Vikings

While enjoying yesterday's Vikings win, I got this incredible idea. As much as we all LOVE Christian Ponder and want him to be our quarterback forever, what if...now follow me on this... what if... as much as we adore the man... what if...as absurd as it might sound... what if HE is the primary problem with the Vikings?

I know right now that you must think I'm insane, how could someone as great as Ponder you ask be the reason we are not winning right now?

I offer you yesterday's game as proof. Actually this game was nearly identical to the last two games in which we lost. We had BIG plays on offense and defense. We even scored a nice amount of points, but at the end, just when you thought Pittsburgh was going to pull it out (or at least tie the game) BOOM, they fumbled and we won.

Now if they hadn't fumbled, we'd probably be talking about another Viking's loss today. So it wasn't like Cassel made that big a difference.

Okay. I kid. Cassel played great. But even though we had big plays, and Cassel had no turnovers, and COMPLETED HIS LAST ELEVEN PASSES IN A ROW, we STILL almost lost.

My other points are valid. We were one Pittsburgh fumble away from losing yet another game.

I'm thinking there must be some fundamental flaw in coaching that allows a team to play this well and still almost lose. We got so conservative in the last quarter on offense that we nearly handed Pittsburgh the win on a silver platter. We never even tried to go for first downs once we had the 17 point lead. We were content to punt even though we had a QB with a rare hot hand.

Coach Frazier looked liked his mentor Brad Childress yesterday. And when our bye week is gone, we'll most likely see Frazier's conservative approach once more. Ponder will be back as our starter and Cassel will be back on the bench and we'll lose no matter how many big plays the team makes on offense, defense, and special teams.

Because Ponder is not the main reason we lose. Frazier is. But Ponder is a close second in the voting.