Green Bay Packers Bury Joe Webb, Vikings 24-10 in NFC Wild Card
By Josh Hill
Hours before kickoff, Christian Ponder was made inactive by the Vikings due to an elbow injury he’d been suffering from all week long. But despite the fact that the Vikings were about ot start a guy who had only previously started in two NFL games, the Vikings had an odd swagger about them. Analysts were quickly jumping on the don’t count them out so quick wagon and some actually gave the Vikings a fighting chance.
Then the game started.
Webb made things interesting for a while, but then the Packers put a quick and violent end to the little party the Vikings were throwing themselves. Once the Vikings took a 3-0 lead, the Packers scored 24 unanswered points to breeze their way into an NFC Divisional game with the San Francisco 49ers.
The real irony in all this is that after a week of insane hope for Vikings fans, the man they’d been calling and clamoring for all season long to start did them in. When Christian Ponder limped through a rough November, Vikings fans began doing what they all do when things get tough: call on the backup. Their wish was granted but they didn’t see it coming.
The result was disastrous.
After winning their last four games to get into the playoffs, the Vikings looked like they had reverted back to their 2011 ways. It never once felt like a playoff game and that everything to do with Joe Webb.
Joe Webb was the problem, Joe Webb was one of the reasons the Vikings spiraled out of control. Joe Webb, the supposed answer to Vikings fans question of who should lead this team better than Ponder, did nothing to help this team win a Wild Card game on Saturday.
Vikings fans asked for this and honestly, no one feels sorry for them. When you have a young quarterback who has talent that needs to be developed, this is what happens when you leap off the bandwagon. You get your silly wish answered at the most inconvenient of times. Besides the Packers moving on to what will no doubt be a much more entertaining game against the 49ers, one thing was settled on Saturday.
Joe Webb is a backup quarterback and no one will ever again state otherwise.