The Washington Redskins visit the Minnesota Vikings for NFL Thursday Night Football. Kickoff is at 8:25 p.m. ET. Listen to the live radio broadcast HERE (WAS) and HERE (MIN)
The Josh Freeman Experiment in Minnesota appears over. Despite being medically cleared to play, Freeman will sit for the third straight week as Christian Ponder gets the start for Thursday. Ponder has been inconsistent this season, but he's limited his turnovers in his past two starts. Still, Minnesota remains at 1-7 for the season.
Washington, meanwhile, continues to see quarterback Robert Griffin III steadily improving each week. He hasn't looked like the Rookie of the Year from last season, but he's appeared to knock off some of the rust and is beginning to show his ability to run again.
With Griffin getting better each game and the NFC East wide open, the Redskins (3-5) are still in contention within their division to make a push for the top spot.
"The fans want to have something to believe in, and the players want to have something to believe in," Griffin said, via ESPN. "And because of the way our division is set up right now, we have something to believe in and we know we can control our own destiny."
Despite his quarterback's early struggles, Redskins coach Mike Shanahan is happy with Griffin's progress and with the way the signal caller last weekend converted 12 of 17 third downs, ESPN reports.
"The great quarterbacks are the guys that are consistent on third down," Shanahan said. "Anytime you're over 70 percent on third-down conversions your quarterback is playing extremely well.
"And that's what you've got to do. You've got to do that consistently."
