He got out with a win, but Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder was mad at himself for the way he started.
So he hopes that playing angry can change that.
“It’s just an attitude,” Ponder said, via Tom Pelissero of 1500ESPN.com. “I think mentally just telling myself that I’ve got to go out and play aggressively and play almost mad.
“I just go out there and play with that sense of urgency and I think that starts with the tempo that you call the play and you break the huddle immediately and you get everyone to get up there and run the play. I think you can control a lot of that in the huddle.”
Ponder was off to a 3-of-7 for 32-yard start in the Vikings first four drives, which yielded no points and just two first downs.
He then settled into a bit of a groove, spreading the ball around effectively even without his biggest receiving threat, suspended Jerome Simpson.
Whether he was angry with himself or not, something clicked.
“I don’t know — just play with a relentlessness,” he said. “After those first couple drives, I was mad that I missed a couple throws and just kind of said, ‘I’m going to go out here and throw this ball and make plays.’ It was almost like playing mad.”
Ponder connected on 17 of his last 20 attempts,bumping his rating to 105.5 in the overtime win.
“It’s very promising and we had a lot of guys step up,” Ponder said. “We’ve got guys that can step up and make plays, and we can move the ball when we have to.”
Of course, they were playing the Jaguars last week, and the Colts this week.
That’s even more important than playing angry.