Practice has ended for the day at Winter Park and the 2-11 Vikings know they'll need a near-perfect effort Sunday to upset the New Orleans Saints, who come to town as 7-point favorites.

Vikings coach Leslie Frazier reaffirmed this afternoon that rookie Christian Ponder remains the starting quarterback.

"There is no doubt," he said. "Barring any unforeseen mishap in practice, no, there is no doubt."

Frazier also shied away from labeling Ponder's third-quarter removal from Sunday's loss in Detroit as a benching. Ponder turned the ball over four times in a 34-28 loss, his worst outing in seven starts and sat for most of the second half.

"It wasn't really a benching," Frazier explained. "I just pulled him out as he was struggling with what I thought the injury was doing to his game. And that's all it was. If I thought he could do some of the things that he's capable of doing, he wouldn't have been out of the ballgame."

Frazier said he didn't sense Ponder's confidence dipping and said the rookie quarterback has handle the situation "extremely well."

"I mean, it's hard. Nobody wants to turn the ball over or be in a situation where you don't lead the team to a win," Frazier said. "But I think overall he's managed the situation well to the point where he didn't seem to have any problems today in practice. He seems to really be in tune with this ballgame and has moved on from the last game."

Frazier also said Adrian Peterson practiced Wednesday "without any inhibition" and seems poised to return to action this weekend for the first time since suffering a high ankle sprain in the first quarter of a Week 11 loss to Oakland.

"We have some more days to practice prior to Sunday so he'll continue to work to get his conditioning back," Frazier said. "But he's one of those guys who never really gets out of shape."