Minnesota Vikings rookie Teddy Bridgewater was mostly excellent on Sunday in his first regular season NFL start. He lit up Atlanta's defense for 317 passing yards on just 30 attempts, and he rushed for 27 yards and one score.
Bridgewater rarely put the ball at risk, he attacked at multiple levels, and he was decisive, accurate and generally unflappable. It helped, of course, that his offensive line decisively won almost every battle.
With Bridgewater at the controls, Minnesota's offense gained 558 total yards and averaged 7.5 yards per play.
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Unfortunately, Bridgewater also exited late in the Vikes' 41-28 win, not long after rolling his left ankle. He downplayed the severity of the injury in postgame comments, as did head coach Mike Zimmer.
Still, when a guy gets carted to the locker room, we worry — it's only natural.
Not only were X-rays negative on Sunday, but Bridgewater's MRI reportedly came back clean on Monday. So it appears he's avoided any sort of serious multi-week sprain, and he remains in play for Thursday's trip to Lambeau:
Huge relief. The Vikes offense is more interesting, by orders of magnitude, with Bridgewater behind center.
Perhaps you don't fully agree, however, if you're a Cordarrelle Patterson owner.
Let's review Teddy's target distribution from Sunday:
Jarius Wright, 10 (132 yards)
Greg Jennings, 4 (72)
Cordarrelle Patterson, 4 (38)
Matt Asiata, 4 (22)
Chase Ford, 4 (17)
Jerick McKinnon, 3 (17)
Rhett Ellison, 1 (19)
Basically, everyone other than Wright had a supporting role in the Vikings' passing game. Bridgewater opened with short strikes to Wright, a receiver he clearly trusts; those two worked well together in the preseason. Minnesota's biggest passing gain on Sunday was an early 52-yarder by Wright off a bubble screen, a play that Bridgewater checked to at the line. Jarius would have scored on the reception, if Falcons DB Robert Alford hadn't tracked him down like a missile. Much later, Bridgewater overshot Wright by no more than 4-5 feet on a deep sideline route, so those two were very close to enjoying a two-touchdown day.
Patterson was curiously absent from the gameplan in the first half, drawing only a single target (also on a bubble screen, which he appeared to swat to the ground, not wanting to risk a loss). With four games now in the books, Patterson is averaging just 4.25 touches per week and 5.25 targets.
All those stories about Norv Turner feverishly drawing up plays for Cordarrelle? Yeah, those were lies. Cruel lies. If there is a secret file of Patterson plays, Norv will not reveal its existence.
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We'd all like to see Patterson receive 2-4 carries per game, sure, but it's awfully tough to find fault with the production the Vikes received from Asiata and McKinnon on Sunday*. The pair combined for 213 rushing yards and three TDs. I'd say we've reached the point with Patterson where we have no reason to expect more than 3-6 touches in any given week. He's ludicrously explosive, which keeps him in the WR3 conversation despite the workload concerns. But is Patterson a must-start? No, not at his current usage. Would I deal him for, say, Kelvin Benjamin? Hell yes.
* Zimmer called McKinnon as a "change-of-pace" runner on Monday, we should note. But he wasn't used that way in the Atlanta win, as he saw 18 carries to Asiata's 20. For a more extensive look at the rookie burner, we'll refer you to this post. He's a priority add this week, owned in just 16 percent of Yahoo leagues.
Bridgewater's presence should lift this entire offense to some extent, Patterson included. If you weren't impressed by some aspect of Teddy's Sunday performance, feel free to kill the buzz in comments. He's the only rookie QB I've made any effort to acquire this season, so I'm definitely a believer. The early returns are encouraging. Thankfully, the ankle shouldn't be a long-term worry.
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