Minnesota have endured one of the more challenging seasons in their 53-year history in 2014.
The Vikings came into Week 1 needing a near perfect 16-game performance to match it with the rest of the tough NFC North and qualify for the playoffs.
Adrian Peterson would have to channel his near record-breaking 2012 form, Matt Cassel would have to stay healthy, Cordarrelle Patterson would have to continue to prosper and the defence would have to be stout against the run and the pass.
The team had drafted well over the past few years, but still didn’t have the talent and depth to compete over a full season with the powerhouse teams of the NFC. They would require a good dose of hard work and an element of good luck.
Instead, the Vikings’ season fell apart at the seam almost as soon as it started. After one game, Peterson was indicted on child abuse charges and suspended. After three games, Cassel was placed on IR after fracturing bones in his foot.
Patterson, the rangy receiver and return man who provided so much hope as a rookie in 2013, regressed. He has found it hard to get open in 2014 and the Vikings have struggled to utilise his skills.
Patterson has 30 catches on 62 targets this season for 350 yards and one touchdown. He also has one rushing touchdown and 119 yards on the ground and no kick-off return touchdowns. His overall production is way down on 2013 when he had nine total touchdowns and more than 1500 total yards.
The Vikings’ pass rush and secondary have been good against the pass and rank sixth overall, but they are allowing an average of 127 yards on the ground. The Vikings are 6-7 and out of the playoff race with three weeks remaining. The season has been a disappointment, on and off the field, for Vikings fans, but the one consolation they can take from a 2014 to forget is the emergence of rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.
Had Cassel not gotten hurt, the Vikings may have kept Bridgewater on the bench for most of 2014, much like the approach the Browns have taken with Johnny Manziel to date. And without Peterson’s suspension there is no doubt the Vikings would have leant on the run and rode AP to a mediocre 8-8 or 9-7 season.
You could argue that with Peterson and Bridgewater on the roster the Vikings may still be in with a shout of a playoff berth, but Peterson’s absence has made for an expeditious development for the young quarterback. And, save for a few struggles against two of the league’s best pass rushing teams in Week 3 and Week 4, Bridgewater has shown great promise.
He has completed 61.9 per cent of passes for 2136, 10 touchdowns and eight interceptions and led the Vikings to five wins from nine starts. His worst outing was a triple-interception game in a 19-3 loss to the Lions in his second start, but other than that he has kept the Vikings in every game. And he’s done it with limited offensive talent around him – two unproven running backs and a core of little known or underperforming receivers.
He hasn’t put up gaudy numbers, but Bridgewater has been poised and decisive. A pocket passer first and a dual-threat quarterback second. Bridgewater’s biggest play of the season came in overtime against the New York Jets on Sunday.
With the Vikings back up on their own 13-yard line at third and five, Bridgewater made a last second adjustment to set-up a two-yard bubble screen that receiver Jarius Wright turned into an 87-yard game-winning touchdown. Bridgewater said later he had sensed an all-out blitz and checked into the screen. It was a veteran play from arguably the most promising quarterback in the 2014 rookie class.
All the talk pre-draft was about Johnny Football and giant Central Florida signal-caller Blake Bortles. Bortles went third to the Jags – a franchise which eats up rookie quarterbacks – and has failed to ignite that struggling offence. He has two wins, 10 touchdowns and 18 turnovers.
Manziel has been limited to a few snaps here and there. LSU product Zach Mettenberger went in the sixth round to Tennessee and, despite a few big plays, is yet to win his first game as a starter.
The only rookie quarterback who can compare to Bridgewater at this point in their careers is the Raiders’ Derek Carr. Carr has been a revolution in a horrible Raiders side, guiding them to two huge wins at home against the Chiefs and 49ers in the past three weeks. The Raiders rank near the bottom in almost every statistical category, but Carr has worked wonders with limited talent around him.
He leads rookies in passing yards (2,676) and touchdowns (17) and has refused to give up on Oakland’s lost season. Finally the Raiders have some young talent to build around. The Vikings too.
Both have battled through discouraging seasons for different reasons in 2014, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. At the very least there is hope, hope that they may have found the long-term answer at quarterback, hope that 2015 will erase the disappointment of 2014.
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