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Teddy Bridgewater quietly progressing, blocking the question

By Kevin Parvizi

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Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr led his team to a marquee victory over the rival San Francisco 49ers with a sensational performance, but the more consistent Teddy Bridgewater also had a strong day against the New York Jets in an overtime victory. Even though it came against an easier pass defense and wasn’t as impressive of a performance, Bridgewater deserves praise for that game, as well as his ability to move the chains for the Minnesota Vikings offense. He’s quietly improved with each passing game, and he was able to shred a defense when finally given more than adequate pass protection.

Bridgewater averaged a season-high 11.4 yards per attempt on 19-27 passing with 309 yards and two touchdowns, though he could have had a career-high three touchdown passes. Moreover, he came through in the clutch again, meaning that he now has three game-winning drives on the season, per Pro-Football Reference.

There are a few reasons for his improvement in recent weeks, and the most direct is probably the caliber of teams he is facing. The Carolina Panthers and Jets are two of the NFL’s worst pass defenses, and both of Bridgewater’s 100+ QB Rating games have come against these two squads. Another reason is his own improvement as a quarterback, and we have seen that in these two games, as Bridgewater completed over 70% of his passes in both outings.

One factor that shouldn’t go unnoticed is Cordarrelle Patterson, who was having a dreadful year before being gradually demoted, culminating in a deserved benching on Sunday. Patterson has been a second-year disappointment with just a 48.4% catch rate and 5.6 yards per target. Those numbers were holding back the Vikings offense, but his target totals over the pass four weeks have been 3, 2, 1, and 0.

The Vikings are adjusting by phasing the raw route-runner out of the game, and that’s helped Bridgewater. He feels less pressure to force the ball to the playmaker, and that allows him to move the ball around to other receivers. I’m not sure how good Jarius Wright and Charles Johnson are, but they both had 100-yard days on just four receptions against the Jets. Bridgewater’s best skills are his accuracy and decision-making, and by not feeling compelled to force the ball to one player, he has been able to showcase those without Patterson on the field.

Bridgewater took full advantage of the Jets defense by playing one of his best games as a deep passer, completing 4-7 passes for 122 yards and a touchdown, and that’s impressive even against the Jets defense. I mean, you have to take advantage of the opposition’s biggest weakness, and that’s exactly what he was able to do on Sunday. The Vikings offensive line has too much talent to not bounce back next season, and that’s a huge plus for Bridgewater. He looked amazing with a clean pocket, as the Pro Football Focus charted him as 13-15 with 15.3 yards per attempt, two touchdowns, no picks, and a 158.3 QB Rating.

Although, per PFF, he is decent against the blitz with a 4:1 TD:INT ratio and 7.1 yards per attempt, which is actually higher than his season average of 6.9, he struggles when actually under pressure. The interesting thing is that Bridgewater actually has PFF’s second-highest accuracy percentage under pressure, and yet he averages just 4.5 yards per attempt with a 58.8 QB Rating and more interceptions than touchdowns. When he doesn’t feel any pressure, his QB Rating is at 94.5 with a completion percentage of 66.8%. The problem is that he’s facing pressure 40.6% of the time, and, according to PFF, that’s the fourth-highest total in the NFL this season.

What does this tell you? Well, for starters, Bridgewater knows how to deal with pressure, because he knows how to deal with the blitz. The issue is that when Bridgewater feels pressure, it’s because of bad blocking, and I’m sure someone like Matt Kalil has a lot to do with that. When he isn’t pressured, Bridgewater is his usual, accurate self in college, and when he’s blitz, he has enough arm talent and decision-making chops to take advantage.

Bridgewater is owning the intermediate passing game, but he needs better blocking in order to consistently play like he did in Week 14. He’s still making progress as a passer despite that with touchdown totals that are increasing with each game (seriously, his TD totals are moving up from a string of zeroes to a string of ones and now twos), and he’s shown off his ability to make smart throws without Patterson handicapping the offense. It’s starting to fall into place for Teddy Bridgewater, but he will be given a massive test this week against a Detroit Lions defense that is dealing. Of course, his calling card as a quarterback is his consistency, and that gets lost in the shuffle whenever someone like Carr has a brilliant performance; it’s honestly been several weeks since Bridgewater truly turned in a poor performance.

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