Sorry for the delay on getting this out. My Adrian Peterson hangover combined with my Thursday Night Football hangover has suddenly made other things feel like a higher priority… like raking leaves, taking naps, and finally watching Draft Day (dreadful). My excuses have run out, however, so here we are.
After plenty of time to digest the debacle against the Packers I have determined that the Vikings looked exactly like something that has been fully digested. It is a struggle to point to any individual performances from that game that are “Player of the Game” worthy. Even in bad losses that is an unusual occurrence, but this game was an extra special flavor of bad. That is why “none” is actually a legitimate option in this week’s poll.
Past Winners:
WEEK ONE: Cordarrelle Patterson
WEEK TWO: Harrison Smith
WEEK THREE: Harrison Smith
WEEK FOUR: Teddy Bridgewater
This week’s nominations are…
ADAM THIELEN: The game was pretty much in the bag by the time Thielen got involved, but he did manage four catches off of five targets, each of which went for a first down.
The BUT: His third quarter unsportsmanlike conduct penalty gave the Packers 15 yards in an even easier fashion than they were already getting them in.
CHARLIE JOHNSON: He didn’t suck.
The BUT: The offensive line sucked.
HARRISON SMITH: Smith ended his day with six tackles, five solo, a tackle for a loss, and a Matt Flynn interception. He was clearly the Vikings best defender, which is becoming the norm, but that didn’t come even close to being enough to matter.
The BUT: That Jordy Nelson touchdown. Yikes.
JEFF LOCKE: He was a busy guy in this game with seven total punts and an average of 43.4 yards. His longest punt was 56 yards, one was inside the 20, and the Packers never had a return longer than 11 yards (they returned four of them).
The BUT: Punter.
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I would suggest a "player of the game " poll when we win, and "game loser" poll when we lose. Like Captain moron in the Saints game. In this case, even tho the defense was absolutely shredded in first quarter, my loser of the game vote goes to Ponder. The Vikings players know he can't play, and that's why the defense checked out after the second INT. That's his game and they know it. He couldn't be a high school QB.
We wouldn't have won with Peyton Manning at Q. Our line was that bad, Kalil the only guy with a not terrible game(maybe Sullivan too).
You could've also put in the best HOF O-line you could find and we'd have lost that game with Ponder as QB.
this is like asking who was the best waiter on the hindenburg, while we know the pilot was ponder
Brian Robison for calling guys out after the game. Did any one else think Jordys Td should have been called back on a blatent block in the back on the Packers right tackle? Our DE got shoved to the ground right in front of the official right before Rodgers let the ball go. Wouldnt have made a big difference, but I haven't seen anyone else complain about it.
How is Charlie Johnson on this list. He's been our worst lineman... No he's been our worst player every single game. The guy couldn't block John Randle if he suited up next weekend.
As for player of the game it's Harrison duh.
PS: for all the Ponder haters out there(which I definitely have been) he played decent to good considering his blocking.
Looking at this game in a vacuum, I thought Charlie played pretty well... Better than the others. After seeing your comment I checked in with PFF and Johnson was our only O-Lineman with a positive grade I believe.
PFF also rated Chad Greenway as one of the worst linebackers in the NFL and Fusco as the best i believe(he's good but not close to his ranking). So I take their rankings with a grain of salt. I don't watch the game multiple times but a single eyeball evaluation I thought Johnson was not as bad as the right side this game but not as good as C and LT(considering he had to block that blonde chick)
Ponder did what? You're drunk.
Was there a game?
Cmon, the first int his arm was hit I can't blame him there. Plus he was running for his life the entire time. Honestly considering the situation it was a decent game for the guy. Obviously behind a good line it would be awful but our offensive line played like a college line.
This was meant as a reply for cchof
If he'ld be more decisive and throw the ball on time instead of double clutching it those picks probably don't happen. He didn't get any help out there, that's for sure, but I wouldn't say he did anything close to playing well. I actually thought a couple of the drops the receivers had (the long ball to Wright in particular) were more harmful to Ponder than the line play. The guy has zero confidence and when one thing goes wrong things just seem to spiral out of control for him. I think the worst thing is that the other players just don't seem to respond to him. He doesn't elevate the play of the guys around him and that's a huge problem for a quarterback.
He was horrible. Didn't you also describe Teddy's game vs. Atlanta as "decent"?
Had you flipped the QB's in those games, Vikes would've lost to the Falcons and the Packer game would've been competitive. Teddy is light years ahead of Ponder as an NFL QB.
I'm voting for Teddy. I associate happy with Teddy and sad with not Teddy. There must not have been enough Teddy.