How Norv Turner Has Adjusted Vikings Offense to Help Teddy Bridgewater

The Minnesota Vikings took multiple forward steps in their 31-13 victory over the Carolina Panthers in Week 13. Tweaks to the passing game from offensive coordinator Norv Turner contributed greatly to the efficient play of rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, which was a welcome sign.

Up until Sunday, Turner was more of a stubborn coordinator unwilling to change. He asked much of the QB with a sink-or-swim approach, and Bridgewater merely floated, bobbing up and down as rookies do.

By asking Bridgewater to handle downfield route concepts with regularity despite a poor offensive line, Turner left his rookie out to dry with a struggling receiving corps. The loss of numerous vital pieces Minnesota had banked on offensively only asked more of the QB.

None of this even considers that Turner’s offense is a 180-degree difference from the one Bridgewater ran at Louisville.

Bridgewater struggled early on with it, unsurprisingly. Even when he showed a greater understanding of the concepts at hand, the lack of offensive talent around him left the Vikings offense searching for answers. Bridgewater turned into a checkdown machine while trying to manage games and that gave Minnesota no shot at success.

Then Phil Loadholt went down injured, leaving Bridgewater without the right side of the starting OL, without the running back the Vikings would have featured and without stability at the tight end position. Maybe that was the final straw for Turner, pointing to the need for the offense to adapt.

Right out of the gate against Carolina, with plays scripted by offensive coordinators, that’s exactly what he did.

Bridgewater completed his first five throws, finding his rhythm much earlier than he had in previous outings. Adjustments were the difference.

"

Norv calls two PA-rollouts, a WR screen, and one traditional pass play throws to a bunch. Smart adjustments.

— Darren Page (@DarrenPage) November 30, 2014"

Easing Bridgewater into the game by moving the pocket with play-action passes and giving him a few quick-hitting throws paid dividends. Instead of struggling through the first half and trying to find his footing, Bridgewater played a calm and composed game throughout, throwing with accuracy and anticipation.

The bunch sets were a throwback to what the QB often utilized at Louisville, at least much more than Turner’s offense usually asks for.

An early third-down conversion to Greg Jennings came from a bunch.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

Bunches often give a QB a triangle of reads on one side of the field. In this case, Bridgewater has the out to Jennings and the “snag” route to Charles Johnson underneath. At the top of the triangle is a corner route to Jarius Wright.

Chris B. Brown of Smart Football goes into great detail on triangles in the passing game, including a breakdown of this exact concept.

This look gives the Vikings the best of multiple worlds. It stresses zone coverage, especially Cover 2, because the cornerback has a route-runner above and below him. The corner route is also able to beat man coverage.

Most importantly, Bridgewater has the processing capability to quickly read coverage and make the correct throw. Having more options on the same side of the field helps.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

When the CB sinks too deep on this occasion, the decision to dump the ball to Jennings at the sticks is a no-brainer.

Bridgewater has shown the ability to execute concepts like this over and over. When given multiple options, he can diagnose coverage quite reliably for a rookie and make the right decision.

These route combinations that strike more quickly don’t ask him to sit in collapsing pockets and throw strikes down the field. Even better, with a bunch grouping like this one, he can glide in that direction when moving from pressure to shorten the throw, which he did here.

Turner’s appropriate script early in the Carolina game got Teddy off to a quick start and the rest was history. Some adjustments showed up late in the game, too, going back to tighter alignments with receivers.

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On both sides of the field, the QB has high-low reads again. Jennings runs an out and Johnson a corner on the near side. That gives Bridgewater another defined read of the CB.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind

As soon as No. 20’s hips turn up the field, the ball is out. Jennings has not even turned his head around yet, which says something about the rhythm and anticipation Bridgewater is playing with in the second half.

With the ball coming out quickly, Jennings was able to slip the tackler and score, adding to Carolina’s misery.

These sets help a struggling group of receivers as well, not only Bridgewater. The tightness of their alignments makes it very difficult for defenses to press with aggression in coverage, something that has given Minnesota fits for most of the season.

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Turner normally prefers to spread things out and create space with receivers, not often utilizing plays with three receivers on the same side or plays with no receivers outside the numbers. That spacing is a benefit to highly talented receivers who can consistently beat man coverage, but Minnesota’s have been unable to do so.

Creative sets help free up receivers more quickly and help get the ball out of Bridgewater’s hands. The play call helps the receivers aid Bridgewater and the offensive line.

Later on, Turner then complemented the underneath throws by dialing up downfield looks for Bridgewater, who had already found his rhythm and his confidence as a passer. As a result, he threw with great accuracy to intermediate and deep areas of the field. Carolina had to address the quick throws with more safety involvement, and the Vikings responded perfectly.

Every rookie QB needs to be thrown a bone sometimes, and Bridgewater is no exception.

When Minnesota’s offense was laboring through what Turner had thought they ought to be able to do in weeks prior, Bridgewater took the brunt of it. By making slight tweaks to the system, especially in the early going, the rookie QB was finally given a plan that was conducive to success in trying circumstances.

Bridgewater will get thrown back in the deep end soon enough. He will be thankful that Turner gave him a chance to catch his breath against Carolina.

Statistics via ESPN.com unless noted otherwise.