Week Four Thoughts

Minnesota Vikings vs Atlanta Falcons at 1:25 my time.

Waiting through the morning games for the Vikings game feels strange. They always play in the morning.

The Vikings won the late starting game 41-28.

Vikings rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater made his first career start. The only bad thing about his first career start was that he limped off the field with an ankle injury. He did so after he led a touchdown drive to take the lead early in the 4th quarter. The injury occurred on third and goal. It looked like his foot was kicked and turned a bit. He handed off to Matt Asiata on fourth down for the touchdown and threw the two-point conversion to Rhett Ellison for the 35-28 lead. Bridgewater left for x-rays but was standing on the sideline at the end of the game. He looks fine now but the Vikings have a short week. That could make things dicey. They travel to Green Bay for a Thursday Night game against the Packers.

The Teddy Bridgewater era started nicely. He was excellent. Efficient. Productive. He was the Vikings eighth starting quarterback since 2010. It's only one game but that revolving door appears to be shut. Teddy Bridgewater will be leading the Vikings for a while.

Bridgewater finished the game with 19 completions in 30 attempts for 317 yards. No touchdowns. No interceptions. One 2-pt. conversion. He ran 13 yards for a score. All four Vikings touchdowns were rushing touchdowns. Asiata scored  the other three touchdowns.

The Vikings offense generated 558 yards of total offense. A pretty ridiculous amount of yards for an offense missing running back Adrian Peterson and tight end Kyle Rudolph. Two of their top playmakers.

The Vikings offense had:
300-yard passer-Teddy Bridgewater (317)
100-yard rusher-Jerick McKinnon (135)
100-yard receiver-Jarius Wright (132)

McKinnon was a step away from a 70-yard touchdown and a monster game. In the absence of Peterson, the Vikings might have a nice "thunder and lightning" combination with Asiata and McKinnon. Asiata added 78 yards and the three touchdowns. Wright has had some big plays in past games but this was his best game.

The Vikings Drives:
1. Touchdown
2. Touchdown
3. missed field goal
4. Touchdown
5. Field Goal
6. Field Goal
7. punt
8. punt-only three and out
9. Touchdown
10. Field Goal
11. Field Goal

The last two drives were with Christian Ponder under center.

If Bridgewater could have one throw back, it would be a deep pass thrown to Wright on a third down in the third quarter. Wright had beaten Falcons corner Robert Alford by about ten yards. Easy touchdown. Bridgewater overthrew him. Badly overthrew him. The missed connection resulted in the lone "three and out."

It was interesting to see Vikings offensive coordinator Norv Turner call some read-option plays with Bridgewater under center.

One of the Vikings biggest offensive problems over the last several years has been too many "three and outs." These are killers. The offense does nothing and the defense is immediately back on the field. It was good to see the Vikings limit those bad things yesterday.

There were a couple of third and short calls for the Vikings that were a little curious. Early in the third quarter, the Vikings had a 3rd and 1 on the Falcons 23-yard line. The offense tried to get a jump on the Falcons by going without a huddle. Bridgewater took the snap and leaned into the line. He didn't make much of a push as would be expected from a player of his size and the Vikings had to settle for a field goal. The other was the play on which Bridgewater hurt his ankle. Early in the fourth quarter, they had a 3rd and goal from the 2 and tried to hurry things again. The play just seemed rushed and left them with a 4th and goal and an injured quarterback. They used their final timeout to get things right and settle things down before the fourth down attempt. Fortunately, the Vikings scored to take the lead. And, they didn't need the timeouts later. They ran some no-huddle that was mostly effective throughout the game but on these two critical plays rushing things hurt more than helped.

While this game was mostly about Bridgewater and the offense, the Vikings defense played well for much of the game. They had some terrible breakdowns on three of the Falcons touchdowns. There was a ridiculous mix up in coverage on the Falcons first touchdown. Corners Josh Robinson and Captain Munnerlyn both went to cover Julio Jones and Roddy White was left wide (WIDE!) open for a 24 yard TD. In the third quarter Munnerlyn and defensive end Everson Griffen failed to wrap up Devin Hester and you have a 36-yard touchdown. There wasn't much defense on the edge or down the sideline on Antone Smith's 48-yard touchdown run at the end of the third quarter. Other than those breakdowns they were pretty solid. When you have breakdowns against an offense as explosive as the Falcons you often have touchdowns.

This was the best game of Vikings cornerback Xavier Rhodes' young career. He was drafted in the first round of the 2013 NFL Draft to be a lockdown corner. This was a big step in that direction. Receiving groups don't get much tougher than the Falcons group.

Third-year corner Josh Robinson also had a nice game. Aside from the mix-up with Munnerlyn. He had some very good coverage on Roddy White, Aside from the time that no one covered him. Robinson closed the game with his second interception of the season.

Safety Harrison Smith has been an impact player in all four games. He may have sealed this game with a fourth quarter interception of Matt Ryan.

Thankfully he didn't do it today but Ryan might be the best late-game quarterback in the league. He's scary good at bringing his team back and he has been doing it since he was a rookie.

With veteran linebacker Chad Greenway out for the game with a broken hand and rib, it was interesting to see that the green dot and radio helmet went to rookie Anthony Barr. With Bridgewater on offense and Barr on defense, the Vikings two first round picks from last spring's draft were calling the signals in a big win. The future may really be now.

The Green Bay Packers have been playing the Chicago Bears since 1921. They've played 186 times in the regular season. Twice in the postseason. The series is real close for two teams that have played so many games against each other. The Bears lead the regular season series 92-88-6. They split their two postseason games. It's a fantastic rivalry. I just wish that people would stop calling it the longest rivalry in league history. It's not. The Bears and Cardinals have been playing each other since 1920. That rivalry was pretty intense for the first 39 years when they shared the same city. The Bears haven't played the Cardinals as often as they have played the Packers but they have played them for a year longer.

For a rivalry as terrific as Bears-Packers, it's a real shame that the officiating had to be so bad. It was as if the the officials were watching an entirely different game. Phantom calls. Missed calls. It was really sad. The Bears had a touchdown drive that was mostly dependent on bad calls. Packers safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix was called for a personal foul when he touched the helmet and shoulder pads of sliding Bears quarterback Jay Cutler. The questionable officiating went both ways. Bears safety Ryan Mundy was called for a fictitious personal foul on a supposed helmet hit to Packers receiver Jordy Nelson. It was a real shame. Former Bears linebacker Dick Butkus was an honorary captain for the game. This isn't the same game that he played. Not so much for the terrible calls but for the things that you are no longer allowed to do.

Marc Trestman is an excellent football coach. It's amazing that no NFL team gave him a shot until the Bears did in 2013. Trestman was an assistant coach for decades but he had to go to Canada for his first head coaching job. He's finally in the NFL and he should be around for a while.

The Bears took a 17-14 lead in the second quarter on a fantastic playcall by Trestman. From the 8-yard line, Bears receiver Alshon Jeffery went in motion as if a reverse was in the works. Packers corner Sam Shields followed Jeffery. Just as Shields was committing himself to the other side of the field, the ball was snapped and Jeffery reversed his direction, Cutler tossed a short pass to him and it was open field to the end zone. It was a brilliantly designed play. It think that other teams will be copying this play into their playbooks.

The Bears and Packers were in quite a battle until Cutler had something of a meltdown in the third quarter with two interceptions. The Packers defense played a role so it wasn't all Cutler throwing to the wrong guys. The Packers had a four-point lead at the half. It was 38-17 at the end of the third quarter. The game got to the point where Bears backup quarterback Jimmy Clausen finished the game.

Bears receivers Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery get a lot of deserved attention. Tight end Martellus Bennett is also a very dangerous target for Cutler. He had one of his best games yesterday. 9 catches for 134 yards.

Speaking of tight ends. The Detroit Lions drafted North Carolina tight end Eric Ebron with the 10th pick of the 2014 NFL Draft to be an impact player to pair with, and take attention away from, all-everything receiver Calvin Johnson. Just when I start thinking that he hasn't done much, he scores his first NFL touchdown. He entered the game yesterday with only three catches on the season. He had three yesterday. Including a 16-yard touchdown.

It's still strange to see receiver Steve Smith in a Baltimore Ravens uniform. It was even more strange to see him in a Ravens uniform playing against Carolina Panthers. He'd only worn a Panthers uniform before this year. He had a great game against his former team. 7 catches for 139 yards. Two of those catches went for touchdowns of 61 and 21 yards.

The New York Jets must be tired of the NFC North. They played the Oakland Raiders in week one but it's been the NFC North ever since. Green Bay Packers, Chicago Bears, and Detroit Lions. They were competitive, even in control, at times in all three of those games but all three ended in losses. They get a break now. They don't play the Vikings until December 7.

Crazy end to the Pittsburgh Steelers-Tampa Bay Buccaneers game. It's not often that a team gets two last gasp chances at a game-winning touchdown in the final minutes. The Buccaneers did just that. They failed the first time. Forced a punt and got the ball back. They got a big play from street free agent Louis Murphy to get inside the Steelers 10-yard line. That set up a game-winning touchdown pass from Mike Glennon to Vincent Jackson. Buccaneers win. 27-24.

Real nice win by the San Francisco 49ers over the Philadelphia Eagles. Excellent defense by the 49ers at the end of that game. Many consider Eagles coach Chip Kelly a football genius. I have some reservations about that lofty status. I have absolutely no idea what he's doing with his runningbacks. He has LeSean McCoy and Darren Sproles and they combine for 11 carries. I didn't see the game so I don't know how it all played out but it just doesn't seem possible that a coach, especially a genius coach, would only give the ball to those backs only 11 times.

The Vikings have found themselves a quarterback. Finally!