Over my next few articles, I’m going to be covering the biggest positives (touchdowns) and negatives (turnovers) from the young QBs in 2014. This article will cover Teddy Bridgewater’s 12 interceptions in 2014, plus the three times he put the ball on the ground. First, I’m going to cover some charting data I came up with while watching his passing. Then, on page 2 and beyond, there are my thoughts on the individual plays themselves. You should note that while the section covering each individual play includes the fumbles, the charting data does not.
Here are the articles so far:
One of the first things I charted for each interception was blame. I assigned three categories, which should be self-explanatory:
Blame
| QB’s Fault | 6 |
| Partially QB’s fault | 3 |
| Not QB’s fault | 3 |
Half of Bridgewater’s interceptions were on him. I have no idea how that rate stacks up against the rest of the NFL besides Carr and Bortles (I can say that it’s a better rate than either of those two). Also, Bridgewater had three INTs that I don’t think were his fault, but rather that the blame lies elsewhere (one pass was a Hail Mary, the other two bounced off of Matt Asiata’s hands).
What caused the interceptions?
Cause
| Bad Decision | 4 |
| Bad Throw | 6 |
| Pressured | 5 |
| Great Defense | 2 |
| Dropped Pass | 3 |
| Tipped By Defense | 2 |
Since there’s overlap in these categories (you can make an ill-advised decision and still make a poor throw), these numbers do not add up to 12. From this, it looks like Bridgewater’s interceptions were slightly more due to bad throws than bad decisions, although there was definitely overlap. He was also pressured on 5 of his interceptions. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, two of the plays where I gave Bridgewater no fault were when he was pressured, and I only marked him off for a bad decision on two of the pressured plays. That’s not necessarily an indicator that he’s usually cool under pressure, but it’s a hopeful sign.
What about distance covered? Bridgewater’s average depth of target on these throws was 16.8 yards. Where on the field was he throwing the ball? Here’s a breakdown of each throw:
Distance Breakdown
| Fewer than 6 Yards | 4 |
| Between 6 and 15 yards | 3 |
| More than 15 yards | 5 |
Location Breakdown
| Deep Left | Deep Middle | Deep Right |
| 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Intermediate Left | Intermediate Middle | Intermediate Right |
| 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Short Left | Short Middle | Short Right |
| 1 | 1 | 2 |
Bridgewater’s interceptions are pretty spread out across the field. I don’t know if there’s a discernable pattern, but there isn’t a lot of data either. One thing that kind of jumps out is the 5 interceptions to the intermediate and deep right. Looking at the numbers, that could indicate that Bridgewater either struggles with arm strength or accuracy when throwing to his right, but after looking at it on tape I don’t think that’s the case. One was a Hail Mary, one was an ill-advised desperation throw, and one was kind of a fluky play. One of them was a throw behind a receiver and the fifth throw was too late, but there was not a clear pattern with the causes of those five interceptions.
What about the time left on the clock? First, a breakdown of potential game situations, followed by a breakdown by quarter:
Situational Breakdown
| Crunch Time | 1 |
| Garbage Time | 0 |
| Desperation | 1 |
Quarter Breakdown
| 1st Quarter | 1 |
| 2nd Quarter | 7 |
| 3rd Quarter | 3 |
| 4th Quarter/Overtime | 1 |
Bridgewater did throw an interception with the game on the line. Besides that, he kept a clean slate in the 4th Quarter in 2014. We definitely see a trend here, however, and it’s with 2nd Quarter interceptions. This indicates that Bridgewater gets more reckless when he’s trying to lead the team down the field before halftime. He threw 5 interceptions with fewer than 5 minutes left in the first half. That’s nearly half of his picks. Scoring before halftime can help change the game, because it definitely helps to be up that much more (or be that much closer to the lead) getting out of halftime. Bridgewater will need to clean that up and stay focused as the half winds down.
Now let’s take a look at the interceptions he threw by down:
Down Breakdown
| 1st Down | 6 |
| 2nd Down | 3 |
| 3rd Down | 3 |
| 4th Down | 0 |
If there’s anything to take from this, I think it’s that Bridgewater might take a few more risks on first down, which seems to mesh with conventional wisdom.
What about the kinds of routes he was throwing to?
Route Breakdown
| Out | 3 |
| Checkdown | 2 |
| Vertical | 2 |
| Slant | 2 |
| Corner | 1 |
| Crossing | 1 |
| Post | 1 |
Interceptions on out routes jump out to me because those throws are probably the most physically demanding from QBs, especially when they’re deep outs. Two of those interceptions were bad ones. The fact that two checkdowns turned into interceptions is frustrating because those plays are supposed to be gimmes. However, they were because of Asiata’s stone hands, not Bridgewater’s doing.
Finally, lets take a look at who Bridgewater was targeting on his interceptions:
Receiver Breakdown
| Cordarrelle Patterson | 3 |
| Matt Asiata | 2 |
| Greg Jennings | 2 |
| Charles Johnson | 2 |
| Jairus Wright | 1 |
| Chase Ford | 1 |
| Adam Thielen | 1 |
Cordarrelle Patterson had a frustrating season and the fact that he was the target for a quarter of Bridgewater’s interceptions is also frustrating. I can’t say they were his fault (well two absolutely weren’t) but you’d like to see your young QB be able to connect with your young wide receiver and that did not happen between Teddy and Patterson. The other note I have is that I wouldn’t really include Wright on this list because the interception he was assigned as the target for was the one on the Hail Mary. But I included it because that’s what the official play-by-play did.
