EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. -- The trickiest thing about playing the quarterback position is also what might make it one of the toughest positions to quantify in major professional sports. For all the reams of data available on a quarterback's average depth of target, his numbers outside the pocket and his success against the blitz, there's a significant part of the job that's beyond the control of just one player.

Take Teddy Bridgewater's performance against the Oakland Raiders on Sunday, for example. The analytics -- and we've used plenty of them on this blog -- deliver an eye-popping stat: Bridgewater held the ball for an average of 3.59 seconds against the Raiders, according to ESPN Stats and Information. That's the highest total of the season, by more than one-third of a second, and is the seventh-highest single-game total since 2010.

But here's what's interesting: The six games where quarterbacks held the ball longer than Bridgewater did Sunday belong to Russell Wilson, Cam Newton and Tim Tebow. In fact, the top 12 games all belong to players I would call mobile or semi-mobile quarterbacks: Wilson, Newton, Tebow, Bridgewater, Alex Smith and Michael Vick. And while Bridgewater held the ball for 5.18 seconds when he was pressured on Sunday -- the highest figure in the league this season -- 34 quarterbacks have kept it longer under pressure since 2010.

Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater (5) runs from Raiders linebacker Aldon Smith. AP Photo/Ben Margot

Here's where the numbers collide with the eye test: Bridgewater was pressured on 50 percent of his dropbacks on Sunday, according to ESPN Stats and Information. As he has been for much of the year, Bridgewater was forced to evade pressure, extend plays long enough to throw the ball away or run for a few yards. On a third down in the second quarter, he found an 18-yard gain by making a couple defenders miss and stepping out of bounds. When I asked Mike Zimmer on Monday about how long Bridgewater was holding the ball, he said Bridgewater's day was better than what the numbers might have suggested.

"I kind of disagree with you on that. I thought Teddy played very well yesterday," Zimmer said. "We had 59 plays on offense. There was 10 of them that he took what could have been really bad plays and made them into manageable plays. We did want to throw the ball down the field, so we had some maximum protection things in, which you’re going to hold the ball a little bit longer. You also have less receivers in the routes, so if they get covered, there’s less places to go, and if the protection breaks down and looks worse than what it was, but I didn’t feel that."

For as much as he's been under pressure, Bridgewater isn't turning the ball over much, and that might be the biggest thing the Vikings could ask of him when they're running the ball and playing defense as well as they are. They don't need a quarterback short-circuiting drives with turnovers, and Bridgewater has managed to avoid those by staying away from hasty decisions. Yes, the Vikings would like to push the ball downfield, as Zimmer said. Yes, they need Bridgewater to hit big plays when they're there. But there didn't appear to be many times where Bridgewater passed up an obvious downfield shot yesterday. The passing game hasn't been explosive, but it also hasn't been implosive, and Bridgewater deserves some credit for that.

So how do the Vikings inject some more production into their passing game? Quick throws seem to be a point of comfort for Bridgewater, and his biggest two plays came when he let his two starters -- Mike Wallace and Stefon Diggs -- run after the catch yesterday. The Vikings still need to be better at protecting Bridgewater, and as Zimmer and offensive coordinator Norv Turner said last week, Bridgewater needs to hit big plays when they're available to him.

But the importance of a quick release is still something short of NFL dogma. Since 2010, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady have two of the five quickest triggers; Wilson and Newton have two of the five slowest. All season, the Vikings have done an impressive job of adhering to the advice of noted football strategist Napoleon Bonaparte, who said, "Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake." Given Bridgewater's part in that operation, in light of the pressure he's faced, the answer to question of whether he needs to throw the ball sooner might be more nuanced than a clock can provide.