FanPost

Vikings/Cardinals pre-season game observations (and more Joe Webb)

[So I wrote this on Monday, and then got distracted and forgot about posting it. I suppose the saying that "It's better late than never" applies, unless of course you hate it and think never would have been better. If that's the case, tough noogies. Ha!]

On Saturday, the Vikings played against the Cardinals. The Cardinals are what I would describe as being a real NFL football team. I'm not sure I can say that about the Oakland Raiders. In fairness to the Oakland Raiders, I think their team might be able to say the same thing about the Vikings given last season's record. Anyway, the Cardinals were a worthy opponent for the Vikings to play this past week, and this is what I took away from the game.

Matt Cassel was really, really good. He was good the previous week, but he was really, really good this past week. With the exception of a narrow overthrow on a 29 yard pass down the right sideline to a tightly-covered Patterson, Cassel was pretty much on the money all night long. He didn't just hit his receivers, he delivered the ball to them in stride time and time again. Last year, Cassel showed that capacity by memorably hitting Greg Jennings in stride on a slant route that went for a 70+ yard TD. On Saturday on the 3rd offensive possession, Cassel threw a 33 yard pass to Kyle Rudolph who caught it in stride and motored down the left side line for a 51 yard touchdown. Dang! That was fun to watch! And Cassel did that throughout the first half with throws that were a blend of short, opportunistic (and bail out) passes and long, downfield strikes. He started the game with a 17 yard pass to Rudolph. In the second series, Cassel had a critical 19 yard completion to Simpson on a 3rd and 15. In the next series, there was the 51 yard passing play to Rudolph. The next series had a 15 yard pass to Rudolph and a 16 yard play to Jennings on a perfectly placed slant thrown to Jennings about 7 yard past the line of scrimmage.

The Vikings were fairly balanced in their game plan with Cassel at the helm though the running game was not all that effective. There were a couple of good runs, but everything else was pretty ho hum or decidedly bad. The mix of plays in each of Cassel's series was:

1st series - 2 runs; 2 pass plays (of which one became a 3 yard scramble)

2nd series - 5 runs; 7 pass plays (of which two became a 23 yard and 5 yard scramble)

3rd series - 1 run; 1 pass play

4th series - 1 run; 5 pass plays

The four series came to an end as follows:

1st series - Series started at the Minnesota 23. Cassel narrowly overthrew Patterson on a 29 yard pass (as mentioned earlier) on 3rd and 8 from the Vikings 41.

2nd series -Series started at the Minnesota 32. Cassel throws a nice fade to the back right corner of the end zone on 3rd and goal from the 3. It was a perfect throw and was dropped by Rudolph who is usually automatic on those types of plays.

3rd series - Series started at Minnesota 38. 51 yard TD by Rudolph on the 2nd play of the series.

4th series - Series started at Minnesota 49. On 3rd and 13, Cassel looked to the right side of the field and eventually checked down to McKinnon who was tackled for a minimal gain.

Overall, Cassel was great in the pocket. He was also pretty good when the pocket broke down. I remember reading that Cassel was a reserve tight end and a reserve receiver at various times during his college career at USC. Cassel didn't seem quick or fast, but he was good enough to make some real yardage on Saturday when he opted to run. He had scrambles of 3 yards, 5 yards and 23 yards, and his decisions to run were impeccable.

At the end of the night, Matt Cassel was 12 of 16 for 153 yards. He had a 9.6 average with 1 TD and 0 interceptions. His passer rating was 125.3. Worth mentioning is the fact that Cassel's numbers would have been even better if Rudolph hadn't dropped the first TD pass from Cassel. The yardage stats would have only improve by 3, but Cassel would have been 13 of 16 with 2 TDs and a passer rating of whatever it is that passer rating people make up (yeah, I'm not a big fan of passer ratings). In addition to 153 yards of passing, Cassel had three rushes (scrambles) for 30 yards.

As good as Bridgewater's 2nd pre-season game was, I think that Cassel was the better quarterback on Saturday. He was near perfect, and I think the coaching staff is likely to be pretty excited by what he has shown this pre-season. Norv Turner and Matt Cassel look to be a good pairing. That's seems funny to me given that this off season it seemed like every time Matt Cassel was mentioned in a post his name was followed by the words, "and we know Matt Cassel isn't the answer at quarterback." (Yeah, the success rate on evaluating quarterbacks here at the DN hasn't been good).

Moving on.

Teddy Bridgewater looked good on Saturday. Like the previous week, I really liked what I saw from him. He used the pocket well. He looked to make passes downfield, and when the pressure came (as invariably it does), he adjusted nicely. He moved well in the pocket and stood his ground to deliver the ball to receivers even when he knew he was going to get hit. While he wasn't as accurate with his throws as Cassel was, his throws generally had more zip than Cassel's and were plenty effective. Bridgewater ended the night at 16 of 20 for 177 yards for a 8.9 average. He had 2 TDs and 0 interceptions. His passer rating was 136.9. He was sacked once for an eight yard loss.

Bridgewater's consistency was the most impressive thing to me. He appears to be a quarterback with good skills and good instincts. I really liked what I saw from Bridgewater in the first game, and I really liked what I saw from Bridgewater in the second game, and I'm pretty excited because I think Bridgewater has the tools and approach to the game to be a very solid quarterback for the Vikings -- and maybe even a great one. Who knows? It's too early to know for sure, but I don't think it's too early to say that Bridgewater has shown the style of play in the pocket that leads me to believe he's for real and is capable of being a good QB and maybe even a special one. And importantly for me, his play on the field has already differentiated him from Ponder in my view.

As mentioned earlier, Bridgewater was not as accurate in his throws as Cassel was. Whereas Cassel's accuracy added very significant yardage to several notable throws, Bridgewater was good but not as accurate. On his first series, Bridgewater threw a fade to Jerome Simpson in the end zone but threw to the wrong shoulder which resulted in an incompletion. That incompletion forced the Vikings to kick a field goal from the 2 yard line. On the last series, Bridgewater underthrew Smith on a 37 yard completion. In my opinion, the defender could have and should have made a play on that ball. I think a starting cornerback would have been in a position to intercept the ball and at a minimum would have had his body between Smith and ball. Be that as it may, these are not significant criticisms of Bridgewater. I think he was really good considering the fact he was playing in only his second pre-season game in the NFL. And his stats on the night were great. However, I mention it because I saw a lot of folks suggest that Bridgewater had made a case to start the season. I don't think that's the case. Bridgewater is playing really well, but he is not playing as well as Matt Cassel, and there's no reason to put a lesser product on the field right now.

Christian Ponder didn't play on Saturday. And given that the 3rd pre-season game has traditionally been the game in which the starters play into the 3rd quarter, I think there's a very good chance that Ponder won't play in the 3rd pre-seasongame as well. That means the 4th pre-season game will be Ponder's only remaining chance to make a case for himself making the roster on another team. Why another team? Well, I think the Vikings should avoid giving Ponder a roster spot. Here's why:

I think Ponder is a bad quarterback. I've thought that for a long time. In the past, I'd hoped he'd improve with more experience, but his challenges were obvious pretty early on. Ponder has no feel for the pocket. He doesn't see the field well. He still gets myopic and stares down his receivers. He's never managed to consistently make teams pay for pressing the line of scrimmage. He's pretty bad in the pocket. AND Ponder has a relatively weak arm.

I'd hoped that Ponder would figure out the mental side of the game as he got more experience, but that didn't happen. He was never able to adjust to the fact that defenses figured him out and adjusted accordingly. Now that Ponder is the 3rd string quarterback on this team, he is not going to be getting the game or practice experience he'll need to improve the mental side of his game. And frankly, I don't believe he's likely to improve in that regard anyway. Furthermore, Ponder's upside is pretty limited given his less than impressive physical attributes. He's not accurate as a passer, and he doesn't have a strong arm. Why invest a roster spot on a 3 year veteran who is a bad quarterback. He isn't likely to get better by running the scout team and seeing more game film.

If the team is dead set on having a 3rd quarterback on the roster, I think they should go looking on the open market after teams make their final cuts for the 53 man roster. However, this year, with both Cassel and Bridgewater looking pretty good, I think the Vikings have the option of going into the season with two quarterbacks. I'm not sure that's the right way to go if there's a young quarterback out there that looks like an investment for the future. If there's one out there, I'd grab him. However, I firmly believe that Ponder brings little to no value to the team at this point, and I'd use his spot on the roster to keep a role player.

Other random observations:

Rhodes looked really good to me on Saturday. His coverage was tight, and he turned to the ball very well. His one big mistake was a terrible missed tackle on the first defensive series. He missed a pretty easy tackle on the Cardinal's John Brown that turned a 4 yard gain into a 51 yard play.

Sherrels played a lot on Saturday. I was a bit surprised that the game started with the diminutive Sherrels covering Larry Fitzgerald while on the opposite side Rhodes was covering the speedster John Brown.

Linval Joseph didn't play as a result of his minor gunshot injury. So I am basically left to assume that the minor gunshot injury wasn't a scratch or a bruise. That makes me wonder how long it takes for a bullet penetration to heal. There is probably no more important major muscle than the calf muscle for a defensive tackle who is expected to regularly take on double teams. I'm a little worried honestly.

Sullivan had a really nice play in the second series when he reached up to swat Dan Williams the Cardinals nose tackle who had jumped the gun a bit. It looked like he was moving back to his spot when Sullivan reached out from his pre-snap stance and swatted him. The refs threw a flag and called Williams for encroachment. Bruce Arians the Cardinals head coach wasn't please about the call... at all.

The running game hasn't looked that good to me so far this pre-season. I'm not sure if the issue is Asiata, Banyard and McKinnon or the offensive line. I guess we'll find out when the season starts up and Adrian Peterson takes the field.

Everson Griffen looked very solid to me. He did a good job of getting pressure on the quarterback. We still haven't seen him play a full game, but I think it will be fun when we do.

Paul Allen Moments of Genius:

The first instance of the genius of Paul Allen occurred after the Cardinals lined up for an extra point from the 25 yard line.

Paul Allen: "False start. Cardinals. How about this? A 38 yard point after touchdown try. So let me get this straight. Blair Walsh kicks a field goal from 21 yards and we get 3. Yet their guy, Jay Feely, has to hit from 38 to get 1.

Pete Bercich: Well I know. Don't try to find any logic in that. Although in this case if... I guess they're going to make it on the kick off."

Allen: "Well then why can't you just false start every time?"

Bercich: "Well why... cause you'd be kicking from your own goal line eventually."

Allen: (excitedly) "Try to draw someone off [sides]."

Bercich: (perplexed) "You can't... you can't intentionally draw a defender offsides."

Allen: (sounding a tad annoyed) "I understand."

The second instance of the genius of Paul Allen occurred when Blair Walsh missed an extra point.

Paul Allen: "Walsh. Extra point." (Ball is in the air and goes wide right). "YES! 18 seconds left." (Refs wave no good while Allen talks and talks and talks and then after the kick off) "The scoreboard says 30-28" (long pause) "Yeah, it's 30-28 Vikings." I don't think Paul Allen ever realized that Walsh missed the extra point. So in summary, Paul Allen really only gets himself into trouble when he starts talking, when he continues talking and when he refuses to stop talking. Other than that, I think he's fine.

Joe Webb: Yup. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna tell you how Joe Webb did against Kansas City last night. Joe Webb was 2 of 3 for 27 yards with a 9 yard average and a 95.1 passer rating. He was sacked once for a 9 yard loss. Here's what's notable about his performance:

First, Joe Webb moved up the depth chart from 4th to 3rd. He came in at the end of the 3rd period after the Panthers returned an interception to Kansas City's 8 yard line. The Panthers ran two consecutive running plays. The first got them 1 yard, and the second got them 2 yards. On the 3rd play of the series, the Panthers were at the 5 yard line. Joe Webb took the snap and in the face of an unblocked blitzer threw a beautiful fade off his back foot to the right corner of the end zone. Tight end, Brandon Williams, had the ball hit him in both hands, dropped it, and looked really bad in the process. It was very similar to the ball Rudolph dropped in the Minnesota game, but Rudolph's was a tough catch to make compared to the fade that Webb threw to Williams. Williams was bailed out though. Kansas City was called for defensive holding, and on the next play, the Panthers Fozzy Whitaker punched it in from one yard out.

On the next series, the Panthers started at the Carolina 10 yard line. The Panthers ran 4 straight running plays. On 2nd and 8 from the 23, Webb threw a perfect 30 yard rainbow down the right sideline. It was a perfect throw and hit the receiver in both hands. He dropped it. That was Webb's only incomplete pass on the night.

Webb followed that play with a short throw over the top of the line as Webb faced pass rush pressure. The pass hit the running back in stride and resulted in a 22 yard gain. That was followed by two running plays. Webb then threw a short throw for 5 yards. On 3rd and 5, Webb was sacked. By the time he went down, he had defenders draped all over him.

Webb ended up playing two series (including one very short series that started 8 yards from the opponent's end zone) and had a respectable 2 of 3 for 27 yards. His results should have been much better. But for two bad drops on perfectly thrown balls, Webb would have been 4 of 4 for 60 yards, 1 TD and some silly passer rating well north of 100.

After Webb's second nice outing, there is an open question of whether or not the Panthers will put three QBs on their roster this year. Last year they had only two. I think the Panthers will be tempted to keep Webb, but I obviously don't know what the Panthers will ultimately do. What I can say is that it looks like Joe Webb has done enough this pre-season to be a really tempting option for several teams with quarterback issues this season. The Oakland Raiders and Houston Texans immediately come to mind as potential landing spots for Webb if the Panthers release him. And of course, the Vikings would upgrade their 3rd string quarterback position if they go ahead and dump Ponder to pick up Webb. That won't happen, but it would be an improvement and was too irresistible not to mention.

So that's it for this week. Gosh, I'm in a good mood this week. I love watching good quarterback play.

This FanPost was created by a registered user of The Daily Norseman, and does not necessarily reflect the views of the staff of the site. However, since this is a community, that view is no less important.