At last, Christian Ponder played like a competent NFL quarterback last Sunday. He must have, because all the critics in the Twin Cities were jumping up to blame both the Vikings offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator for the fact that the Vikings lost 31-30 in Chicago.

    Strange, but when the same offensive coordinator called the shots as Ponder led the team into position for a late touchdown that would have clinched what was then a 3-point game, and when he called for Ponder to throw a pass into the end zone on second down, there was no accompanying order that Ponder miss his target that time. But when the third-down play was Adrian Peterson up the middle for no gain, the Vikings had to settle for a field goal and a 6-point lead, it was all finger-pointing time.
   The lead didn’t last because Jay Cutler brought the Bears back for a late touchdown pass, which set the same critics off to blame the defensive coordinator. Only the players got it right, saying profoundly that when the coordinator calls the play, it’s still up to them to execute and make it effective.

In Ponder’s case, my only curious thought is whether or not he is allowed to call audibles when he comes up to the line and sees the planned play heading for trouble and maybe the defense is giving something else. Sure, I would have liked to see Peterson run wide with a pitchout, instead of trying to crack a rugged Bear defensive line.

But consider in both cases, had either Ponder’s second-down pass or Peterson’s third-down plunge been successful, the same critics would have raved about how great they were, and the offensive and defensive coordinators would have remained nameless.

Incidentally, San Diego didn’t play fair, keeping the ball impressively away from the Philadelphia Eagles and beating coach Chip Kelly’s hurry-up offense. Interestingly, while watching Denver and the New York Giants in the Manning on Manning duel, Denver dominated and won. Payton Manning called no-huddle plays and took immediate snaps all game in his own personal version of the hurry-up style.

How many times have you watched a defensive struggle football game suddenly flare to life in the closing minutes because the quarterback and offense switched to a no-huddle, hurry-up offense. It almost always works better than what had been a wearisome slowpoke offense until then. I’ve always wondered why teams in the NFL didn’t try more hurry-up, 2-minute drill game plans. Chip Kelly proved it can work, now we’ll have to watch to see how many teams give it a try.