Teddy Bridgewater and the Minnesota Vikings' Offensive Expectations for Week 11

The Minnesota Vikings come off their bye week with a great opportunity to get their rookie quarterback, Teddy Bridgewater, and their offense on track as they travel to Chicago to take on the struggling Bears.

The Bears are reeling after consecutive blowout losses where their defense has given up 80 points and 10 touchdown passes in the first half.

That's not a misprint—go ahead, and read that last sentence again.

So can the Vikings, and particularly Bridgewater, step in against a staggered opponent and join in on the aerial circus? If ever there were a defense that was softened up and ripe for the picking, this is it.

Chicago has lost three straight games and five of its last six, with the last two losses coming against the New England Patriots and Green Bay Packers, as noted above, in historic fashion.

As longtime NFL scouting guru Gil Brandt points out, the last team to play so woefully on defense ended up folding:

"

#Bears became 1st team since 1923 to give up 50+ points in consecutive games. 1923 Rochester Jeffersons folded after 4 games.

— Gil Brandt (@Gil_Brandt) November 10, 2014"

While we're not suggesting the Bears fold, this week's matchup seems like an ideal time for Bridgewater and the Vikings receivers to finally put up some bigger passing numbers.

As you can see in the following tables, Minnesota's passing offense leaves much to be desired at this point in the season. (All statistics courtesy of ESPN.com.)

	Yds Passing per Game	TD Passes	Total Yds per Game	Passer Rtg
Bridgewater/Vikings	220	6	316.4	74.9
NFL Rank	25	32	27	30

Bridgewater is on the uptick, though, as you can see how his numbers have improved over the last four games:

Opponent	Comp/Att	Yds	TDs	Int	Sacks	Rtg
Bills	23/37	188	0	3	8	41.3
Lions	14/26	157	1	2	5	56.1
Buccaneers	24/42	241	1	0	1	81.5
Redskins	26/42	268	1	0	2	88.2

The obvious takeaways from that last table are that the first two games were against much tougher defensive opponents, and the more Bridgewater is pressured, the worse he plays. The good news for the Vikings is that even in the the first two games above (both losses), the young rookie seemed to get better as the game wore on.

Jeff Haynes/Associated Press

Now Bridgewater will face a Bears defense that's given up video game numbers over Chicago's last two games:

Opponent	Comp/Att	Yds	TDs	Int	Sacks	Rtg
Patriots/Brady	30/35	354	5	0	0	148.4
Packers/Rodgers	18/27	315	6	0	0	145.8

Those two games have gone a long way toward spiraling the Bears defense toward the bottom of the league rankings and have them looking like anything but the Monsters of the Midway.

	Pass Yds per Game	TDs	Pts per Game	Rtg Against
Bears Defense	269	23	30.8	107.0
NFL Rank	28	31	32	31

So Sunday's game between the Vikings and the Bears is clearly a matchup of a sputtering offense against a defense that is playing flat-out awful right now.

Another nice sign for the Vikings, though, is that their passing offense seems to be picking up steam, while the Bears defense is only getting worse.

It's been a pretty chaotic year for the Vikings and Bridgewater, who just turned 22 years old on November 10. Penciled in as the backup to Matt Cassel out of training camp, the Vikings hoped Bridgewater could watch and learn during his rookie season.

That all changed when Cassel had his season ended with a broken foot during the third week of the season.

Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer told ESPN.com's Ben Goessling that the switch to the rookie didn't change his outlook for the season:

"

I don't think it changed the expectations of the team. I think the team had a lot of confidence in Teddy. I think they had a lot of respect for Teddy in everything that we've done. I think it's always a little bit of a mindset change when your quarterback gets hurt, but I don't think it's changed any expectations. It hasn't changed mine, and hopefully it hasn't changed the defense's or the offense's either.

"

Bridgewater is going through the normal growing pains one would associate with a rookie quarterback. He holds on to the ball for too long, he stares down receivers, and he's been inconsistent with his accuracy. On the bright side, he's been at his best during crucial late-game drives in wins over the Buccaneers and Redskins.

On the Vikings' last possession in each game, when they needed points, he went a combined 10-of-16 for 118 yards and moved Minnesota down the field while demonstrating a veteran's poise and leadership.

Much of Minnesota's struggles through the air can be attributed to its receivers, who at least share in the blame with Bridgewater, as they've struggled to get open, and each has had his share of the drops on the season. 

Ann Heisenfelt/Associated Press

The table below shows how low the Vikings' three leading receivers rank in the league. The passing game should get a boost with the expected return of tight end Kyle Rudolph against the Bears, as reported by Brian Murphy of the Pioneer Press. 

The 3-6 Bears have four receivers with more passing yards than anybody on the Vikings.

	Rec	Avg	TDs	Yards	NFL Rank
Greg Jennings	35	13.1	2	459	46
Jarius Wright	26	12.1	0	315	87
Cordarrelle Patterson	26	11.8	1	308	92

After seeing that table, it should come as no surprise that Minnesota ranks dead last in the league with just six touchdown passes. (The Broncos lead the league with 29.)

Look for Bridgewater to continue his improvement against an awful Bears secondary. Coming off a bye week, he's been able to finally take a deep breath during a whirlwind rookie season. With more reps under his belt, Bridgewater's recognition will steadily improve as the pro game begins to slow down for him.

Expect Bridgewater to post his second 300-yard passing game and have his first multiple-touchdown game as a pro.

As for Minnesota's receivers, they should have been salivating watching the Packers wideouts running uncovered all night long against the Bears last Sunday.

Morry Gash/Associated Press

Bears linebacker Lance Briggs took the blame for a blown coverage call that led to Jordy Nelson being all alone on a 73-yard touchdown pass, according to Rich Campbell of the Chicago Tribune.

Look for Bridgewater to continue to spread the ball around, and don't be surprised if the Vikings take a couple of deep shots to Cordarrelle Patterson to try to get him going and open up the field for everybody else.