Chrom
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 |  Subject: Vikings Preseason: An Interesting Night For Joe Webb and McLeod Bethel-Thompson Sat Aug 11, 2012 1:13 pm | |
| - Quote :
- We’ve already briefly discussed
Christian Ponder’s performance in Friday night’s preseason opener.
Ponder played well, completing 4-of-9 passes including a 52-yard bomb to
Stephen Burton. The percentage doesn’t look good but there were three
drops and two throwaways, one forced by pressure from Matt Kalil’s side.
All-in-all, it was a worthy opening performance for Ponder, who looked
much more sure of himself than when last we saw him.
Suffice it to say, the level of quarterback play dropped off
glaringly after Ponder. Joe Webb was next up in the rotation and he was
flat-out brutal. Reports on Webb from training camp have not been
positive and last night’s performance showed us why. Webb seemed
completely lost in the offense, spraying throws all over the place and
basically looking like a guy who doesn’t belong on a football field as a
professional quarterback. Obviously, Webb needs a gimmick offense
designed specifically for him if he is going to succeed (much like Tim
Tebow). Trying to run the Vikings’ basic offense, even in its vanilla
preseason form, he just looks helpless and confused.
Webb’s only highlights were the usual Webb highlights: he scrambles,
you think he’s going to go down, he somehow gets away, he manages to get
the ball off before losing yardage. If Webb occasionally completed a
big play down the field after one of his crazy scrambles, he’d be the
stuff of legend. But running all over the place just to throw it out of
bounds will not make you Fran Tarkenton. It won’t even make you
Christian Ponder. On the basis of last night, Webb isn’t even the #3 QB
on this squad, much less the #2.
So who is the #2 QB if not Webb? Some would like to anoint McLeod
Bethel-Thompson. I personally am not ready to go that far. I get the
appeal of Bethel-Thompson for those who want to crown him – he has a big
arm and the swagger to go with it – but we’re a long, long way from
knowing if this guy has any real potential as a pro quarterback. He made
a couple nice throws in his stint Friday evening, but also threw a pick
and got sacked several times. The sacks weren’t entirely his fault of
course – he was working behind a fourth-strong offensive line – but at
times he did seem to lack pocket awareness.
MBT does appear to have confidence, but it’s that gunslinger “I can
throw a ball into any window” confidence. That’s not really confidence
built on experience, it’s more the cockiness of youth. Ponder, by
contrast, seems to be developing a business-like aplomb. Based on last
night’s performances, Ponder isn’t just the #1 QB, he’s the #1 QB by a
wide margin.
Sage Rosenfels didn’t get to work but at this point I’d say he’s the obvious choice for #2. source Man, I really thought Webb was gonna do something a year ago... but he did look pretty awful last night. | |
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