Souhan: Same old Ponder; some things never change

GREEN BAY, WIS. – They could have called.

They could have gone to Hallmark.

They could have Instagrammed or texted or Facebooked or Snapchatted or beamed telepathic messages west.

Instead, the Vikings franchise turned an entire game on "Thursday Night Football" into a get-well card for Teddy Bridgewater, who will ever more be known as Not The Ponder.

Bridgewater has played six full quarters in the NFL. He has proved himself a franchise quarterback with his presence. He proved his value even more with his absence.

His presence made the Saints game competitive, and brought the Vikings an upset victory over Atlanta.

His absence may have destroyed what was left of Christian Ponder's career, and the horrid tradition of "Thursday Night Football," otherwise known as "What Time Can We Flip to 'Scandal'?' ''

Without Bridgewater to engage Vikings receivers and TV viewers, another edition of TNF turned into a reason to take night classes on fall Thursdays.

In a performance that conjured images of Josh Freeman and Spergon Wynn throwing knuckleballs and sabotaging their careers on Monday night games in 2001 and 2013, Ponder proved that you can believe some of the people some of the time but never football coaches when they're trying to protect the feelings of a former first-round quarterback or the man who drafted him.

When the Vikings kept saying nice things about Ponder during training camp, you had to figure they were hoping to trade him. When they kept saying nice things about him while keeping him on the roster, you had to wonder whether offensive coordinator Norv Turner had rewired Ponder the way some made scientists can turn a toaster into a short-wave radio.

Thursday's 42-10 loss was a reminder that in politics, parenting and sports, what people do always counts for much more than what they say.

This marks the second time in three Vikings visits to Lambeau Field where the team's offensive coaches became determined to run a conventional offense with an unqualified quarterback. Both involved Ponder.

In January 2013, the Vikings traveled to Green Bay before deciding that Ponder could not start because of a badly bruised arm. Joe Webb started and ran an option offense that shredded the Packers on the first drive.

Then offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave asked Webb to run a conventional passing offense, and the Packers won 24-10.

Thursday night, the Vikings again delayed a decision on their quarterback, this time being forced to use Ponder instead of Bridgewater. Again, they made the mistake of trying to run a conventional offense instead of running the ball against a lousy run defense.

Ponder threw two first-half interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown. After 27 minutes of play, his completions to Packers defenders had netted 75 yards, or 29 yards more than his passes to Vikings receivers.

Lesson: When you have a lousy player, trade him while the rest of the league is unsure that he's really that lousy.

Today, the Vikings couldn't trade Ponder for the beard clippings from Brett Favre's grooming infomercial.

Let's review how various Vikings employees have defended Ponder:

"He has always been in a position where the stress and pressure was on him. He really didn't have the help around him to take that load off,'' receiver Greg Jennings said after leaving Green Bay and Aaron Rodgers to play with Ponder.

"I was very disappointed in the opening game the way our fans reacted to Christian. I think he has done everything he can do. He's working his butt off. He's a guy that's going to be valuable to our team,'' Turner said during the preseason.

Actually, the Vikings' drafting of Ponder is more defensible than their decision to keep him this season.

They reached for Ponder in the draft. That's a mistake of desperation NFL teams make every year.

Once they realized he couldn't play, there was no need to keep him around and massage what's left of his ego.

After all of the defenses offered on Ponder's behalf, there is only one nice thing to say about him today:

He sold a lot of Bridgewater jerseys last night.

Jim Souhan can be heard weekdays at noon and Sundays from 10 to noon on 1500 ESPN. @SouhanStrib • jsouhan@startribune.com