Hartman: Plenty of blame to go around in bad Vikings performance

There wasn't a lot that went right for the Vikings in their 42-10 loss at Green Bay on Thursday night, not after the defense gave up two Packers touchdowns 4 minutes, 11 seconds apart in the first quarter to put the team in a hole it couldn't climb out of.

Christian Ponder then threw two interceptions, the first returned for a touchdown by Julius Peppers, and the second leading to an Rodgers touchdown pass and a 28-0 Packers lead at halftime.

This was a game in which the Vikings looked like a completely different team than the squad that defeated Atlanta 41-28 Sunday. Maybe the Falcons are not a very good team, and time will tell.

But the defense, which was supposed to be so improved this year, could do little to slow Green Bay star quarterback Aaron Rodgers, four days after an up-and-down performance against Atlanta's Matt Ryan. In the first half, the Packers moved the ball with ease, recording 167 yards of offense and averaging 6.4 yards per play, compared to only 2.7 yards for the Vikings.

The Vikings' nine first-half possessions ended in five punts, three turnovers and the halftime whistle.

If Teddy Bridgewater got the same type of horrible protection that Ponder got in this game, I doubt if he would have done much better.

The offensive line certainly didn't play as well as it did against the Falcons. Ponder was sacked three times in each half, and it seemed as though A.J. Hawk was in his face every time he dropped back.

You would have to say that it looked like the Vikings were turning the game around a little bit after trailing 14-0, before the two interceptions stopped their momentum. But it's also hard to simply blame Ponder when you look at how Green Bay took the first possession of the second half and marched 70 yards on six plays to make it 35-0.

What's hard to understand is that the Packers were 28th in the league in rushing coming into the game, but that changed with Eddie Lacy rushing for 59 yards on six carries in the first half — a better total than he had in any game this season. Lacy finished with 105 yards on 13 carries with a pair of touchdowns.

Now the Vikings get another hot team when Detroit comes to town, and if they don't play any better it will be another loss.

The Vikings schedule looked very daunting to start the season with games at St. Louis, New Orleans and Green Bay and home games against the Patriots and Falcons.

But as it stands right now, only three of their final 11 games are against teams with a winning record. The Vikings still have to play the Detroit Lions (3-1) twice, including their next game Oct. 12 at TCF Bank Stadium. And they have the rematch with the Packers (3-2) on Nov. 23.

The Vikings will have six home games and five road games, and their road contests outside of the division are games at Buffalo, Tampa Bay and Miami, all of which could be good opportunities for victories.

Gophers senior running back David Cobb is eighth in the nation averaging 144.4 rushing yards per game, which is also good for third in the Big Ten behind Nebraska's Ameer Abdullah and Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon. But Cobb wouldn't be with the Gophers if it wasn't for one big coaching change in 2010.

Cobb was planning to sign with Stanford before his senior season at Ellison High School in Killeen, Texas, but when coach Jim Harbaugh left the school following an 11-1 season and Orange Bowl victory to coach the San Francisco 49ers, Cobb decided to look elsewhere.

"Once Coach Harbaugh left Stanford, a new staff came in and it wasn't exactly what I wanted," Cobb said. "Coach [Jerry] Kill called me up, showed us on a visit, showed my parents and me a good time. He had a lot of respect for me — that was the biggest thing was he made me feel at home. He was straightforward with me, told me if I was good enough I would play and if I wasn't I would wait.

"He was straightforward with me, so that was the biggest thing to make me feel comfortable, and that's why I came here."

"Coach Kill and the staff, the staff was so loyal," Cobb said. "They are so honest with you and tell you straight up how it is. You can always respect that about a coach and a coaching staff. It kind of reminded me of my family. They took care of me, showed me a good time, fed me some good food, had me in a nice hotel. So everything took care of itself."

Cobb's cousin is Damien Wilson, the linebacker who is having a great season leading the Gophers with 51 tackles. Cobb said that when Wilson signed with the Gophers in 2013 out of a junior college, it helped make him the player he is today.

"Coming off my sophomore year into my junior year, my cousin had come here and I had family," Cobb said. "One thing I knew about him was when he got here, there wasn't anything that was going to stop him from getting on the field. So I mean, I didn't want to be that guy that's not on the field in the family.

"Besides that, it was just more work, putting in more work with [offensive quality control] coach [Nate] Griffin after practice and being in the weight room. And it's just one of those things where I could be here for four years and not play, and say I was on the football team. Or I could be here for my last two years and actually contribute to the team. I was just kind of coming home to my dorm fresh from not playing. So I mean, hats off to the coaching staff for not giving up on me. The biggest thing for me was putting in more work in the offseason, just taking it a little more serious."

• One of the reasons the Packers were able to dominate the Bears 38-17 on Sunday was the absence of former Vikings defensive lineman Jared Allen, who was out because of a pneumonia scare. He lost 15 pounds during the week and missed his first game in seven years, a run of 113 consecutive starts. Allen returned to Bears practice Wednesday and was hopeful to play against Carolina this weekend.