Vikings' Bridgewater resting, but not Zimmer

If there were a Vikings team record for looking tired the morning after an upset victory, Mike Zimmer would have set it Monday.

The 58-year-old coach went from Sunday afternoon's 41-28 victory over the Falcons at TCF Bank Stadium directly to Winter Park, where he spent the night getting ready for Thursday's NFC North opener at Green Bay.

"Probably won't [go home] tonight, either," Zimmer said.

Hours later, Zimmer's primary concern was further illuminated when reporters were permitted to watch the early portion of a walk-through practice that did not include quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. Starting cornerback Captain Munnerlyn (illness), linebacker Chad Greenway (hand/rib) and tight end Kyle Rudolph (abdomen/groin) also didn't practice, but Bridgewater's sprained left ankle is the main story line heading into a matchup of 2-2 teams at Lambeau Field.

"He is doing a lot better," Zimmer said Monday. "So we'll see. I'm hopeful."

X-rays taken Sunday night were negative. Bridgewater, who missed the final 10 offensive snaps of the game, returned to the sideline in the fourth quarter and wasn't on crutches when he talked to reporters after the game.

More good news arrived Monday when results of his magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test were negative. But the challenges of the short week in the NFL were re-emphasized when Monday's practice opened with former third-stringer Christian Ponder running the first-team offense with practice-squad players McLeod Bethel-Thompson and Chandler Harnish backing him up.

If Ponder has to start Thursday, he'll be Zimmer's third different starting quarterback in a 12-day span. He'll also make offensive coordinator Norv Turner sound prophetic in retrospect for saying on Aug. 19 that Ponder "is a guy that's going to be valuable to our team. … Having three quarterbacks, if that's the way we end up going, that's extremely valuable to me."

Meanwhile, teammates also are hopeful that Bridgewater heals quickly so that he can give an encore to one of the best starting debuts by a rookie quarterback in franchise history. Bridgewater set records in that area for passing yards (317), completions (19), passer rating (98.9) and first career fourth-quarter comeback victory.

"Teddy's a tough guy," said Jarius Wright, who caught eight of those passes for a career-high 132 yards. "Personally, I think he'll be fine. Whatever happened to him, he stayed in a couple of plays after that to throw the two-point conversion [in the fourth quarter]. I'm sure he's going to get well quick."

And if he doesn't?

"Some of the guys may not have been around here, but my rookie year [2012], Christian led us to the playoffs," Wright said. "We needed to win [our last] four games, and we did so to make the wild-card game. So Christian can win in this league. Regardless of what other people may think, I have faith in him."

Ponder also played well at Lambeau Field in last year's 26-26 tie. He completed 70 percent of his passes (21 of 30) and posted the sixth-best passer rating of his career (103.9) despite being sacked six times. Drops by Greg Jennings and Cordarrelle Patterson in the end zone in overtime helped prevent the victory.

Zimmer was asked about his knowledge of the Vikings-Packers rivalry Monday. Rather than make something up, the straight-shooting and sleep-deprived coach came clean and admitted he's got more important issues on his mind.

"Honestly, I don't know that much about it," he said. "I understand about the rivalry, but I'm just trying to get our guys prepared to go play a good game Thursday."