Minnesota Vikings and the shotgun formation

The Minnesota Vikings found themselves running a lot of plays out of the shotgun formation during their season opener against the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football, but that both was a good thing and a bad thing at the same time.

On the positive side, working out of the shotgun gave Teddy Bridgewater more time in the pocket. This was important because the offensive line was giving up pressure all night long. Brandon Fusco had what I consider to be the worst night of his professional career and center Joe Berger stuggled mightily as well. Rookie right tackle T.J. Clemmings looked like a true rookie out there, as he struggled to maintain the pass rush and even get out of the way of a scrambling quarterback.

While Bridgewater got more time, it changed things mightily for the Minnesota Vikings star running back Adrian Peterson.

September 14, 2015; Santa Clara, CA, USA; Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson (28) runs with the football against San Francisco 49ers strong safety

Antoine Bethea

(41) during the second quarter at Levi

Fans of the team know that the former NFL Most Valuable Player is most comfortable running out of the I-Formation. While running out of that formation, Peterson averaged 4 yards a carry. However, when running the ball out of the shotgun, he averaged just 1.75 yards per carry.

Recently, Adrian Peterson spoke to ESPN about the challenges of running out of the shogun instead of the I.

"“You really just need to be more patient, allow the pulling guard to get on his block and hit it up in there,” he said Monday night. “Those are the ones I felt like I was kind of hesitant on. I really wanted to hit like I was coming out of the I-formation.”"

It will be interesting to see if the Minnesota Vikings try to get Adrian Peterson more snaps in the I-Formation compared to the Shotgun against the Detroit Lions on Sunday. If not, we’ll continue to see the team trying to protect Teddy Bridgewater. It should all depend on how much pressure the Lions send against the young quarterback during week 2.

Hopefully, we’ll see more balance and variety. But we’ll never know until Sunday.

Next: Minnesota Vikings 2015 Game By Game Previews

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