vikings/nfl
Dan Wiederer began covering the Vikings in 2011, enthusiastically delivering insight on the team across the Star Tribune's print and digital products. Prior to joining the Access Vikings team, he spent seven seasons covering ACC basketball at The Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer. He also covered the Chicago Bears in 2003 and 2004. Follow him on Twitter @StribDW.
Mark Craig has covered football and the NFL the past 20 years, including the Browns from 1991-95 and the Vikings and the NFL since 2003. Since 2008, Craig has served as one of the 44 Pro Football Hall of Fame selectors. He can be followed on Twitter at @markcraignfl.
Posts about Vikings quarterbacks
Ponder: Packers game 'a wake-up call'
Posted by: Chris Miller Updated: December 5, 2012 - 5:41 PM
Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder, coming off a 23-14 loss to Green Bay where he fell under heavy criticism, admitted Wednesday that his poor performance was a “wake-up call.”
“We’re in that game and some of the mistakes I made were very frustrating,” Ponder said. “I’m always critical of myself, but with such an important game and such costly mistakes, because of me, it was very frustrating. It was kind of a wake-up call that obviously I need to be doing some stuff differently and change my game and elevate my play so that, especially where we are in the season, with the goals that are in our hands, I have to make sure that I give our team a chance to be successful and achieve those goals.”
The Vikings play host to the Chicago Bears on Sunday.
Ponder, who confirmed that he became engaged this week to ESPN reporter Samantha Steele, had two critical interceptions against the Packers.
“The mistakes I made were pretty obvious and pretty dumb,” he said. “It’s not hard to eliminate those dumb mistakes. We still want to be aggressive; we just have to be so much smarter and try not to force things.”
“I still have my confidence. I think, with me, after a bad game I’m even more excited to come back to work the next week and the next day just so I can put it behind me. … Obviously, I want to play better and I know that I need to play better, but my confidence is still there.”
As far as his engagement, Ponder said, “We’re not going into the details of that. We’re excited. It was a fun experience this week, but we’ve moved on.”
Vikings coach Leslie Frazier said he has tried to encourage Ponder this week, reminding him “of some of the things he did very well when we were having success across the board as an offense and letting him know that we have confidence that he can get back to getting that done, and no greater time than right now.”
Wide receivers Jerome Simpson and Devin Aromashodu stood firmly in Ponder’s corner.
“I got a lot of confidence in Christian,” said Simpson. “He’s going to bounce back, he’s going to have a great game.”
Is Ponder being unfairly criticized?
“Yup,” Simpson said. “That guy, he’s a tough guy, man, and a lot of added pressure that’s put on him shouldn’t be, a lot of criticism shouldn’t be put on him. I guess that’s just the nature of being a quarterback, but a lot of this pressure stuff being put on him shouldn’t be, because that guy, he’s trying his heart out.”
Said Aromashodu: “You can’t blame it on one person. It takes everyone from the linemen to the receivers running the right routes to, you know, the quarterback to the protection with the running backs. So everything has to work together in the passing game.”
Injury report
Receiver Percy Harvin (ankle) and defensive end Jared Allen (shoulder, back) did not participate in the Vikings' practice Wednesday.
Go Figure: Bears shaky o-line presents golden opportunity for Allen, Vikings
Posted by: Dan Wiederer Updated: November 20, 2012 - 10:56 AMAs the Vikings prepare for Sunday’s Week 12 game with Chicago at Soldier Field, here’s a look at a handful of eye-opening figures and facts.
7
Sacks by the Vikings in their last meeting with Chicago, a 17-13 loss in the 2011 regular season finale. Defensive end Jared Allen had 3.5 sacks in that contest to set a new Vikings record for sacks in a season.
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6
Sacks allowed by the Bears in Monday night’s lopsided 32-7 loss in San Francisco with 49ers outside linebacker Aldon Smith recording 5.5 on his own. Quarterback Jason Campbell, starting in place of Jay Cutler, was not only sacked six times but hit on 11 occasions. Chicago has allowed 34 sacks in 10 games, second most in the NFL.
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21
NFL teams with fewer rushing yards as a whole than Vikings star Adrian Peterson. Peterson has 1,128 rushing yards to lead the league in that category. The Vikings rank third in rushing yards as a team, averaging 150.5 per game. They trail only San Francisco (165.5) and Washington (165.0) in that category.
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10
NFC teams with records of .500 or above at this point in the season. That should make the playoff chase incredibly interesting over the final six weeks. The current division leaders are Atlanta (9-1), San Francisco (7-2-1), Green Bay (7-3) and New York (6-4). If the season ended today, the NFC wild cards would be Chicago (7-3) and Seattle (6-4), based on tiebreaking procedures. Also in the wild card picture right now are Tampa Bay (6-4), the Vikings (6-4), New Orleans (5-5) and Dallas (5-5).
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2
Vikings quarterbacks to win in Chicago in the 21st century. The list is not long. Daunte Culpepper aided a 28-16 win at Soldier Field in 2000, throwing TD passes to Cris Carter, Randy Moss and Matthew Hatchette. Tarvaris Jackson was under center for a 34-31 victory in 2007 with Adrian Peterson (20 carries, 224 yards, three TDs) doing most of the offensive damage. The Vikings are 2-9 in their last 11 trips to Solider Field and also lost 27-23 at Champaign’s Memorial Stadium in 2002. The Bears quarterbacks who presided over those 10 wins: Jim Miller, Rex Grossman, Chad Hutchinson, Kyle Orton and Jay Cutler.
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30
Takeaways by the Chicago defense this season, most in the NFL. Cornerback Tim Jennings has a league-best eight interceptions and Charles Tillman is tops in fumbles forced (seven). The Bears have scored seven touchdowns on defense as well.
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35
Takeaways by the Vikings since the start of the 2011 season. This year, the Vikings have five interceptions and seven fumbles recovered as a team.
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8
Percy Harvin’s NFL rank in catches through 10 games. When Harvin made his last reception, a 9-yarder early in the third quarter of a Nov. 4 game in Seattle, he led the league in that category. But a sprained ankle kept him out of the Vikings’ Week 10 win over Detroit and was followed by a bye week. In that time, seven receivers have leapfrogged past Harvin on the catch list. They are Indianapolis’ Reggie Wayne (76), New England’s Wes Welker (73), Dallas’ Jason Witten (73), Chicago’s Brandon Marshall (69), Detroit’s Calvin Johnson (65), Atlanta’s Tony Gonzalez (64) and Cincinnati’s A.J. Green (64).
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7-3
Vikings record after their bye week the last 10 seasons. They have sandwiched the bye week with victories four times in that span: in 2003, ‘04, ’06 and ‘09. Last year coming out of the bye, however, the Vikings were trounced 45-7 at Green Bay.
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25-11
Chicago’s record, including playoffs, in games started by quarterback Jay Cutler the past three seasons. Cutler may not be an MVP candidate but he has at least steadied the Bears offense. Without Cutler as the starter, the Bears are 2-6 with back-ups Todd Collins, Caleb Hanie, Josh McCown and Jason Campbell unable to jumpstart much. Cutler’s status for Sunday’s game with the Vikings is still up in the air as he tries to get past a concussion suffered Nov. 11 against Houston.
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Defending Ponder
Posted by: Kent Youngblood Updated: October 26, 2012 - 4:05 PM
There is no question Christian Ponder is the Viking’s quarterback of the present and future. But that didn’t stop coach Leslie Frazier from fielding a number of questions about Ponder’s recent struggles.
“He’s actually doing some things that you like to see,” Frazier said. “But, at the same time, you know that you’re working with a guy that’s in his second season. There are going to be some ups and downs and sometimes during the course of the game. The good thing about Christian is he’s shown the ability to make those corrections as we go. But we have to make sure we’re getting everybody on the offense to play up to the standards we’re asking and not make it all about the quarterback.”
To Frazier, there are a number of things that have to happen for Ponder – and the team’s offense – to get back on track.
One is picking up the blitz. The past two weeks – and especially Thursday – the Vikings have seen increasing blitzing from opponents. And those blitzes have been getting a lot of pressure on Ponder.
Frazier said keeping Frazier comfortable in the pocket is key.
To that end Frazier said the team would work hard on blitz pickup in the run-up to the team’s game in Seattle Nov. 4. “We’re going to work extensively on blitz pickup because I’m sure that other people will see what happened {Thursday} night,” Frazier said. “That’s probably the blueprint – put a lot of pressure, some extra guys in the box and make the offensive line have to adjust and the quarterback throw on the run a little bit.”
Conventional wisdom says that a team with a strong running game – something the Vikings have had in recent games – should translate into plays being available downfield. But the team has to pick up blitzes better.
“I think he’s begun to understand the nature of the business and the nature of the quarterback position,” Frazier said. “… There are going to be days like this. You have to be mentally tough. We think he is, and he’s shown that he is.”
Another item is making sure all the receivers are on the same page with Ponder.
Frazier said he would not consider benching Ponder, ever for a few series, if his struggles were to continue.
“Barring injury, Christian’s going to be fine,” Frazier said. “We have complete confidence that he’s going to do a good job for us. We’ll keep working as a group to improve as a whole.”
Another step
Each week it seems running back Adrian Peterson gets better. While running for over 100 yards for his second straight game Thursday, Peterson nearly changed the momentum of the game with his 64-yard, third-quarter TD run.
So you’d think Peterson would have stopped hearing questions about whether he’s back to 100 percent yet. But you would be wrong. So it’s no surprise he hauled out a little sarcasm when asked yet again Friday.
“I am over 100 percent, I am trying to get to 200 percent,” he said.
But seriously, Peterson said he felt better than he did last year. “But I still have room to improve,” he said.
Where is Rudolph?
Earlier this season tight end Kyle Rudolph was described as Ponder’s security blanket. But, in the past two games, Rudolph has made just two catches.
Frazier said Tampa safety Ronde Barber did a good job on Rudolph Thursday. “But sometimes it’s more what we’re trying to do, trying to get the ball to other people and understanding what we’re trying to do from an offensive standpoint,” Frazier said. “It’s not so much what other teams are doing to take him away. {Thursday} what they did, it made a difference. But it allowed us to get the ball to other people. We just weren’t always as successful doing that.”
A clear decision
The Vikings trailed 30-17 with under 12 minutes left in the game when Tampa Bay was called for holding on a second-and-10 incompletion. Frazier decided to decline the penalty. On the ensuing third-and-10 play Tampa quarterback Josh Freeman completed a 34-yard pass to receiver Mike Williams. The Bucs eventually scored to go ahead 36-17. Friday Frazier explained his decision to decline the penalty.
“Third and 10, with the time on the clock, believing you can get off on third-and-10 and get the ball back,” Frazier said. “We needed the ball.”
It's all in the feet
Posted by: Kent Youngblood Updated: October 17, 2012 - 4:11 PMAll in his feet
When it comes to being more accurate as a passer, Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder says it all starts with his feet.
This comes courtesy of Ponder, who talked about his accuracy issues of the past week – particularly in the Washington game Sunday – with the media. He talked specifically about passes he missed to tight ends Kyle Rudolph and John Carlson and the pass intended for wide receiver Michael Jenkins that was intercepted by Madieu Williams and returned for a score.
“The one I threw short to Kyle, I flipped my feet around and I should have just stayed on the run and threw off-balance,” Ponder said. “I had a missed throw to John Carlson on a little corner route that I didn’t really set my feet. It’s all footwork. ... The one to Jenkins I was hitching up because I was looking left and he was on the right and I never got my foot all the way to the right and that's why I kind of dropped the ball and it sailed on me."
Ponder has four interceptions in his last two games.
“I think when I get myself in trouble is when I get to the top of my drop and just kind of hop there and sit back there rather than moving forward,” Ponder said. “I definitely make a lot of my better throws when I move forward and that’s something I’ve got to continue getting better at, making that a habit rather than hopping at the top of my pocket. That’s what I did in college and got away with it. Obviously the ends are rushing upfield a lot more and they’re a lot better (in the NFL). So I’ve got to keep doing a good job moving forward.”
So working on his footwork has become a priority for Ponder.
RG3 powers Redskins past Vikings
Posted by: Chris Miller Updated: October 15, 2012 - 11:53 AMThe Vikings fell to the Redskins 38-26 at FedEx Field on Sunday, and here are the links to the Star Tribune's coverage:
Robert Griffin III's long scoring run was the final blow, as detailed in Dan's game story.
Mark's Five Thoughts about the game are here.
Jim Souhan wrote about the Vikings defense's reaction to Griffin.
Mark had a story on Christian Ponder's rough day.
Adrian Peterson returned to the scene of last year's injury.
Brian Peterson and Jerry Holt shot all the action.
McKenna Ewen had the postgame video.
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