Teddy Bridgewater was thrust into action last Sunday against the New Orleans Saints when starting quarterback Matt Cassel suffered several bone fractures in his foot. Cassel was placed on Injured Reserve and will be out the rest of the season.
At the time of his injury Cassel had only completed 58% of his passes and threw 3 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. Cassel's completion percentage was not good enough, you would like it to be above 60%. You would also like to see his touchdown to interception ration to be 2:1. Cassel has actually thrown more interceptions than touchdowns and that is a recipe for losing.
Teddy Bridgewater played well coming off the bench versus the Saints, completing 60% of his passes with no touchdowns, but more importantly no interceptions. He finished the game with 150 yards passing, completing 12 of his 20 attempts.
In yesterday's game versus the Atlanta Falcons Bridgewater continued his good play by not turning the ball over and completing 63% of his passes by completing 19 of his 30 pass attempts. Teddy Bridgewater added a rushing touchdown as well.
Viking head coach Mike Zimmer said they did change their offense somewhat to accommodate what Teddy Bridgewater does well. The immediate difference in the offense was the team using more 3 wide receiver sets and they utilized the shotgun a lot more with Bridgewater than they did with Cassel. Teddy Bridgewater was in the shotgun on 26 of his 33 dropbacks versus the Falcons.
The best news from yesterday's game versus the Falcons is that Teddy Bridgewater led the Vikings to a 41-28 victory. It was clear to see that Bridgewater gave the Vikings a shot of energy and the team rallied around him to pick up the win.
The bad news is that Teddy Bridgewater was carted off the field with a left ankle sprain. MRI scans were negative meaning that there were no broken bones, but an ankle sprain can give a guy like Bridgewater lots of fits and hurt his game.
Teddy Bridgewater does not have prototype size, but at 6'2 210 pounds he does have good size. He does have prototype speed for a quarterback, being timed at a 4.78 in the 40 yard dash at his pro day. It is clear that Bridgewater is a pocket passer, but he has the talent and speed to run when he needs to.
With the Vikings playing on Thursday versus the Green Bay Packers Teddy Bridgewater has stated that he will play. He is listed as questionable on the injury list. Zimmer said today that Bridgewater is doing a lot better and it appears he has a legitimate chance to start on Thursday if he doesn't have any more setbacks.
It is pretty clear that Teddy Bridgewater gives the Vikings the best chance of winning. If Bridgewater can't play the Vikings will go with 4th year pro Christian Ponder. In Ponder's 3 years with the Vikings he has completed 60% of his passes which is good, but he has thrown 38 touchdowns with 34 interceptions which is not good.
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