Bell: Well-rounded Vikings round into first-place form against Raiders
OAKLAND — There's always something.
“Every week when we come to work, there’s a stat,” Minnesota Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater explained. “Something we haven’t done — haven’t won on the West Coast, haven’t won after a bye, haven’t won three in a row.”
But with another victory in hand, another measure of proof that the Vikings are for real in this new incarnation, Bridgewater stood in the bowels of O.co Coliseum late Sunday and acknowledged how he is sick of hearing about what his team can’t do.
He wasn’t crowing. Bridgewater, 23, is mature for his age in more ways than one. He know there’s a lot of football left. But he also has a firm grip on reality.
Or, as he put it after the 30-14 beatdown of the Oakland Raiders: “Every week, another challenge.”
The latest test left the surging Vikings (7-2) in territory the franchise hasn’t ventured in since Brett Favre was slinging it in purple in 2009, heading home for a monstrous showdown against the Green Bay Packers, the team that we all thought would own the NFC North crown again as a mere formality.
Look who’s in first place now?
With the Packers dropping a third consecutive game — and at home against the Detroit Lions, no less, which hasn’t happened in 24 years — the Vikings had the chance to emerge from the Black Hole with sole possession of first place.
Done. Ladies and gentlemen, the Vikings have won five consecutive games and three in a row on the road. They are growing up, becoming a legit contender, right before our eyes.
Sure, these weren’t the Snake Stabler Raiders that the Vikings put away. But with an explosive offense and big-time playmakers, they were tough enough. Yet the Minnesota defense extinguished Derek Carr, Amari Cooper and the rest of them with a second-half shutout.
Two years ago, before coach Mike Zimmer took over, the Vikings gave up more points than any other team in the NFL. Now, with a defensive tackle stud up front in Linval Joseph, a crash-action safety in Harrison Smith and a wily veteran corner, Terence Newman, in tow, they have Zimmer’s name on them.
Then there’s Adrian Peterson. He’s still the man. For the first time since he’s been back, after missing the bulk of last season due to off-field issues, Peterson put up a 200-yard game. Or 203, to be exact. Just like the Peterson we’ve always known. He put the dagger in the heart of a tired Raiders defense with an 80-yard touchdown jaunt that was as much a statement as it was window dressing for a rout.
Yet as Peterson explained after the game, this is such a different offense, with Norv Turner pushing the buttons, than the one he played in before his leave of absence. Without Peterson last season, the Vikings grew the offense in other ways out of necessity. Now that Peterson’s back, that growth has continued — with Bridgewater the best reflection of that.
“I like his poise,” Peterson told Paste BN Sports. “He’s always so calm. He doesn’t get rattled.”
A week after getting knocked out by a concussion, Bridgewater kept his cool on a day when he took one body shot after another. He was sacked four times, hit at least another half-dozen times and flushed from the pocket repeatedly while mimicking the exploits of a Hall of Fame predecessor with the Vikings, scrambling Fran Tarkenton. Through all of that consternation, Bridgewater was never flustered to the point of making a big mistake. This is hardly something to be taken for granted with a young quarterback in the NFL, but it’s one of the key traits that makes Bridgewater special.
There were times Sunday when Bridgewater (14-for-22, 140 yards, one TD, 96.8 rating) could be nitpicked for holding onto the ball for a split-second too long or not opting to use his legs and take off running to move the chains. But you could not blame him for making a boneheaded blunder that put his team in a bad spot, because that never happened.
“He’s so careful with the football,” Zimmer, beaming, told Paste BN Sports.
When Bridgewater came out of Louisville, some rated him as the most NFL-ready quarterback in the draft. There was buzz that he might be the No. 1 pick overall. Then his stock slid after a widely panned pro-day workout, when he didn’t wear a glove like he did in college.
It’s striking how things have transpired since.
Minutes after that workout, Turner was one of the coaches who shrugged about Bridgewater’s showing, contending that any concern about mechanics would be an easy fix. A few weeks later, the Vikings traded up to get Bridgewater with the last pick in the first round.
Sunday, he sure looked NFL-ready as he kept making positive plays rather than negative ones. The Vikings responded when the momentum swung in the second quarter, with Cordarrelle Patterson returning a kickoff for a 93-yard touchdown to quickly answer the touchdown that gave the Raiders their only lead.
Then with the game on the line in the fourth quarter, Bridgewater connected with rookie Stefon Diggs for a 37-yard gain that set up the field goal that made it a two-possession game.
The other quarterback on the field, Carr, a second-round pick from the same draft class as Bridgewater, is a promising prospect in his own right. Oakland (4-5) has already exceeded last season’s victory total. Yet Carr, who threw for 302 yards and two scores, also made at least two mistakes with his pair of interceptions, including one late in the game in the red zone.
That’s what a lot of young quarterbacks are prone to do.
But not all them. Especially Bridgewater, poised to help his team distance itself from what it cannot do.
This season started for the Vikings in the Bay Area, when they were clobbered by the San Francisco 49ers on a Monday night. Interestingly, after flying to the West Coast the day before the opener, Zimmer brought the team out two days before the game this time.
“It was just something different,” Zimmer said. “Why not mix it up?”
Peterson, who rushed for 31 yards in that season-opening loss, grinned while reflecting on how the team is growing up.
"We’ve learned a lot since that first game,” he said.
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Follow NFL columnist Jarrett Bell on Twitter @JarrettBell
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