Teddy Bridgewater gives Vikings reason to believe in postseason potential

Tom Pelissero | USA TODAY Sports

Show Caption Hide Caption NFL Hot Reads: What we learned in Week 15 USA Today Sports' Tom Pelissero looks at what we learned in Week 15 of the NFL season and what it means moving forward.

MINNEAPOLIS – Four touchdown passes. Another score on a scramble. A 154.4 passer rating and 231 yards on 17-of-20 passing, including 6-of-9 on third down.

Perhaps Teddy Bridgewater’s numbers in Sunday’s 38-17 throttling of the Chicago Bears can buy his teammates a week without facing questions that don’t reflect the prevailing thought inside the building about what they have in their second-year quarterback.

“I was asked multiple times this week about Teddy and if I think he’s ‘the guy’ and what does Teddy need to do,” tight end Kyle Rudolph told USA TODAY Sports. “It’s unbelievable that people put so much into statistics and don’t watch the kid play. It blew my mind.”

Bridgewater has taken the heat for the Vikings’ passing game, which ranked 30th in yards per pass play entering Sunday. Through 13 games, he had just nine touchdown passes, eight interceptions and 85.3 passer rating – among the least efficient numbers of any full-time quarterback.

Up to a point, the criticism is fair. Bridgewater hasn’t always pulled the trigger when he needs to. He played his worst game two weeks ago in a blowout loss to the Seattle Seahawks. He has made some critical mistakes, such as his fumble that cost the Vikings a shot for a tying field goal Dec. 10 at Arizona.

But he played well overall against the Cardinals and even better Sunday against the Bears, whose inability to defend the Vikings’ crossing routes made it too easy for Bridgewater to pick them apart on a day star running back Adrian Peterson missed time with an ankle sprain.

“The fight this kid has, the determination, the willpower – I’ve been talking about it all year,” said Peterson, who finished with 63 yards on 18 carries. “These past two weeks, I’ve seen a different look in his eyes.”

Bridgewater downplayed that, which makes sense. One of the things the Vikings like about him is he doesn’t change, even as questions mounted after three losses in their previous four games.

His 12-yard strike to Rudolph against a blitz provided one of two third-down conversions on the Vikings’ opening drive Sunday, ending with a gorgeous touch pass to Stefon Diggs for a 15-yard score. Two other touchdown passes came on third downs, as did Bridgewater’s 12-yard TD run, with a leap over Bears cornerback Tracy Porter at the goal line.

Much of the productivity came on short passes. But Bridgewater also hit Mike Wallace up the seam for a 34-yard gain to set up a touchdown before halftime.

“It really shows that when we do put the ball in the air, that we’re pretty good,” Bridgewater said.

Granted, the Bears have major personnel issues on defense. (Bridgewater chewed them up in the fourth quarter Nov. 1 in Chicago, too.) They committed Sunday to eight-man boxes and shooting gaps to stop the run, which created favorable matchups to throw.

The Vikings are 9-5, on the verge of clinching a playoff spot, but 1-4 against teams likely to be in the field. Still, Peterson says he believes the Vikings “can go all the way” if they can get healthy on defense and have this type of mix on offense.

Like any young quarterback, Bridgewater needs help. Receivers must get open. Protection has been an issue. Peterson is their identity, and the Vikings are running an offense that suits his strengths. Even Sunday, they ended up with 20 pass attempts and 36 runs.

“Everybody knows that we’re going to run the ball 25, 30, 35 times a week,” Rudolph said. “(Bridgewater)’s sometimes put in third-and-longs. His passing situations usually aren’t ideal.

“He’s a guy that never complains when we don’t play like we did today and don’t have that balance and it’s maybe 70-30 run-pass. He just goes to work every day and gets better. I couldn’t be happier for him to go out there and play like he did today and just get everyone off his back.”

Follow Tom Pelissero on Twitter @TomPelissero.

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