completion percentage of right around 54% and to this year of around 70%, that without a deep option really and having to check down. I remember him saying that he was going to work to improve that, and he did just that! That is huge IMO. Now I would never reach to compare him to any elite quarterback until he has accomplished similar things but his intelligence does strike me as a cut above the rest. I am sure everyone has heard the stats about his college degree and time to complete and GPA but what strikes me is that this "real" intelligence has seemed to translate to the field which, as we know, doesn't always happen. To me this means that we have a QB that, when he sets his mind to improving in a not strictly physical area, we can expect to see remarkable improvement.

As another example, does anyone know exactly how many audibles he called in the game against the 49ers? It seemed like every time he did it led to a positive play. I also think he called more in this game then all of last year.

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Re: Christian Ponder Improving

Post by bigskyeric »

Seems Christians name is popping up everywhere. They have him as the number 1 fantasy sleeper this week. http://www.nfl.com/fantasyfootball/stor ... ent_stream
Interviewed him this week http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-am/0ap100 ... girlfriend

He's starting to prove his worth and the media is sucking it up and admitting he's pretty darn good. I don't want to jinx anything so I'll just say, he still has a lot to prove. But he is well liked, he has his teams attention and they respect him. He looks, and acts the part of a champion. Keep it up Christian. We're all rooting for you.
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Re: Christian Ponder Improving

Post by Juice »

bigskyeric wrote:Seems Christians name is popping up everywhere. They have him as the number 1 fantasy sleeper this week. http://www.nfl.com/fantasyfootball/stor ... ent_stream
Interviewed him this week http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-am/0ap100 ... girlfriend

He's starting to prove his worth and the media is sucking it up and admitting he's pretty darn good. I don't want to jinx anything so I'll just say, he still has a lot to prove. But he is well liked, he has his teams attention and they respect him. He looks, and acts the part of a champion. Keep it up Christian. We're all rooting for you.
Agreed. He's definitely headed in the right direction. After the 49ers win I found myself listening to some radio show podcast's that I normally never listen to just to see what people were saying about the Vikings. I was surprised to see Ponder as a guest on Mike & Mike in the Morning show. Even Bill Simmons of B.S. Report was gushing about him. He said he looked very "Rich Gannon'y".
"They say no matter how hard you work, there's always someone, somewhere working harder than you. Guess what? I'm that someone." -Kevin Garnett
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Re: Christian Ponder Improving

Post by hibbingviking »

bigskyeric wrote:Seems Christians name is popping up everywhere. They have him as the number 1 fantasy sleeper this week. http://www.nfl.com/fantasyfootball/stor ... ent_stream
Interviewed him this week http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-am/0ap100 ... girlfriend

He's starting to prove his worth and the media is sucking it up and admitting he's pretty darn good. I don't want to jinx anything so I'll just say, he still has a lot to prove. But he is well liked, he has his teams attention and they respect him. He looks, and acts the part of a champion. Keep it up Christian. We're all rooting for you.
much vikings love after the win by most so called analysts. just hope we see some consistency by the vikings . :confused:
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Re: Christian Ponder Improving

Post by hibbingviking »

Ponder only averages about 5 yards a pass. Hopefully it gets better.
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Re: Christian Ponder Improving

Post by dead_poet »

Some good nuggets from Wiederer from his Chat OT column.

Question 2: Why is Ponder being called a game manager by so many people? He brought the Vikings back for the win against Jacksonville. He rallied them from 14 points down to tie the game against the Colts. He threw two touchdowns and ran for another against the 49ers. For everyone that wants him to take more shots down the field, who do they want him to throw to? Jerome Simpson is a nice player, but is certainly not a top tier receiver.

Question 3: Surprised by all these questions about whether Ponder has the ability or willingness to throw deep. Seems fans don't remember him putting up 380 yards last year against a very good Denver defense. I don't get it. If he were to force the issue, there would be interceptions and people telling him he needs to play smarter. Guy can't win, I guess. What do you think?

Question 4: what kind of QB do you see Ponder being at the end of the season, if he stays healthy?

Welcome to the NFL, where if you’re a head coach, a quarterback or an offensive coordinator, you’re almost always going to have people begging non-stop for you to do exactly the opposite of what you’re currently doing. Thankless roles, really. And that’s it with Ponder right now.

So many fans want him to join the fireworks show that we see with passing attacks around the NFL. Outsiders want him to put up X-box numbers like Brees and Rodgers and Stafford and Eli. But if he were to start throwing long consistently and then turned the ball over a bunch, critics would wonder why he was taking so many foolish chances.

As I’ve said repeatedly since April, the Vikings want Ponder to make his biggest strides in 2012 with his decision making. He needs to avoid sacks that kill drives. He needs to eliminate bad interceptions. Think of all the costly turnovers he had a year ago. Just off the top of my head, I remember two terrible interceptions against Denver – one a pick six and another deep in his own territory in a tie game in the final 2 minutes. There was also a fumble lost for a TD and another pick six in Detroit. There was a pick six against Chicago in the season finale. And at the end of the year the Vikings were left blathering on and on about how frustrating it was to lose so many close games. Well, guess what? The elimination of untimely turnovers turns those heartbreaking losses into encouraging wins.

A few days after Ponder’s solid day against the Niners, Bill Musgrave was asked if that was the most complete game the young QB had played. Musgrave referenced the positive things Ponder had shown in rookie home starts against Green Bay and Denver in 2011 but then issued the reminder that turnovers in those games helped trigger losses.

So here’s what Musgrave then said: “The quickest way to lose in this league or at any level is to beat yourself and last year, we did some good things but we had some untimely mistakes that caused it to be really tough for us to get the outcome that we want. And we want to keep playing at a high level. But number one, we don’t want to beat ourselves.”

Whether you like it or not, this is the directive. This is how Ponder’s Year 2 success will be measured. So far, so good. And so at the end of the year, based on what he’s shown to date, I expect Ponder to continue evolving and getting better while still being smart and cautious as much as possible.
http://www.startribune.com/sports/vikin ... 57651.html
Last edited by dead_poet on Wed Oct 03, 2012 10:29 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Mothman
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Re: Christian Ponder Improving

Post by Mothman »

Thanks for that post! Wiederer gave a great answer and that first sentence was as amusing as it was true.
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Re: Christian Ponder Improving

Post by UltraNasty850 »

Ponders numbers are good. They may not seem like it, but I'd much rather have these numbers than more yds or TDs with INTs on the stat sheet. Ponder is playing well with his "game manager" roll. The Vikings are probably not opening up the entire playbook this early in the season with no divisional games for weeks to come. I see Ponders numbers improving when we really open up the pass game weeks down the road.

OUR Vikings have done everything we have asked them to so far this season, why can't they keep that going? :rock:

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