I wrote about the obvious trust between Christian Ponder and Kyle Rudolph in today's paper.This might sound trite, but trust matters in the NFL. It matters a lot.NFL teams ask their players to risk their health during short careers for the good of the franchise. For players to be eager to do so, it helps if they have reason to believe in the key people in the organization. And, during the season, the two people they have to trust the most are their head coach and quarterback.Who knows whether beating the 49ers will mean anything in a few weeks? If the Vikings get whipped in Detroit, and that is a very real possibility, with Calvin Johnson facing a still-suspect secondary, then we may wind up viewing this victory as an aberration.But it could matter no matter what happens this week, because Leslie Frazier and Christian Ponder gave their team reason to trust them on Sunday. Frazier's vision of a physical team that wins with a running game and a stout defense materialized against the NFL's gold standard in those departments. And Ponder displayed the ability to make clutch plays and beat a good team in his 13th start in the NFL.His peers on the roster – young teammates like Kyle Rudolph and John Sullivan – rave about Ponder's leadership abilities. But if you don't win, the whole team won't buy in. Ponder and Frazier moved closer to instilling faith in the roster on Sunday.-One of the reasons I wrote about Ponder's three touchdown plays today is because so many NFL games turn on one, or two, or three big plays. Had Ponder executed poorly, or made poor decisions, on his three touchdown plays, the Vikings could have wound up with three or six points. Instead, Ponder produced 21 points. That's how upsets happen.And had Ponder's worst pass of the day turned into a 49ers' touchdown, we might be talking about a loss today.That's why the NFL is so unpredictable. And that's why I don't bet on sports.-I can't remember being less interested in a Yankee-Twins series since 2000.-Stat geeks favor Mike Trout as the AL MVP. Players and old-school writers favor Miguel Cabrera.I think Trout is the more valuable player in theory, because he does everything well while playing exceptionally well in the field at a pivotal position. But within the context of this season, Cabrera's more valuable, simply because Cabrera has been exceptional while playing in more games. He's simply produced more for his team.It's not Trout's fault that he wasn't with the Angels from Opening Day on. But the time he missed made him a less-valuable commodity over the course of a six-month season. And while Trout is far superior in the field, Cabrera's willingness and ability to play third base, however poorly, opened up first base and DH for the Tigers, making them a stronger team. That mitigates his fielding woes.Cabrera has produced far more runs that Trout this season. He has a higher slugging percentage. Their on-base percentage is a virtual tie. And while stat geeks are correct when they say that RBI is not a good statistic for evaluating offensive efficiency, it is a very important stat within the context of a season, and an MVP race.Games are won and lost based on whether a hitter can produce runs. Cabrera has excelled in that category over six months. He's the MVP.-I'll be on 1500espn at 2:05 today. My Twitter handle is @Souhanstrib.