Ponder Makes Good Showing in Vikings Loss Against Packers

Christian Ponder and the Vikings almost won the game. After leading 17-13 at halftime, the Packers dominated the 3rd quarter, forcing the Vikings to attempt a late-game comeback.

The game began with a Christian Ponder 72 yard pass to the 1 yard line, followed by a 2 yard touchdown pass to Visante Shiancoe. The Packers and answered back with a 2 yard touchdown pass by Aaron Rodgers, tying the game at 7-7. At the beginning of the 2nd quarter, Adrian Peterson ran it in from 1 yard out for a Vikings touchdown, making the score 14-7. After 3 field goals (1 by the Vikings and 2 by the Packers), the halftime score was 17-13. In the 3rd quarter, Aaron Rodgers found Greg Jennings wide open for a 79 yard touchdown pass. Just moments later (following a Christian Ponder interception), the Packers scored again on a 2 yard touchdown pass. 2 more Packers field goals left the score at 33-17 for the beginning of the 4th quarter. Early in the 4th, Ryan Longwell kicked in a 46 yard field goal, making the deficit only 14 points. Later in the 4th, Christian Ponder threw a 24 yard touchdown pass to reduce the Packers' lead to 7 points. However, on a 4th and 10 with over 2 minutes to go, coach Leslie Frazier (to the fans disapproval) decided to punt the ball to Green Bay, proving fatal to the Vikings chances of winning as the Vikings defense could not stop the Packers.

Christian Ponder played well and showed good composure, despite being under pressure often. Ponder was 13/32 on pass attempts for 219 yards and had 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Ponder showed that he was the right decision for QB and did give the Vikings the best chance of winning. He also looked calm and made (for the most part) accurate passes. However, he did make some "rookie mistakes" and he will have to improve on those for when it really matters, next year. Nonetheless, Ponder showed that his future is bright to be a star in the NFL.

Adrian Peterson ran 24 carries for 175 yards and 1 touchdown. He was explosive and pulled off some good runs against a talented Packers defense.

The Vikings defense was good, but not when needed most. It seemed throughout much of the game that the Vikings could not get pressure on Aaron Rodgers and he had a lot of time to throw. And when you are playing one of the best QB's in the league, you need to get pressure on the QB because if he has all day to throw (like Rodgers did), he will destroy you all day long. The Vikings did sack Aaron Rodgers 4 times and registered 5 QB hits. I think that had the Vikings blitzed more and got more pressure on Rodgers, the outcome may have been different.

Vikings coach Leslie Frazier made an interesting decision late in the 4th quarter. With about 3 minutes left, the Vikings were faced with a 4th and 10 inside their own 40 yard line. Frazier, with faith in his defense, elected to punt. I disagreed with this call. I know you're not "supposed" to go for it in that situation, but against the defending Super Bowl champions, I thought it was too big of a task for the Vikings defense. Also, Frazier should have considered that Ponder had done well throughout the game on 3rd and long situations and that again, the odds of stopping the Packers was low. Even if they would have turned the ball over, they would have needed to stop the Packers anyway, so why not try to win?

Next week the Vikings play the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte as they take on (also rookie) Cam Newton and the Panthers.