Redskins kicker shuffle presents challenge for Vikings special teams

The Vikings special teams will be dealing with a bit of an unknown this week in Redskins kicker Kai Forbath, who was signed Wednesday to replace the struggling Billy Cundiff.

Forbath was touted as one of the best kickers coming out of college last year but went undrafted in 2011. He was picked up by the Cowboys but put on the Non-Football Injury (NFI) list with a quadriceps injury last season.

Forbath was in camp with the Buccaneers this preseason but ultimately couldn't beat out Connor Barth for the placekicking job there. So now the Redskins will give him a look.

Preparing for Forbath will be a bit of a challenge. Even during his standout career at UCLA, Forbath only kicked field goals and didn't handle kickoff duties.

"[We've got] no tape on him from last year because he was injured," Vikings special teams coordinator Mike Priefer said. "And he had nine kickoffs and five field goals that I've studied from the preseason."

So what's the added challenge for Priefer this week?

"It's different," he said. "Because you're always trying to figure out tendencies and those sorts of things. But there's really not enough tape on him to show any tendencies. Plus, he was kicking for a different team too when we did study the tape. So it will be a unique situation."

Said Priefer: "It's wind, weather, where to align our returners if there's a cross wind. How do we punt? How do we set up Marcus [Sherels] on punt returns? Those sorts of factors come into play."

Current forecasts are predicting a 73-degree day with winds up to 13 miles per hour.

Go for it

The Vikings' final touchdown in last week's 30-7 win over Tennessee – a 15-yard toss from Christian Ponder to Kyle Rudolph – was one the head coach didn't necessarily want. Leslie Frazier was content running the ball and milking the clock until offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave pushed to run a passing play with a promise that it would produce a score.

Musgrave explained his urging Thursday.

No big deal

As for Ponder's first interception of the season – also in the direction of Rudolph – Musgrave was OK with the decision to throw the pass. Unfortunately, with Ponder rolling hard to his left, the pass sailed a bit high and outside for Rudolph.

But in principle, Ponder's mistake wasn't troubling.

"We thought it was a good example of the scramble drill, which we practice weekly and emphasize with our young quarterbacks," Musgrave said. "Because they do have good movement skills. He flushed out to the left. Everybody worked in his direction. He had a couple options there. He just missed his target. I think he probably didn't have small enough of a target where he wanted to aim to with Kyle. At times, quarterbacks just throw it for the sake of throwing it. But if he can be a little more accurate, we come up with a really big play there at the end of the first half."

Fusco faring fine