The Vikings are in danger of becoming the guy who undergoes plastic surgery and wakes up to find he still hates his nose.

After their latest blowout loss, 42-20 to New Orleans on Sunday at the Metrodome, the Vikings are 2-12 this season, heading for the worst record in franchise history. Since the beginning of the 2010 season, they own the second-worst record in the NFL, just one game better than Carolina.

Losing can be healthy, but only if, while losing, your team builds around, or replaces, the right people. With just two games remaining, the Vikings have little reason to feel confident in the two most important people on any NFL team: the head coach and quarterback.

Various reports suggest that Leslie Frazier will return as the Vikings head coach, and Frazier has supported rookie Christian Ponder, his handpicked franchise quarterback, whom he drafted much earlier than most draft experts expected Ponder to be chosen.

None of the speculation or supposed promises matters. When a team collapses like this, no one is safe.

"At some point you just have to say, 'What the heck?' " defensive end Jared Allen said. "A lot of people are probably going to get fired at this point, anyways. What are you going to lose?"

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Coaches Sean Payton and Leslie Frazier shook hands at the end of the game.

Frazier has the résumé and leadership traits of a good coach, but his team rarely has played well and hasn't always played hard, and his coaching staff hasn't impressed anyone.

Ponder possesses the intelligence and athletic ability to become a good NFL quarterback, but he has regressed the past two weeks, looking frazzled and throwing inaccurately while trying to move a flawed offense.

While discussing Ponder on Sunday afternoon, Frazier sounded more hesitant than he's ever been, saying, cautiously: "I don't want to measure purely on the last two weeks. I want to see what happens these next two weeks."

Ponder said: "We just have to go out and execute, and that's something we haven't done, and seldom do; especially me, and I have to do a better job."

As of August, Vikings owner Zygi Wilf thought he had his coach and quarterback for the next decade. Now he has to wonder if he will need to replace one or both this offseason.

The next two games suddenly become arbitrary and perhaps unsatisfactory tryouts for Frazier and Ponder. Both would do well to show signs of improvement, if not to save their jobs, then to assuage their employers.

Less than two years ago, the Saints beat the Vikings in an NFC Championship Game for the ages, a game in which the Vikings had the better roster but the Saints found a way. Both teams have undergone transformations since that day, but the Saints still have their gifted coach and star quarterback in place, and that makes all the difference.

"The Saints played good for a reason," Ponder said. "They're going to be in the NFC Championship Game ... But we're all NFL players. We all have the potential to be great."

Frazier's coaching and Ponder's quarterbacking must leave fans wondering how to cheer.

Do you pull for the Vikings to finish 2-14 and the Colts to win their last two games, giving the Vikings the first pick in the draft and a chance to choose a franchise quarterback to replace Ponder? Or so the Vikings could choose Andrew Luck and trade him?

Do you pull for the Vikings to impress during two season-ending victories, to prove that Frazier and Ponder are right for their jobs and that the team might be able to contend in the near future?

Do you hope for them to land the second pick in the draft, where taking a quarterback won't be so tempting, and Matt Kalil can become the Vikings left tackle?

Or do you hope the Vikings become tempted to look at a quarterback no matter where they pick, bringing Matt Barkley and Robert Griffin III into consideration?

That's the saddest aspect of this lost season: After 14 games, the Vikings don't know what they are, or where they're going.

Jim Souhan can be heard Sundays from 10 a.m. to noon and weekdays at 2 p.m. on 1500ESPN. His Twitter name is SouhanStrib. • jsouhan@startribune.com