Christian Ponder and Teddy Bridgewater have similar statistics in their first two starts as NFL rookie quarterbacks.
In 2011 Ponder threw three touchdown passes with a 80.95 rating in a loss to the Packers and win over the Panthers. Bridgewater has no touchdown passes and a 70.1 rating after a win last month against the Falcons and yesterday’s loss to the Lions. Ponder had two interceptions in his first two games while Bridgewater has three. Ponder totaled 455 yards in those games, Bridgewater 505.
Since the 2013 season Ponder’s disappointing play made him Public Enemy No. 1 with Vikings fans while Bridgewater has been greeted this year as a savior. Before yesterday’s home game Bridgewater’s mother drew attention from the media outside TCF Bank Stadium, and then sounded the Gjallarhorn prior to kickoff. All was well when her son took the field for the Vikings’ first offensive possession and the crowd chanted, “Teddy! Teddy!”
Moments later, though, the 21-year-old Bridgewater threw a bad pass that was intercepted in the Lions’ end zone, killing the best Vikings’ drive of the day. The next time Bridgewater took the field in the first quarter there was no chanting. Then on his third series of the day he fumbled, although the Vikings recovered the ball.
Before the game ended the youngest Viking had thrown three interceptions and could have had a couple more picked off by the Lions. It was a bad day for the offense as the Vikings, now 2-4, came up with only 212 yards and three points on a fourth quarter Blair Walsh field goal.
The similar stats of Ponder and Bridgewater aren’t to suggest who was initially better—or will have the superior long-term career. The numbers, though, make the point that fans expecting rookie quarterbacks to carry offenses and teams in their first games, and seasons, is a task beyond almost any player past or present.
Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer was angry after yesterday’s 17-3 loss to the Lions, a rival team that is now 4-2 and leading the NFC North with the Packers. He didn’t go overboard to defend Bridgewater in the postgame news conference. “There’s a lot of people that could have done better including him,” Zimmer said.
Bridgewater was sacked eight times in the game, a major indictment of the offensive line. He also threw off-target at times while during other plays his receivers dropped balls or didn’t come up with catches that looked possible.
The Vikings only rushed for 69 yards. Part of that is on the offensive line, too.
Left tackle Matt Kalil was frustrated after the game and pointed out the Lions have been among the best defenses in the league. “We definitely had our hands full. We just let some plays get away from us,” he said. “Just little mistakes we gotta fix. They capitalized on them and got pressure on Teddy, and that was the story today.”
Ponder has seen that story, too, but it’s not one an angry Zimmer wants to get used to. “We’re going to look at everything again,” he said when asked about personnel changes.
Worth Noting
Tickets reportedly were being sold for as low as $10 on the street before yesterday’s Vikings game. Other sellers were asking for prices of $20 and $30 per ticket.
Vikings executive vice president Lester Bagley said last week no “announcement is imminent” about naming rights for the new downtown stadium opening in July of 2016. There are 18 Fortune 500 companies in the state—including 17 in the metro area—and Bagley indicated it’s likely one will buy the naming rights. Benefits for a Minnesota company are expected to exceed those accrued by a business from outside the state.
Jalen Myrick’s 100-yard kickoff return was the difference in the Gophers’ 24-17 win over Northwestern on Saturday. The Georgia native said neither in college or high school had he returned a kickoff for a score. “If they come up at me again, I am gonna have to get’em to pay,” the sophomore said.
Myrick was named Big Ten Co-Special Teams Player of the week with Michigan’s Matt Wile, and Gophers’ senior linebacker Damien Wilson was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week for his career high 15 tackles including 1.5 tackles for loss performance in the win over Northwestern. He leads the conference with 11 tackles per game.
Although the Gophers are 5-1 overall, and 2-0 in the Big Ten, they aren’t included in the nation’s top 25 polls. David Cobb, who rushed for 103 yards in Minnesota’s win on Saturday, was asked if the Gophers belong. “That’s up to the people who rank,” he said.
Texas Tech, coached by Tubby Smith, is last in a Big 12 coaches poll released last week forecasting the order of finish for conference basketball teams in 2015. Smith never had a winning league record in six seasons as Gophers coach, nor did he in 2013-2014 at Tech, his first season there. Smith did coach three NCAA Tournament teams at Minnesota and five times won 20 or more games. Iowa State, coached by former Timberwolves player and executive Fred Hoiberg, will place fifth in the 10-team league and Kansas will finish first, according to the poll.
Smith successfully recruited Rice Lake’s Wally Ellenson but after Ellenson transferred earlier this year Minnesota lost any chance of getting his brother Henry, now a coveted high school senior. Both Ellensons will play at Marquette a year from this fall.
Tech has offered a scholarship to Tre Jones, the Apple Valley High School ninth grader. His brother Tyus is a freshman at Duke where first-year teammate Jahlil Okafor is a favorite to win college player of the year awards but he will have competition from Wisconsin senior Frank Kaminsky.
Preseason polls will have Duke and Wisconsin at or near the top, while the Gophers are a contender for an early top 25 ranking.
Apple Valley plays DeLaSalle, featuring Gophers commit Jarvis Johnson, in one of 15 games on December 13 at Minnetonka High School as part of the Tip Off Classic.
Former Timberwolves center Darko Milicic announced last month he will become a professional kickboxer.
Flip Saunders might start answering to the nickname “Cop.” He is coach, owner (minority) and president of basketball operations for the Timberwolves.