Christian Ponder Dealing With Rib Injury

As you've likely seen from numerous places by now, Minnesota Vikings' quarterback Christian Ponder suffered a rib injury in the 31-27 loss to the Cleveland Browns in Week 3. Nobody is sure when it was that Ponder suffered the rib injury (though if I had to wager, I'd guess it was on his second touchdown run, when he took a pretty good shot from a Cleveland defender), but Coach Leslie Frazier said that it was a good sign that he "finished the game last weekend," so he played at least some of the game with the injury.

Ponder has said that he expects to play on Sunday, and if he does he will be wearing some extra padding. Nobody is saying at this point just how severe the injury is, but it was severe enough to limit Ponder's participation in Wednesday's practice.

If Ponder is unable to go on Sunday, Matt Cassel will start in his place. This, apparently, also means that our front four will start generating an actual pass rush, our linebackers will shed the cement shoes they've been wearing for three weeks, and this team might actually figure out how to tackle somebody. Oh, and the offensive line will stop stinking up the joint at every opportunity.

That's my understanding, anyway.

This is, obviously, a situation that we'll be monitoring as we get closer to game time. The official injury reports come out on Friday, and we'll see what Ponder's status is at that point.