Although the goal of the last pre-season game is to try and round out the 53 man roster, it’s nice when you can get a 28-0 victory out of it as well.
That’s exactly what happened Thursday night at the Mall of America Field, as Minnesota used a strong performance from both quarterbacks Christian Ponder and Joe Webb to throttle Houston.
Ponder played the first half and the first series of the third quarter, and lead the Vikings on two touchdown drives. The first one culminated in a 5 yard TD pass to fellow rookie and second round draft pick Kyle Rudolph, culminating an 8 play, 86 yard drive. On the night, Ponder was 10-16 for 83 yards and the touchdown, while also rushing for 61 yards.
Joe Webb, who is in a pitched battle with Ponder for the #2 QB job, was equally as good, going 5-6 with 43 yards, also leading two TD drives.
With the end of the pre-season, the Vikings have until Saturday to get down to the league mandated 53 man roster, so expect cuts to start as early as tomorrow. Some of the more prominent names who might be surprise cuts could be offensive linemen Chris DeGeare and Ryan Cook. DeGeare became vulnerable when Anthony Herrera returned to the starting lineup, and Cook would seem vulnerable due to the play and versatility of rookie DeMarcus Love.