Having a round with … Rob Beer

When most other quarterbacks are perfecting the back-shoulder throw, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Donovan McNabb went into Sunday night’s game as a master of the front-foot throw.

So, I started charting his passes Sunday night.

A high throw here, a behind throw there and several worthless completions later, I gave up. Did it really matter anymore that he hit Bernard Berrian between the numbers and he played “hot potato” with it, or that he threw to the feet of Visanthe Shiancoe? No.

Or would it have mattered if he hit Percy Harvin on an 80-yard fly route when the game was out of hand in the third quarter? No.

The Vikings are quite simply, the most boring team to watch in the NFL, even with the most explosive player in the league in Adrian Peterson.

McNabb is too soft-spoken to realize his faults and appears to lack a commanding presence on the team. Head coach Leslie Frazier has lacked putting anyone on notice. When he threatened to look at every flaw on the team after the loss to Kansas City, he changed nothing.

Arizona lost the next game more than the Vikings won it.

So they play lifeless in Chicago and now switch gears at quarterback at Christian Ponder. I doubt that was a move of a permanent change (still TBA, however) than it was to protect McNabb from further embarrassment with his mom in the crowd.

I’ve watched 30-plus years of Vikings football. This might be the worst year ever. And considering last season has been viewed as a complete collapse – even the dome caved in – we’re only six games in and there’s 10 more games of worthless viewing to come.

Watching crews clear snow from TCF Bank Stadium last season was more enjoyable to watch.

There was a time, yes, there was a time when a first-down conversion on a third-and-4 for the Minnesota Vikings was almost automatic.

The Vikings have employed various third-down backs that excelled in those situations, the last being Chester Taylor before he signed with Chicago.

The Vikings led the league in third-down conversion percentage in 2003 and 2004. From 2003-2010, 2004′s 50.6 percent clip for the Vikings is the second highest behind Indianapolis’ 53.7 percent in 2006.

There’s a reason why the makeups and general philosophies of NFL offenses blend together among all 32 teams. It works. If you stray from simply shoving the ball down the defenses throat, you end up grabbing your own.

Quarterback Donovan McNabb doesn’t have the luxury of playing with a normal third-down package. That’s part of the reason why the Vikings converted just 5 of 14 third downs on Sunday and are just 36 percent for the season. If Visanthe Shiancoe isn’t open, it appears there’s no other options available to him. That includes taking off himself in pursuit of a first down.

In past seasons under OC Darrell Bevell, the team relied heavily on third-down screens and quick slants. In 2009, Brett Favre helped the Vikings convert 44.7 percent of third-down plays. While good, it’s not great; but when that team was winning games week after week, the stat can become mute when you’re simply protecting the ball before punting it away.

This year’s flavor hasn’t found a way to keep moving the chains. Right now it’s a two-man offensive show with Adrian Peterson and Percy Harvin. Good teams have at least five ways to pick defenses apart.

The Vikings are not a good team and it’s really no surprise. The holes in this team were there before the season began and are only increasing in size after each passing week.

If you remember, the team went “all-in” last season and lost. In poker, that means you’re out of chips and you hit the rail.

There is absolutely no reason why McNabb shouldn’t be benched sometime next week. (Head coach Leslie Frazier told the Star Tribune after the game “No, no” on a QB change.) Still, I don’t think that completely locks the door on giving Christian Ponder the ball for a series or two (or five) against the imploding Arizona Cardinals next week.

I’d rather see Ponder win or lose against the Cardinals than to see McNabb (playing throughout) head into Chicago with an 0-5 team only to exit 0-7 after the following Green Bay game.

It’s ridiculous to think McNabb’s passing is better than Ponder’s throwing and running ability at this stage of the game. If it isn’t Ponder, then Frazier has to consider the last Vikings QB to win a game: Joe Webb.

Ponder: Verb: Think about (something) carefully, esp. before deciding or concluding.

Christian Ponder: First-round draft pick of the Minnesota Vikings.

Patience: Something head coach Leslie Frazier is stressing today.

No, it’s not all Donovan McNabb’s fault after Minnesota handed Tampa Bay a 24-20 victory Sunday. You can start with the mental mistakes, including Phil Loadholt’s false start penalty on 3rd-and-3 on the first drive of the second half. That lead to Adrian Peterson getting flagged for holding and a subsequent punt that put Tampa Bay’s starting position in Vikings territory.

Two plays later it’s 17-7 and the comeback is on.

But if fans are urged to be patient, where’s the urgency on the behalf of the Vikings?

Don’t go thinking 0-2 is a surprise. It isn’t. The fact of the matter is the team has yet to claim an identity, to be able to compete, something it really hasn’t done since the rock-em, sock-em NFC title game two seasons ago.

Fox’s Jimmy Johnson said during halftime that Tampa Bay QB Josh Freeman can play from behind. Now make that eight of his 14 victories having led the Bucs from being tied or behind in the fourth quarter to wins.

Patience. Ha. Fifty-one seasons of patience. Fifty-one seasons with roughly 10 of them painful enough to ask your doctor to draw another face on the hospital’s pain chart.

All this pain. I need a timeout.

Speaking of which, a timeout is designed for a strategy switch, a momentum breaker or to stop the clock. Frazier treated all three of his team’s timeouts like rollover minutes on a cell phone plan. He didn’t even bother to help his bending defense snap back into place before LeGarrette Blount’s 4-yard TD run with 31 seconds left put Tampa Bay in the winner’s circle.

Does Ponder get a look sooner than later? With the Vikings likely heading to an 0-5 start, it’s possible. McNabb may have missed open receivers before tucking it in on a 2nd-and-goal from the 6 late in the second quarter. While his career TD/INT rate is 2 to 1, there’s no reason to not hold back – this game or all season.

McNabb has yet to open it up offensively. His longest pass play of the day was a screen that Toby Gerhart caught 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage before running for a 42-yard gain.

Every game in a 16-game season is scrutinized right down to the blade of fake grass in between the 42 and 43 yard lines. We surely didn’t expect a 2-0 start, just don’t make us think for a moment that it should be.