Balancing Caution and Assertion for Vikings QB Teddy Bridgewater

The combination of Adrian Peterson and the NFL's second-ranked scoring defense has made it unnecessary for the Minnesota Vikings to win football games with the right arm of quarterback Teddy Bridgewater.

While the second-year player has been more a complementary piece to Minnesota's 6-2 start, Bridgewater's head coach and offensive coordinator understand the sometimes frustrating balancing act required of a young quarterback playing with a top running back and stifling defense. 

"Yeah, there’s a fine line there, you don’t want to go crazy because you’ve got Adrian in the backfield, you want to hand him the football some," head coach Mike Zimmer said. "In my opinion, Teddy is a playmaker, and I think we want him to continue to try to make plays with some of these. Sometimes he’s a little bit too much of complementary football, maybe."

Bridgewater can typically afford to play cautiously. Peterson has returned from a lost 2014 season to lead the NFL in rushing yards through nine weeks, while Zimmer's defense has blossomed into one of the league's best units. Winning consistently in the NFL typically requires the quarterback position to play well every week, but Bridgewater is averaging just 188.4 passing yards per game—with just six touchdowns—for the 30th ranked passing offense. 

Yet, the Vikings are a perfect 4-0 when he finishes a game with fewer than 200 yards. 

The big leap many were expecting from Bridgewater hasn't manifested in the numbers. In fact, his statistics in 2015 almost mirror those from his rookie season. 

	2014	2015
Games	13	8
Completion Percentage	64.4	64.2
Yards per Attempt	7.26	7.20
Touchdowns	14	6
Interceptions	12	6
Passer Rating	85.2	83.4

Zimmer believes his quarterback's mindset could be part of the reason why:

"

Sometimes he’s cautious with the ball because he doesn’t want to give the other team a chance. I think he sees us playing fairly good defense at times, but I do have belief, like when we get behind in games he doesn’t play that way, he kind of lets it loose and just plays football. I want him to be more like that throughout the course of the ballgame. There’s times when he just needs to say, 'the heck with it, it’s my ball, let’s go.'

"

Bridgewater has let it rip at times this season. He nearly led the Vikings back from a deficit against the unbeaten Broncos in Denver, and his big second half in Detroit helped Minnesota pull away against the Lions. More recently, Bridgewater came alive late to spark a comeback win in Chicago, and he produced both the rushing touchdown and two-point conversion on the Vikings' go-ahead drive during last Sunday's win over the St. Louis Rams.  

Now, the staff just needs to see the attacking mentality for 60 minutes. 

"I think he’s making very few negative plays," offensive coordinator Norv Turner said. "He’s not making plays that cost us games and obviously in the most critical situations when we’ve been behind, whether it be early in the fourth quarter or late in the fourth quarter, he’s put together drives, he’s put together plays that have given us a chance to win."

Opportunity is also part of the equation. As the quarterback of a team featuring Peterson and the running game, Bridgewater hasn't been asked to drop back and throw the football 50 times a game. 

	Attempts	Passing Yards Per Game
St. Louis Rams	222	177.1
Buffalo Bills	234	208.9
Seattle Seahawks	234	213.6
Minnesota Vikings	238	188.9
Carolina Panthers	246	216.6

In fact, he's averaging just 29 attempts per game through the first eight games. Only three teams have fewer passing attempts than the Vikings this season. 

"Having Adrian is a big bonus for our offensive team, but it does make at times the quarterback position a little more difficult because you don’t get as many chances," Turner said. "I think Teddy is making most of the chances that he’s getting and we’re going to continue to get more consistent and better, so when we have opportunities to make big plays, we’ll do it."

Bridgewater and the Vikings have missed on a few big plays in the passing game in recent weeks. Veteran Mike Wallace, who was acquired this offseason to provide a deep threat in Turner's offense, has just one catch over his last 10 targets. He should have more than just one reception over 20 yards, but Bridgewater hasn't connected on a handful of deep shots down the field to Wallace over the last month. 

The Vikings' quarterback can't afford to miss on those easy chances. 

Joe Robbins/Getty Images

As the offense's play-caller, Turner must assess the situation before every decision. Having the safety blanket of Peterson in the backfield and Zimmer's defense on the other side almost certainly factors into how Turner develops his game plan during the week and calls the game on Sunday. 

Why put the game on his young quarterback when the team is winning in other ways? Turner explained:

"

We’re awfully good on defense, we’ve played some teams that struggled to move the ball against us and I think we’ve contributed to that because we run the ball, we play the field position game as well as any team I’ve been around in a long time—a combination of running the ball, getting first downs, punting the ball down in there, our special teams were playing great. 

"

Relying on other supporting areas has worked for the Vikings, who have won four straight games by a combined 30 points. But there will be times over the final eight games—possible even on Sunday against the Oakland Raiders—where Minnesota will need Bridgewater to be more assertive in the passing game. 

It's not a matter of Bridgewater improving in a certain area physically. He isn't regressing as a quarterback in his second season. The Vikings staff just wants more of "Two-Minute Teddy" over the full course of the game. 

Minnesota is a consistent passing game away from being one of the true contenders in the NFC. A slight change in mentality within Bridgewater—from cautious to slightly more aggressive—could do the trick. 

Zach Kruse covers the Vikings for Bleacher Report. 

Follow @zachkruse2