(The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Tuesday (A year of revolving-door Vikings QBs?) edition: Wha' Happened?
If you haven't already geared up for a Christian Ponder/Matt Cassel return to old-time Vikings quarterback shuffles, you should.
July 30, 2013 at 6:16PM
Perhaps you enjoyed the relative calm of 2009, when Brett Favre started all 16 games and brought the Vikings within an eyelash of the Super Bowl. Maybe you even liked 2012, when Christian Ponder, despite a constant clamoring from fans, started all 16 games in the regular season before bowing out with an in injury while fans got what they asked for with Joe Webb in the playoffs.
Remember those years because in recent Vikings vintage, they are the exceptions rather than the rule.
Ever since Daunte Culpepper shredded his knee in 2005 -- ending an era of relative bliss, even if the small hands crowd was a vocal minority -- the Vikings have typically played QB shuffle in-season.
2006? Brad Johnson slogged through 14 games, but hand-picked draftee Tarvaris Jackson took over for the final two.
2007? T-Jack for 12 games, Kelly Holcomb for 3 and Brooks Bollinger for 1.
2008? T-Jack for 5, Gus Frerotte for 11.
2010? Favre for 13, T-Jack for 1, Joe Webb for 2.
2011? Donovan McNabb for the first 6 and Ponder for the final 10.
Many of those switch-a-roos were determined by performance, not injury.
We haven't been down to Mankato yet, but we trust our guy Mark Craig when he says Ponder looks shaky already. If you haven't already geared up for a Ponder/Matt Cassel return to old-time Vikings QB shuffles, you should.
Dominic Bourgeois made a 37-yard field goal as time expired to hand the top-seeded Johnnies their first and only loss of the season.