Monday (The free fall of Christian Ponder) edition: Wha' Happened?

We've had a full weekend to absorb what transpired at Lambeau Field on Thursday, and what we keep coming back to is this: when and how did things become THIS bad for Christian Ponder?

This was a guy who, as a first-round pick in 2011, showed some promise as a rookie. This is a guy who in his second year — with ample help from Adrian Peterson and others — started all 16 games for a team that made the playoffs.

(As an aside: Leslie Frazier and Bill Musgrave probably should have been given lifetime contracts, in retrospect, for that miracle).

This was a guy who started to fall apart last year, but even throughout the comical QB carousel there remained a notion that the team's defensive woes were a bigger problem and that a few stops at critical times might have made his season look better.

How did that guy become what we saw Thursday? Or the larger question: Was Ponder always the same QB from the first snap he took through Thursday's debacle, and we've just been viewing him through different lenses — first optimism, then true evaluation, and now pessimism?

From here, it looks like this: Ponder's skill set, however you might define it, never evolved. He was skittish and prone to run as a rookie, and he still is today. He never had the vision required to be an elite quarterback.

What he did have, at a certain point, was the ability to play within himself and a confidence that came from winning (2012). In the must-have final game of that regular season, Ponder was very good against the Packers and led the Vikings on the game-winning field goal drive that clinched their playoff berth.

What we do know is this: In 2014, any confidence he once had, on the field, appears to be gone. Relegated to a third-string role on a team that now has a new QB of the future and at least started the season with a clear quarterback pecking order, Ponder knew exactly where he stood and he played like it on Thursday.