Minneapolis, MN (SportsNetwork.com) – Christian Ponder will get another chance to prove himself for the Minnesota Vikings, with head coach Leslie Frazier announcing Wednesday that the struggling quarterback will start this weekend’s game against the Green Bay Packers.<\/p>\n
Ponder had been benched in favor of Matt Cassel after throwing a pair of fourth-quarter interceptions, one of which was returned for a touchdown, during last Sunday’s 41-20 Minnesota loss at Seattle. The 2011 first-round pick managed just 129 yards and a touchdown on 13-of-22 passing prior to being lifted, though Cassel completed only 5-of-13 attempts for 78 yards in relief.<\/p>\n
The Vikings have gone just 1-6 in Ponder’s seven starts this season, though he had his best performance of the year in the team’s 34-27 victory over Washington the previous week. Frazier also said that the third-year pro has played well against the Packers in the past, which factored in to his decision for Sunday’s game.<\/p>\n
“I just believe at this point Christian gives us the best chance to be successful on Sunday,” Frazier remarked.<\/p>\n
The Vikings have had three different quarterbacks start games during their disappointing 2013 campaign, with Cassel and ex-Buccaneer Josh Freeman also receiving chances under center.<\/p>\n
Freeman struggled mightily in his only start, a 23-7 loss at the New York Giants on Oct. 21 that came less than two weeks after he was signed by Minnesota. He also sustained a concussion during that game and has since been relegated to the No. 3 role upon being cleared.<\/p>\n
“There may come a time where it’s Josh’s turn, but for this ballgame that’s the reason [for starting] Christian,” said Frazier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Minneapolis, MN (SportsNetwork.com) – Christian Ponder will get another chance to prove himself for the Minnesota Vikings, with head coach Leslie Frazier announcing Wednesday that the struggling quarterback will start this weekend’s game against the Green Bay Packers. Ponder had been benched in favor of Matt Cassel after throwing a pair of fourth-quarter interceptions, one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[72,71,73],"class_list":["post-8293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nfl","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-vikings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stub.com\/hq\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}