Why I think Ponder needs to sit a game

[BleedingPurple]

I was listening to KFAN's Postgame Show. They made the point several times about the people asking for Ponder and Musky's heads: If you believe Ponder to be inept then you cannot fault Musky for calling conservative/simple plays. I think the reality is the inverse, we believe he's not consistent enough to be effective. It's the coaching staff that says he's capable, so if they believe he's capable, why wouldn't they call plays as such? Perhaps inept coaches have allowed their ineptitude to seep into the psyche of Ponder forever crippling him to their "Conservative" mentality. A tentativeness that permeates almost all we do. Really the only time I've seen anything different from the purple was when Farve started to take control of the team 6 weeks in his first year and the Randy Ratio.

At some point you need to hand the reigns to the QB and let them sink or swim. Go ahead and make some mistakes. It's your show. They aren't going to do that with Ponder. I think Cassel has been around enough to give him a go. I really believe that a mildly competent NFL QB who has free reign to audible and call plays with an 8/9 man front most plays would eat the opposing team alive. They have to do something and I think that's their best option. Enough of this scared to lose nonsense, how about sink or swim like men. They're too stupid to effectively pull off conservative and not smart enough to be a little reckless. It's an unhappy medium we're doomed to suffer, again, again.

[Reignman]

I don't want to see him sit until we pull the plug on the project or he retires as a multiple Lombardi winner. We need to get this decided this year. Franchise guy or bust. I don't want to see them start waffling with Ponder the way they did TJ. That's just going to prolong the misery.

But I too am getting tired of the playing not to lose conservative crap. This game is a prime example. In the 2nd half we got aggressive on both sides of the ball and we put the Bears on the ropes, but then we got all conservative near the RZ in the 4th quarter and settled for 2 FG's. It's like we were more concerned about how many timeouts the Bears had left than we were about scoring a TD and putting the game away. Same with our final defensive stand. Ultra prevent that allowed the Bears to easily march down field for a win. I mean WTF? Aggressive teams compete for championships, playing not to lose teams, compete for the 6th seed.

[LA Viking]

Sitting Ponder for a game is a terrible idea. If you make a change, it's permanent or due to injury. Sitting him for a game would totally screw with his head and any confidence he may have.

[purpletinted66]

i don't know if the second half is proof the vike's (esp. ponder's) preseason is over, or if it's because the bears stink that bad, but, if the sparks finally found the fuel, then we may see more drawing out of the potential, begetting improvements on the whole. i am still curious if joe webb's presence in the red zone is going to be something special or not (i'd hate to be the defenders finding out imo).....we need to bring the wheel over it again and again with featuring our best performers like CPatt and Floyd.

[mondry]

I don't want to see him sit until we pull the plug on the project or he retires as a multiple Lombardi winner. We need to get this decided this year. Franchise guy or bust. I don't want to see them start waffling with Ponder the way they did TJ. That's just going to prolong the misery.

But I too am getting tired of the playing not to lose conservative crap. This game is a prime example. In the 2nd half we got aggressive on both sides of the ball and we put the Bears on the ropes, but then we got all conservative near the RZ in the 4th quarter and settled for 2 FG's. It's like we were more concerned about how many timeouts the Bears had left than we were about scoring a TD and putting the game away. Same with our final defensive stand. Ultra prevent that allowed the Bears to easily march down field for a win. I mean WTF? Aggressive teams compete for championships, playing not to lose teams, compete for the 6th seed.

Well I agree with you on both of your points, this is Ponder's year to sink or swim, so far it hasn't looked good but it's better we know one way or the other for sure and if he does sink that's going to give us the draft pick to find his replacement. Having cassell win some meaningless games is not a good idea.

Frazier manned up for some of the coaching side of your second point. A lot of the time you expect a coach to be awesome but some of this stuff just doesn't go right and ends up in the spotlight. In that sense the coaches are learning all the time too, I'm okay with the mistake as long as it never happens again. The problem was that we got caught in the middle of being conservative and going for it. We ran on first down, passed on second, and ran on third, the worst possible sequence. If we run, run, run, FG that would be a better conservative sequence to burn Chicago timeouts and milk the clock. On the flip side, passing on 3rd down and going for the TD is the proper aggressive move should they choose to be aggressive.

It sucks but it's one of those things that doesn't matter in like 3-4 different scenarios. If you score on the 2nd down pass, if you score on the 3rd down run, if your defense keeps them out of the end zone, if Henderson doesn't completely blow his coverage on Bennett they may not even move the ball down there in time regardless (they got the TD with 10 seconds left!) and instead of making it a 16 yard pass for the TD it might have been 25+ which is harder to pull off.

[Captain]

I don't think sitting him is gonna fix anything. Lets face it, this is his year. sink OR swim. I'm still holding out slight hope, especially after that second half, that he swims simply because if he doesn't then we're put back another 2-4 yrs. Our core is in a prime age right now so we can't really afford that.

[CalVike]

I don't think sitting him is gonna fix anything. Lets face it, this is his year. sink OR swim. I'm still holding out slight hope, especially after that second half, that he swims simply because if he doesn't then we're put back another 2-4 yrs. Our core is in a prime age right now so we can't really afford that.

Next 3 are Cleveland in the dome, Steelers in London, bye, Panthers in the dome. That should be 2-1 at worst and give a strong chance to shine. Any sub-100 yard stinkers and the team will know a lot. After that it gets much tougher with the next 8 after Carolina looking tough depending how strong those NFC East teams prove to be.

[LA Viking]

.....we need to bring the wheel over it again and again with featuring our best performers like CPatt and Floyd.

What does this mean? I agree with getting Patterson a lot more playing time, but I haven't really seen anything from Floyd to warrant more playing time (in preseason or regular).

I am also unimpressed with Xavier Rhodes. Wasn't he supposed to be a big, physical corner? If anything he seems timid.

[purpletinted66]

What does this mean? I agree with getting Patterson a lot more playing time, but I haven't really seen anything from Floyd to warrant more playing time (in preseason or regular).

I am also unimpressed with Xavier Rhodes. Wasn't he supposed to be a big, physical corner? If anything he seems timid.

i have not even had a chance to see a game, but i thought because other teams are not familiar with what he can do he might be a good distraction, if not disruptive all together: box score says he got to cutler once but i dont know how many plays he was in for or how he did. i understand rhodes contained megatron last week, relatively speaking, but again i dont know if he got ate up this week or what.

[mansquatch]

Well I agree with you on both of your points, this is Ponder's year to sink or swim, so far it hasn't looked good but it's better we know one way or the other for sure and if he does sink that's going to give us the draft pick to find his replacement. Having cassell win some meaningless games is not a good idea.

Frazier manned up for some of the coaching side of your second point. A lot of the time you expect a coach to be awesome but some of this stuff just doesn't go right and ends up in the spotlight. In that sense the coaches are learning all the time too, I'm okay with the mistake as long as it never happens again. The problem was that we got caught in the middle of being conservative and going for it. We ran on first down, passed on second, and ran on third, the worst possible sequence. If we run, run, run, FG that would be a better conservative sequence to burn Chicago timeouts and milk the clock. On the flip side, passing on 3rd down and going for the TD is the proper aggressive move should they choose to be aggressive.

It sucks but it's one of those things that doesn't matter in like 3-4 different scenarios. If you score on the 2nd down pass, if you score on the 3rd down run, if your defense keeps them out of the end zone, if Henderson doesn't completely blow his coverage on Bennett they may not even move the ball down there in time regardless (they got the TD with 10 seconds left!) and instead of making it a 16 yard pass for the TD it might have been 25+ which is harder to pull off.

This!

Ponder's Pick 6 didn't help any, so I can get being down on the guy for that, but I didn't feel like he was the problem yesterday. Overall he played pretty good football, especially in the 2nd half. The ST coverage unit kept us from breaking away from the Bears and the defense was inconsistent. The LB are really a liability right now and are going to keep being exploited. Finally the play calling was IMO the biggest issue. You've got a guy who is having success throwing, you need to make it a 2 score game to close them out. Just angry over the red zone calls in the 2nd half.

[Just Me]

i have not even had a chance to see a game, but i thought because other teams are not familiar with what he can do he might be a good distraction, if not disruptive all together: box score says he got to cutler once but i dont know how many plays he was in for or how he did. i understand rhodes contained megatron last week, relatively speaking, but again i dont know if he got ate up this week or what.

He actually looked pretty strong (for a Rookie) and made at least one (that I remember) play where he broke up a pass to Marshall. I think Rhodes is a good CB, he just needs to get through his "Rookie mistakes". He's made them, and he'll make more, but I think he's going to turn into a good CB for us. He's just not there yet....

[smoothoperator]

one of the best ways to judge how well a corner is doing is by looking at how often teams throw their way and teams rarely throw rhodes' way. he has been impressive.

[JellyBean2144]

I don't agree with sitting him. That doesn't help anyone. I do believe that the coaching staff needs to figure out a way to play to Ponders strengths and try to avoid his weak areas. We will be fine. 0-2 aintain't bad in a 16 game season. I will freak out when we are 0-5. Right now, I aint worried.

[King James]

If the Vikings go like 0-5, then I'd want to see a QB change. Now it's too early.

[Just Me]

If the Vikings go like 0-5, then I'd want to see a QB change. Now it's too early.

I'd like us to permanently change the quarterback in the 1st half to the QB in the second half. The problem is the 2nd half quarterback has to prove he can show up on a permanent basis.