Teddy Bridgewater’s second-ever touchdown pass in professional football was a game-winner for the Minnesota Vikings. He completed six of seven passes for 77 yards, including a 2-yard fade route to Rodney Smith in the end zone to put the team ahead by two with 18 seconds remaining in the game. He walked off the field having completed 16 of his 20 passes for 177 yards and two touchdowns, outplaying his counterpart, Matt Cassel, who played the entire first half and was 12 for 16 for 153 yards and a touchdown.
Alas, the game didn’t count, and Bridgewater still will likely start the season with a clipboard in hand and a ball cap on his head. But from the line of questioning he received after the game, you would think that he was in the running to be the starting quarterback. When asked if he felt the race for the starting quarterback was going to come down to the wire after his game-winning drive, however, he simply dismissed the question: “Right now I’m not even looking into the race.”
It was the expected answer, of course, and perhaps the question was intended to bait him into something more than a vanilla response. But Bridgewater probably isn’t thinking too much about the competition at quarterback, nor should he. He’s a 21-year-old quarterback who was chosen with the last pick in the first round of this year’s draft, is learning Norv Turner’s complicated offensive system and has thrown more than a handful of interceptions in practice up to this point.
So, no, winning a meaningless game against second- and third-string defensive players isn’t going to win Bridgewater the job, especially against a veteran quarterback who is 11 years his senior, was coached by Bill Belichick in the pros and went to a Pro Bowl in 2010. But what this does tell us is sometimes we overreact to little things early in the season that don’t matter as much as we think they do.
Bridgewater threw interceptions in practice — many of them. But guess what: It probably looks worse than it is. Turner is going to push his players to the limit with his system and force them to try new things, and Mike Zimmer, the head coach and a defensive wiz, is going to implement complicated defensive schemes. On top of that, Bridgewater is going to take risks in practice he wouldn’t otherwise do in games, as will the defense.
They should: It’s practice. We’re talking about practice, not a game.
Bridgewater didn’t go Allen Iverson on the media when asked about the interceptions, but he did dismiss the notions that interceptions in Mankato would translate to a poor performance in Dinkytown.
“For me, I’m a young guy and I tend to overthink things and…coach says, ‘Just do what you do best’ and that’s play football and have fun,” he said. “Today I wanted to go out, play relentlessly, not overthink things, and just do what my coaches have been telling me.”
He did look free and easy in the game: He scrambled in and out of the pocket, dodged defenders and threw strikes to his receivers. He was less hesitant with the ball than he was in the first preaseson game and his results improved. Against Oakland, Bridgewater threw for 49 yards, completing six of his 13 passes with zero touchdowns or interceptions.
If he was overwhelmed at any time, his body language didn’t express it.
He was playing against backups however, some guys who won’t make the team and others that probably will be out of the league in the next few years, but it was still an NFL defense. He still made crisp, clean throws and displayed chemistry with Adam Thielen and Rodney Smith, two players that probably will be part of the 53-man roster come the regular season. In fact, he may have helped Smith, a fringe player, in some ways by highlighting his skills during the drive – that’s what a good teammate does.
Bridgewater just became legal to drink alcohol, and he has yet to face a first-team defense in a regular season game. The blitz packages and coverages he faces are vanilla, as coaches don’t want to give anything away in a meaningless game. He is not going to bring out the best in Greg Jennings, Cordarrelle Patterson or Kyle Rudolph; Cassel will, so there’s no sense in rushing Bridgewater into action. He is going to be the backup, and Cassel is going to be the starter – that has not changed.
But, if anything, the final drive was a step in the right direction for a man who may just be the franchise quarterback the Vikings have been looking for since Fran Tarkenton last donned the Purple and Gold.
Bridgewater can be ‘the’ guy, but it’s not going to happen Week 1 against St. Louis and a winning drive in a preseason game isn’t going to change that.
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Tom Schreier can be heard on The Michael Knight Show from 2-3:00 on weekdays. He has written for Bleacher Report and the Yahoo Contributor Network. Follow him on Twitter @tschreier3. |