Stop Me If You've Heard This One. . .

Ever since mid-to-late September, each week of this Minnesota Vikings' football season has included another exciting round of "Who's Going To Start At Quarterback This Week?" At this point, they could just as well make it one of the prizes in the Vikings-themed Minnesota lottery scratch-off game. I doubt any of the potential winners would be worse than the options currently on the table.

This week, apparently, isn't going to be any different. After a week where starter Christian Ponder went 3-for-8 in the first half against the Chicago Bears before getting concussed and giving way to Matt Cassel (who played a pretty good game overall), the Vikings have decided on. . .nothing. Absolutely nothing.

But coach Leslie Frazier wasn't ready to commit to a starter on Monday, even if Cassel turns out to be the choice.

"You could easily do that, but I think for us it would be wise to talk things through," Frazier said. "There's no reason at this point on Monday that we have to make a decision. We can talk it through and do what's best.

. . .

"You can't, from my vantage point, just look at that first half of yesterday's ballgame," Frazier said. "You take a look at his body of work from the Green Bay game, where he played a pretty good football game.

"So going into this game on Sunday against Chicago, I really felt good about the way he practiced, the way he played previously. I don't think you can totally eliminate things he had done up to that point."

Prior to this Sunday's game against the Bears, Fox sideline reporter Laura Okmin reported that the Vikings' veterans had gone to Coach Frazier and asked him to simply decide on a quarterback. Apparently Ponder was the guy that the coaching staff decided on (not surprisingly). And it appears that it lasted all of two quarters of football.

We've been having this debate all year. We know that Christian Ponder is not good. We know that Matt Cassel, while possibly less "not good" than Ponder, is also not good. But those are probably your two options at this point.

You would think that Josh Freeman might be an option, but I have a feeling that ship has sailed. Freeman's been an NFL quarterback for nearly five seasons, and has been with the Vikings for two months. He's being asked to learn the playbook. . .he's not being asked to translate the Dead Sea Scrolls or to become fluent in Klingon. If the team hasn't seen fit to put him on the field at this point. . .or to even have him active unless there are so many injuries that he's active by default. . .then it's not even worth wondering about any longer. Just count it as a waste of time and money and let's all move on.

I say that as someone that was excited and intrigued by the Freeman signing when it occurred. If he's not getting a shot now, he's probably not going to get one. Which probably means that he'll be starting in Baltimore on Sunday.

So, once again, we play the waiting game with the Vikings' quarterback position. It might be intriguing if any of the options were any good, but they're not. I'm sure the Baltimore Ravens aren't exactly worried about it, either.