Mark Craig's NFL Insider: Short week sells NFL short

In real life, it was Monday. In Jarius Wright's mind, it already was Thursday.

Why? Because the NFL said he had another game day in three days, not the usual six.

"I wouldn't say you have to trick yourself on a short week," the Vikings receiver said Monday.

"You just have to get it in your mind to focus as if it's already a Thursday."

The Vikings didn't do that very well this week. The result: Packers 42, Vikings 10.

The 32-point debacle dropped the Vikings to 2-3 and further fueled a national debate about the NFL's wisdom of having a full season's slate of Thursday night games. The four Thursday nighters played by teams on short weeks have been decided by scores of 26-6, 56-14, 45-14 and 42-10.

That's an average margin of victory of 31.3 points.

"I don't see that as a factor in us losing," fullback Jerome Felton said Thursday night. "Both teams had to play on Thursday night."

Yes, but the Vikings' situation provides the strongest case yet for those who believe short weeks do one of two things: 1, Put players at greater risk for injury if they play or 2, Put teams at a competitive disadvantage if they rest players who otherwise would have been able to play had they had six days between games.

In the Vikings' case, it was quarterback Teddy Bridgewater who was battling a sprained ankle coming off a stellar NFL starting debut in a 41-28 win over Atlanta last Sunday.

Under normal circumstances, the first practice of the week wouldn't have occurred until Wednesday. Players would have watched film Monday and had Tuesday off. Instead, they had light practices Monday and Tuesday.

Bridgewater missed both of them. On Thursday, which normally would be only the second practice of the week, coach Mike Zimmer was forced to rule Bridgewater out and turn to Christian Ponder as his third starting quarterback in three weeks.

"It wasn't up to [Bridgewater]," Zimmer said. "It was up to me."

Zimmer and Bridgewater both indicated that Bridgewater could have played had the game been scheduled for Sunday. But there's no way to prove that since the Vikings had to follow the NFL's Thursday night schedule, which many argue contradicts the league's celebrated oratory about making player safety a priority.

Zimmer was asked Monday if he felt players were at greater risk of injuries on short weeks.

"It's hard for me to say," he said. "[The league has] done studies on that, but it hasn't come back anything abnormal.

"I think the really good thing about it is that if you get through the game, and hopefully you win, you got a couple of days off, so you get a little mini bye week and you get a chance to get refreshed and get going."

That, of course, didn't happen primarily because Ponder, the 11th overall draft pick just three years ago, failed even as an emergency No. 3 starter. His passer rating when the Vikings trailed 28-0 at the half: 13.4.

"It's not something we can really worry about or complain about because everybody has to play on Thursday," Wright said. "So when you come in on Monday, you have to get your body right, get as much mentally as you can out of practice on the days you aren't used to practicing.

"Personally, I like Sundays, so having game day come early can be a good thing."

Unless, of course, your starting quarterback needs a normal week of recovery.

Mark Craig • mcraig@startribune.com