Vikings look to bounce back from Packers debacle against Raiders

Vikings – Raiders

"Embarrassing" was a word used often this week to describe the Minnesota Vikings performance after enduring a 45-7 beatdown Monday night at the hands of the Green Bay Packers.

Another word that could have been used was "expected." The Vikings aren't very good, and the Packers are. Combine those two truths and you often get a lopsided result.

It's tough writing these game previews when the Vikings are realistically out of playoff chase. Wins and losses don't really matter now, only the performances of certain players (i.e. rookie quarterback Christian Ponder.) And if that's the case, what's the point in previewing anything?

Still I'd like to see the Vikings be competitive. And I think they can be against the 5-4 Oakland Raiders, who are enjoying a bit of a renaissance.

The renaissance is fueled by a fine one-two running tandem in Michael Bush and Darren McFadden (who may not play.) Wide receivers Darius Heyward-Bey, Denarius Moore and Jacoby Ford (who also may not play) can all fly. Carson Palmer has thrown for 631 yards and five touchdowns (but also four interceptions) his last two games. In short, the Raiders have some weapons that could give a struggling Vikings defence some real problems on Sunday.

Now the Raiders are no hell on defence, either. The squad's pass defence is ranked 22nd in the NFL, and is giving up 246 passing yards per game. But can the Vikings take advantage of that weakness with the slate of wide receivers they have? Probably not.

To win this game, the Vikings need every defensive lineman – besides Jared Allen, who is playing out of his mind – to wake up and get to Palmer, who isn't very mobile. They can't fall behind early because that takes Adrian Peterson out of the game. And they need Ponder to bounce back from a rough outing against the Packers.

But that's probably too much to ask for this team.

Raiders 28 – Vikings 20

Other Stuff

* ESPN's Kevin Seifert delves into a rare occurrence – the Vikings hardly ever turn the ball over and yet they are still losing.

• Seifert also wonders what the future holds for cornerback Antoine Winfield (scroll down to item #4 in this post.)

It's a good question. Winfield missed more tackles when he played this year than I can ever remember, but he was still a pretty effective player. But he'll be 35 soon and you have to figure the injury bug is going to continue to bite him at his age. Winfield is one of my all-time favorite Vikings, but management might want to see this offseason if they can trade him to a contender for a high draft pick. They won't get a first rounder for him, or probably even a second rounder, but a third or fourth might be possible.

Such a trade would be good for both parties. Winfield gets to finish his career playing meaningful football. The Vikings pick up an extra draft pick to aid in the rebuilding process.

* The Star-Tribune's Dan Wiederer points out Ponder's stats aren't all that great after three starts.

I think Sunday's game will tell us something about the rookie. If he bounces back and has a decent-to-good game, that will show us that Ponder's got a short memory and learns from his mistakes. If he struggles again, we'll start to fret and grumble about him. He might even get booed by the home fans. I'm a bit nervous about how Sunday's game will turn out for Ponder.