MINNEAPOLIS -- The Minnesota Vikings posted 350 yards of offense Sunday and fashioned five scoring drives (including three of at least 50 yards) without much semblance of a downfield passing game. Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater didn't attempt a pass longer than 19 yards in the Vikings' 26-16 win over the Detroit Lions, and for the season he has tried only three passes of 20 yards or longer.

That's tied for the sixth-fewest of any quarterback to throw a pass this season, according to ESPN Stats & Information research, and Bridgewater's only completion of 20-plus yards this season was an anomaly; he threw what amounted to a 27-yard checkdown on a Hail Mary at the end of the first half against San Francisco in Week 1. But while the Vikings are looking for opportunities to start their downfield passing game, they were OK without one last Sunday.

Teddy Bridgewater and the Vikings are collecting generous yardage without much of a deep passing game. Hannah Foslien/Getty Images

"I think there are always some opportunities, but you can go through every quarterback tape in the league and you'll see those," Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said. "Some of them get hit and some of them don't. But the good thing is we're not throwing interceptions. We're getting completions. I keep talking about runs and completions and we had, I don't know, how many runs last week? Adrian [Peterson] had, what, 29? And we had 14 completions, that's 43. You get up there around 40 with those runs and completions, it's usually a good day."

According to ESPN Stats & Information research, the Vikings tied for 11th in the league with a down set conversion rate of 71.4 percent last week. In other words, they turned five out of every seven sets of downs into at least one additional first down or a touchdown. That kind of efficiency, especially with a running back like Peterson, will help the Vikings control the clock (they held the ball for 31 minutes, 6 seconds on Sunday), and Bridgewater's accuracy kept the Vikings moving the chains.

They went 7-for-14 on third downs Sunday, and Bridgewater threw for 112 of his 153 yards on third down, connecting on seven of his eight passes. He also finished with 21 rushing yards, and he collected 18 of those on four third-down runs, two of which netted first downs. It helped Bridgewater finish with a pristine QBR of 98.5, and he has connected on 74 percent of his passes so far this season.

Will the Vikings need to find a downfield passing game eventually? Yes, and Bridgewater seemed to know it. "If a defense blows an assignment, sometimes your progression doesn't take you to the guy who is going to end up open on a busted coverage," he said. "When those opportunities present themselves we want to make sure that we take advantage of them."

Bridgewater said he'll often glance around the field after he throws a ball, just to see where else he could have gone. That's part of the reason he has already earned the trust of the receiver who stands to gain the most from a downfield passing game: Mike Wallace. Especially if Bridgewater is as effective on play action as he was last week, when he hit six of his eight throws, the Vikings should be able to add more vertical options to what was an efficient short-range passing game last week.

"Honestly, there's not too many times that I've seen something and he didn't see it," Wallace said. "He did it one time in the game [Sunday], before we got back to the sideline -- 'My bad, I missed you open.' As soon as the play was over, he was already looking at me like he knew he missed it. Teddy's a really smart guy. There's not too much he's not going to see on the field."