Did Christian Ponder cost the Vikings a Playoff win?
After an embarrassing 10-24 loss to the Green Bay Packers on Lambeau Field and a questionable injury to Minnesota Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder. One has to wonder whether Ponder has the mental and physical toughness for the NFL. The one fact from the loss is that Joe Webb only completed 11 of 30 for 180 yards, one touchdown and one interception. To put it bluntly, Joe Webb played terrible. He lacked pocket presence, pocket awareness and was woefully inaccurate for the majority of the game.
The Vikings offense couldn’t get their you know what together till the second half, which was too late. Christian Ponder lit up the Packers one week prior and could have done it again in the Wild Card round, but a right elbow injury kept him out of the game. Ponder described the injury as a “deep bruise” in an interview with the associated press, but whatever issues he could have had throwing the ball would have been 100% better than the performance Joe Webb did. It is especially disappointing to Adrian Peterson, because he led this Vikings team to the Playoffs.
Peterson having to endure a full-blown blowout on national television after the season he had with the team he had is heartbreaking. Ponder has always been a question mark for the Vikings and 2013 may be his final season if he can’t prove he is the leader of this football team. It’s the Playoffs and you’re letting a deep bruise in your elbow keep you out of the game? Something as minor as that should be something you just tape up and play. Ponder should have at least been active to step in and save the disaster, but the Vikings were stuck with Webb. There may be more to the injury than has been reported, but the only thing we learned from the Minnesota loss is that Joe Webb might have played his last game with the Vikings ever.
James Cobern is a Featured Journalist for TPF and can be contacted at JCobern@ThePenaltyFlagBlog.com.
Thank you Dr. Cobern.
First off i am a huge vikings fan and will be forever. I dont see any reason from this article to be mad at either Christian Ponder or Joe Webb.
In the backlash of RG III saying he was alright to play which clearly was not and the injury he sustained im glad for the relationship that Ponder, Leslie, and the vikings traing staff have. Being able to look past this one game and into the future of the franchise is tough for coaches and players to do (RG III Redskins coaching staff). This year our chance of winning the super bowl were minimal but a healthy adrian peterson, christian ponder, and our young team having another full year of experience next year drastically improve our chances.
the Joe Webb thing is simple he wasnt comfortable because a lack of reps and he wasnt willing to make a decision/mistake so he tended to over and under throw everything. Ponder had the same problem in the middle of this season when he was just scared to look downfield hench the 2 yard playbook that came about int he 2nd half of the year.
Apparently you don’t know shit about the injury to Ponder or you wouldn’t be making such ludacrious assumptions. Typical tho that people like you who make these type of article think they actually know anything about the topic they are writting about. But anyone with a brain knows you most likely know very little. Glad to see you are a doctor and diagnosed Ponder and gave him the thumbs up to play. Do your researvh before you make yourself look like an even bigger dumbass.