Time to Scratch a Seven-Year Itch : With Kramer Hurt, Viking Understudy Gets His Chance

Here it was Wade Wilson’s big chance, his first season-opening start at quarterback since knocking ‘em dead at tiny East Texas State seven seasons ago, and, well, there were problems.

In order of appearance:

--His Minnesota Viking receivers, most notably Anthony Carter, were having some problems catching. Carter, usually reliable in such situations, kept dropping Wilson’s passes as if the balls were coated with your favorite 10W-40 multi-grade.

--Blocking, the kind that keeps quarterbacks from disability retirement, was occasionally lacking. Wilson distinctly recalls members of the Detroit Lion defensive line visiting him in the pass pocket during last Sunday’s game at the Metrodome. And rude? Put it this way: Wilson was happy to leave the field with all limbs intact.

--Tommy Kramer, only the top-rated quarterback in the National Football League last season and a Pro Bowl starter, stood on the sidelines--minimally able to play because of a pinched nerve in his neck, but available, nonetheless.

So, by the time he dropped back for his eighth pass, Wilson had three interceptions. He can thank Carter for two of them.

It was Carter who botched a pair of well-thrown passes, both of which landed in the hands of Lion defenders.

Wilson’s third interception came courtesy of a Lion pass rush. He was hit just as he released the ball.

Boos were heard shortly thereafter. Viking fans suddenly preferred an ailing Kramer, or even Rich Gannon, a scrambling, nimble rookie from Delaware who reminded Viking faithful of Fran Tarkenton, over Wilson.

Halftime score: Lions 16 (should have been more), Vikings 10.

“There was a lot of emotion,” Wilson said in a telephone interview earlier this week. “I wanted to do real well, and then we got off to the bad start.”

But this is the new and improved Wilson, the guy who finished the exhibition season with 5 touchdown passes, 706 yards and a 63% completion rate . . . all in less than eight quarters. The Vikings scored on 12 of 21 exhibition possessions when Wilson was the quarterback.

Now, midway through the third period Sunday, Wilson was at it again. He found Carter for a 73-yard touchdown play. Later, after the Vikings had extended their lead to 24-19, Wilson threw a 24-yard scoring pass to Leo Lewis.

Even Kramer, pinched nerve and all, had to applaud the performance and a 34-19 Viking victory.

And thus ended, for now, a budding quarterback controversy featuring the perpetual understudy and the injured, but soon-to-be-returning All-Pro.

Actually, it will be at least another week until this Wilson vs. Kramer thing can be described as a full-fledged competition. Kramer’s pinched nerve prevents him from doing much more than handing off or lobbing 15-yard passes.

“He’s improving every day, but he still doesn’t have his range of strength,” said Viking Coach Jerry Burns. “I think it would be doubtful that he would be able to play (against the Rams Sunday).”

Said Wilson: “I think (Kramer’s) still nursing it a little bit, so I definitely plan on being the guy this week.”

And there’s the rub. What happens should the Vikings lose to the Rams? Is it back to the bench, where Wilson has spent much of his career as a backup?

Or what happens if the Vikings continue to win? Do you keep last season’s highest-rated quarterback (and one of the league’s highest paid at $1 million a year) on the sidelines?

“I really don’t know what the coaches are thinking, but the attitude I’m taking is that it’s my job to keep and hopefully not to lose,” Wilson said. “But if that’s what happens, that’s what happens. That’s definitely the attitude I’m taking.

“When (Kramer) gets 100% and . . . comes back for the job, then I’ll start to concern myself with it. I try not to because when you start worrying about what the other guy’s doing, your own performance tends to go bad.”

Even Burns is tap dancing around the inquiries. Quite simply, it seems, no decision has been made.

“That question has been asked,” Burns said. “It will depend on different situations. (It will) depend on how the club is going, the last team we’re playing, the score of a particular game. We’ll have to make that decision when the time comes about. But there’s nothing that means that when (Kramer is) ready to go that he steps back into the No. 1 spot.”

Adding historical perspective to all of this is quarterback Steve Dils, who spent considerable time with the Vikings before a 1984 trade brought him to the Rams. Dils made a career in Minnesota trying to find ways to beat out Kramer. It rarely happened.

“I think it might be a little bit different this time, just for the fact that Wade has played so well and he’s won,” Dils said. “I guess Tommy had some problems with some other things (alcohol-related difficulties) when I was there, too, but there was never any question that Tommy Kramer was going to be the quarterback when he got healthy when I was there.

“I’m just guessing, but maybe that’s a little bit different now. Of course, it’s hard to unseat a guy who was in the Pro Bowl last year.”

Still, said Dils, Wilson may have wandered into the right situation. It only took seven years, of course.

“They’ve got a good enough team now that if they keep winning, you don’t want to make a switch just to change up. If they come out and win their first three games, then it’s tough to put Tommy in,” Dils said.

“But it’s not like, ‘You’re the starter and if you have a couple of down games you’re still going to be the starter,”’ he said. “If you have a couple of down games, they’re going to put the guy in who’s been there.”

There was a time, ever so briefly, that the Vikings considered trading Wilson rather than Dils. Four quarterbacks, a luxury, had made the team’s opening-day roster in 1984 and it was clear someone would go.

The choice was this: the more experienced Dils or the unpolished but possibly more talented Wilson.

The Vikings chose to trade Dils, which, it turns out, made everyone happy.

“I was glad because I really hadn’t come along in my development as a quarterback and I didn’t really think a move was in my best interest at that time,” Wilson said. “That trade was made for Steve.”

Since then, Wilson has had his moments. In the Vikings’ final game last season, Wilson completed 24 of 39 passes for 361 yards and 3 touchdowns. Against Philadelphia in 1985, Wilson threw three touchdown passes with less than nine minutes remaining to help the Vikings overcome a 23-0 fourth-period Eagle lead.

And now this latest piece of dramatics against the Lions.

“I think (Wilson’s) done an excellent job,” Burns said. “I’ve always thought he was a very fine quarterback. He has as much experience as any backup quarterback, if you want to use that term, in the league.”

Wilson would prefer not to use that term. Starter, though, has a nice ring to it.