Border Battle

On October 23 the Vikings took on their biggest rival and the defending super bowl champions the Green Bay Packers.  The Packers are currently at the top of the NFC North division and thet are undefeated.  This was the first start for the Vikings rookie quarterback Christian Ponder.  Christian Ponder was the twelfth overall pick in the 2011 NFL draft.  It was finally after six games that the Vikings decided to bench Donovan Mcnabb.  To me it was six games too late, Mcnabb has played terribly the whole season and it was about time the Vikings tried something different.  They Vikings have struggled at the QB possition for many years, they had one good year with Brett Favre making it all the way to the NFC championship but after that its been all downhill.  The Vikings started off the game hot going seventy three yards on three plays ending the drive with a two yard touchdown pass to the tight end Visanthe Shiancoe.  The Packers answered right away with a long drive of their own and a touchdown pass to John Kuhn.  The second quarter started off great for the Vikings with a touchdown run from Adrian Peterson making the score 14-7 Vikings.  The rest of the quarter was back and forth with a field goal from the Vikings and two from the Packers. The third quarted was all Packers, they scored two touchdowns right off the bat followed by two field goals.  The quarter ended with the Vikings down 33-17. In the fourth quarter the Vikings started to make the game interesting with an unanswered field goal and a touchdown coming within six points. But in the end they just couldn’t pull it out losing 27-33.  There is a silver lining in this loss though, the Vikings may have finally found a solid player for the quarterback position.  Christian Ponder had a solid game going 13/32 with 219 yards passing and 2 touchdowns.  The Vikings play the Carolina Panthers next which should be a very winnable game for them.