Kyle Rudolph

[losperros]

I think you're probably right on both counts. Once the INTs started piling up, that's when Ponder began showing a little more reluctance to throw to some of his receivers. Rudolph has had some drops too but I doubt that's a factor. I think Rudolph himself hit one of the factors (which I highlighted above): the timing of the receiver's separation from the defense.

Timing or whatever, I don't see the Vikings offense as being in synch in the passing game. I'm talking across the board, even including some passes where I questioned the validity of calling a certain play at that exact moment. Seriously, there are times when the Vikings passing game looks absolutely chaotic.

[Infinity]

Kyle Rudolph does not need to be open to catch the ball. For example, remember a couple weeks back when Rudolph made that touchdown catch when he was completely covered. I think with his height and hands, he can make a lot of things possible

[PurpleKoolaid]

http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/Note ... Vikings%29
I think that's an important point that gets overlooked too often.

Hopefully, their efforts to get Rudolph more involved in the passing game again will be successful.

I watched every (literally) game Kyle played at ND that was on TV. All the ball has to be is in arms reach. Ponder is too afraid of throwing an int to do that now. I know im one of the hardest on Ponder but he has got to force that ball into the hands of Kyle to the middle of the field. Period. It will change the game for us. And he will throw ints. All QBs do there.

[losperros]

I watched every (literally) game Kyle played at ND that was on TV. All the ball has to be is in arms reach. Ponder is too afraid of throwing an int to do that now. I know im one of the hardest on Ponder but he has got to force that ball into the hands of Kyle to the middle of the field. Period. It will change the game for us. And he will throw ints. All QBs do there.

Interesting to note that Jim Souhan was saying almost the same thing on Access Vikings. Souhan wants Ponder to go ahead and make the throws. Yes, there will be some INTS but it beats being afraid to pull the trigger.

Oddly enough, one of Ponder's quirks in college was that he never gave up on a play. Now he's gunshy. How did that turnaround happen?

Anyway, I agree with your assessment. If Rudolph is a playmaker, then throw the ball to him and let him *make* plays happen.

[Mothman]

Timing or whatever, I don't see the Vikings offense as being in synch in the passing game. I'm talking across the board, even including some passes where I questioned the validity of calling a certain play at that exact moment. Seriously, there are times when the Vikings passing game looks absolutely chaotic.

There are a LOT of times when it looks that way.

I re-watched the Vikes passing plays from the Seattle game and it was the same frustrating mixed bag as usual. Occasionally, there was a nice, well-executed play by all involved but more often than not, one or more players were unable to get the job done. Ponder's bad passes in that game out-numbered his good throws and that's unacceptable. There were also missed blitz pick-ups, missed blocks and many plays where the receivers didn't provide Ponder with many (or sometimes any) options. The Seahawks played a lot of single high safety defense with 8 men up in the box. If I'm not mistaken, one of the better ways to attack that deep is to pressure the safety using sideline routes, forcing him to choose between one side of the field or the other. The Vikings tried that but other than the PI call on a deep pass to Harvin in the first half, they weren't very effective. The tried to work the middle a bit but again, didn't have much success, although Ponder's two best completions came over the middle.

The Vikes outside receivers stink. They're awful and they struggled to get open throughout the game. It was obvious that the Seahawks keyed on Harvin whenever Ponder dropped back. Ponder was checking down and scrambling quite a bit and on some of those plays he had no choice, although on a couple it looked like he made a hasty decision to throw short when he had time to let something develop further downfield. At this point, maybe he's just assuming those routes won't develop!

It was all pretty ugly.

Regarding the subject of this thread: there were at least 3 attempts to Rudolph in the game that could have been completions if the ball had been thrown well. Most of the time, he was pretty well covered. I agree with the idea that Rudolph has the ability to catch the ball against single coverage even if he's not wide open but there's "covered" and then there too "too well covered to justify the throw". Ponder should have enough confidence to throw to Rudolph if he has good position against a single defender but he shouldn't force it into coverage, if you know what I mean. An NFL QB can't be afraid to pull the trigger but forcing it and turning the ball over can be very harmful, especially if it gives the other team good field position.

Sigh... the passing game is a mess. Hopefully, it will improve against the Lions today.