Vikings to Start Salisbury Against Rams : Pro football: Gannon is replaced at quarterback in an attempt to recharge stalled offense.

Rich Gannon was removed Monday as the Vikings’ starting quarterback in favor of Sean Salisbury.

Coach Dennis Green decided the team, which is comfortably atop the NFC Central Division with an 8-3 record, needed a change after it got only 10 first downs Sunday for the second consecutive week.

Salisbury will make his first NFL regular-season start Sunday, when Minnesota visits Anaheim to play the Rams. Gannon started the first 11 games.

Salisbury completed only four of 12 passes for 30 yards in a relief effort in Sunday’s 17-13 victory over Cleveland, but he did complete a crucial fourth-quarter touchdown pass. Gannon was benched after the Vikings trailed, 13-0, at halftime.

“We’re a team on offense that has very high expectations. And right now, we’re not meeting them,” Green said. “Neither myself nor (offensive coordinator) Jack Burns are accustomed to a team that does not have high productivity. And we’re not going to get used to it, either, to be honest with you.

“Does that mean that any one thing is wrong? No. That just means that, for two consecutive games, we could have lost. For a team that expects to be in the playoffs, that is not good. There are a lot of other teams that don’t expect to be in the playoffs, and maybe that’s OK with them. But it’s not OK with us. So we’ve got to find out what can we do to help make this club better.”

Gannon, who has completed 14 of 40 passes for 137 yards the last two weeks and has only one touchdown pass in the last five games, dressed quickly after Monday’s practice and declined to comment.

He spent five seasons backing up Wade Wilson. This year, finally, the job was his to lose. And he lost it by throwing as many interceptions (12) as touchdown passes and by failing to energize the offense in recent games. The Vikings’ defense has carried the team for four games, scoring only one fewer touchdown (six) than the offense.

Green, who in the off-season got rid of Wilson, Herschel Walker, Keith Millard and Joey Browner, said he didn’t have time to worry about Gannon’s feelings.

“You can never be apologetic of the decisions you make in football,” Green said. “I mean, how does Sean feel when he’s not playing? We care about all our players. Whether a guy’s playing or not playing doesn’t mean we don’t care about him. We do know one thing: One guy’s not playing is another guy’s opportunity.”

And Salisbury--who has been in the NFL seven seasons but has thrown only 80 regular-season passes for three teams--said he was “elated, ecstatic and excited” about the opportunity.

“I’ve worked for this for a long time,” he said. “I’m not going to play not to lose. I’m not going to be afraid to pull the trigger.”

Salisbury, 29, who played collegiately at USC, has relieved Gannon three times this season and the Vikings have won every time. The first two occasions were after Gannon was injured.

Salisbury was 12 of 22 for 162 yards and a touchdown against Tampa Bay and 13 of 24 for 149 yards and a score against Detroit. Overall, including a few mop-up stints, Salisbury is 35 of 68 for 420 yards and three touchdowns.

He hasn’t thrown an interception, a statistic Green likes.

“We’ve said from the start that this was not going to be a team that has a 3,000-yard quarterback,” Green said. “The big thing we want our quarterback to do is operate the thing--just don’t turn the ball over, make the plays, keep the ball advancing and make sure the confidence level is high.”