Teddy Bridgewater’s 15 Total TDs in 2014

1-8-DET 8 (Q2, 10:11) (Shotgun) 5-T.Bridgewater pass short right to 15-G.Jennings for 8 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

This pass concept, while technically not a read option, is similar. The purpose is to be able to leave the DE unblocked but take him out of the play. They do this by having Jennings run a flat route to the open area where the DE vacated. Bridgewater makes the throw with the defender in his face and Jennings is untouched to the endzone.

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3-8-MIA 21 (Q2, 11:40) (Shotgun) 5-T.Bridgewater pass deep right to 15-G.Jennings for 21 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

Jennings runs a route that’s similar to his TD against the Buccaneers, but this time he comes underneath the CB instead of over top of him. Bridgewater and Jennings are clearly in sync, because the rookie releases the ball before Jennings leaves his break and it’s directly on target. This is not an easy throw to make because it needs to be threaded in between the CB and the sideline.

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1-8-MIA 8 (Q4, 4:59) (Shotgun) 5-T.Bridgewater pass short right to 17-J.Wright for 8 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

This throw, along with the throw against the Bucs, were the two most difficult Bridgewater had to make. Cameron Wake made a fool of RT Mike Harris with a swim move, and Bridgewater has to make a strong throw to fit it in past the diving corner to Wright for the TD.

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1-10-CHI 44 (Q3, 11:00) (No Huddle, Shotgun) 5-T.Bridgewater pass deep right to 19-A.Thielen for 44 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

The Bears are using a single high safety and there must have been some sort of miscommunication because neither CB on Thielen’s side of the field follows him deep. This leaves Thielen wide open. Even though it’s deep down the field, the throw is easy for Bridgewater because Thielen is absolutely wide open.

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2-8-ATL 13 (Q2, 2:08) (Shotgun) 5-T.Bridgewater scrambles left end for 13 yards, TOUCHDOWN.

While I didn’t include them in the charting, here are two more TDs that Bridgewater was directly involved in. In his first career start, Bridgewater didn’t throw for a TD despite the Vikings scoring 41 points, but he did run for one (Asiata also added on 3 TDs). Here, the Falcons do a very good job of covering all of Teddy’s options. He starts to step up in the pocket, and Kroy Biermann loses contain trying to cut inside. Bridgewater loops around him and there is just a lot of green space for him to run to for the TD. His dive is really nice; he splits two defenders and avoids taking a big hit while getting into the endzone.

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2-4-NYJ 23 (Q2, 13:44) 5-T.Bridgewater pass deep middle to 12-Ch.Johnson to NYJ 1 for 22 yards (37-J.Jarrett) (98-Q.Coples). FUMBLES (37-J.Jarrett), recovered by MIN-42-J.Felton at NYJ 0. TOUCHDOWN.

This is a strange play, with Jerome Felton recovering Charles Johnson’s fumble in the endzone for a TD. The Jets blitz, which leaves their secondary exposed. They only have four guys in coverage, and two of those guys collide with each other. This leaves Johnson open, and Bridgewater makes an adequate throw from a collapsing pocket.

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There are a lot of positives to take away from these plays by Bridgewater. The first thing to notice is the ball placement, which is consistently good. He’s hitting receivers in stride and where they can make easy catches away from defenders. Granted, many of the receivers he’s throwing to are quite open, so it’s not all too impressive. Another positive is his calm in the face of pressure. There are three plays of the bunch where he takes a big hit, but he still delivers an impressive on target throw. He also shows a little pocket manipulation, another strength. Quite a few of these throws are to deep corners, so they show that he has at the least adequate arm strength, which was a concern for him coming into the year.

I guess the biggest negative for me out of these passes is that you’d like to see more of them. As a Vikings fan, I know he left points on the field with missed throws. However, the Vikings also like to run a lot inside the ten, as Matt Asiata had two 3 TD games. We’ll get to more negatives the next time I cover Bridgewater as I will be going over his interceptions.

Degree of Difficulty

Easy	8
Normal	4
Hard	2

 

This is a pretty small sample size, but the distribution of easy/normal/hard difficulty throws makes sense. If a defender makes a bad mistake that makes a throw easy, there’s a decent chance it’s going to end up a TD. Likewise, hard throws are difficult to complete. Therefore, they are unlikely to end up as TDs. Combine that with the fact that short throws such as screens and flat routes are generally pretty easy for QBs, and one would expect a good percentage of a QB’s TD throws to be of the “easy” variety. Even though he didn’t face too many difficult throws, Bridgewater did a very good job with the situations he was put in, and his placement was excellent on most throws.

Later in the week, look for a post on Bortles to go up. My plan after that is to chart their turnovers.

Click here for all of Teddy Bridgewater’s plays in the GIF Database.