In the first half yesterday against Carolina, the Vikings put together one of the best 30 minutes of football we’ve seen from them in years. It was bizarre and it was glorious.
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And where was supposed superstar Cordarrelle Patterson while the Vikings were putting on this rare display of all-areas football domination?
He was on the bench being a complete non-factor.
The top offensive storyline from yesterday’s game should be Teddy Bridgewater and his growing chemistry with his wide receivers, but instead everyone wants to talk about Patterson and his apparent first half benching.
Why was Patterson completely removed from the offensive game plan in the first half? Was it disciplinary? Injury-related?
Honestly, who the hell cares?
The important thing is that, with Patterson watching from the sidelines instead of clogging up the field with his ineptitude, the Vikings passing game got really humming for the first time since the Atlanta game.
With Patterson reduced to non-entity status, Teddy Bridgewater posted his highest passer rating of the season, 120.7.
Patterson received only one target the entire day for an incompletion. Norv Turner made no effort whatsoever to get Patterson involved with gimmick plays. Most importantly, Teddy Bridgewater felt no pressure to force the ball to his supposed star receiver.
Bridgewater worked the ball to Charles Johnson, Greg Jennings and Jarius Wright for 9 completions, 126 yards and a TD. Those guys were able to find open space against a porous Panthers secondary and Bridgewater was able to find them.
Teddy even quieted the talk about his deep ball by hitting an open Jarius Wright in stride for a 35-yard completion. He also threw up a good deep ball to Charles Johnson that unfortunately was not completed.
Bridgewater’s good day throwing to his receivers should be the talker, but instead the conversation is all about Patterson and what happened to get him benched as an offensive player in the first half.
A bit of a he said/he said broke out after the game when reporters began questioning Patterson and coach Mike Zimmer about the gameplan.
Patterson grumbled about the coaches thinking he’s not healthy, but Zimmer indicated that Patterson’s practice habits may be to blame for his lack of action.
There may have been some specific cause behind Patterson’s benching, perhaps even a disciplinary situation, but I would like to believe Norv Turner just wanted to show everyone what would happen if he removed Patterson from the equation.
And what happened? The offense not only functioned just fine, it functioned better than it has all season.
Teddy Bridgewater, freed from the pressure of forcing the ball to the “talented” Patterson, looked much more relaxed and sure of himself.
Turner, freed from the pressure of “getting Patterson involved,” was able to call the game he wanted to call.
What we learned from yesterday is clear: Cordarrelle Patterson is not only not an important part of the offense, his presence on the field may have actually been holding it back.
Patterson at this point is simply not a good wide receiver. He struggles getting off the line and he struggles getting open. He doesn’t go up and make plays on balls and his speed factor is meaningless when he isn’t able to run correct routes.
Patterson’s only real impact this year has been as a gimmick weapon and occasional decoy, but the decoy factor disappeared early and in recent weeks Turner hasn’t even been bothering with the jet sweeps and toss plays and other things he designed for Patterson.
Some have grumbled about Patterson’s lack of involvement, but I think Turner was right to scrap the Patterson plays. That kind of stuff only really works if you can get your basic offense running correctly and play off it. Using gimmick plays as a crutch is what bad offensive coordinators do when they have given up on their plan.
Yesterday we saw a glimpse of what Turner’s plan is supposed to be. Charles Johnson, the man who has replaced Cordarrelle Patterson at split end, is simply better at executing the plays Turner wants to run. Jarius Wright is simply a better deep threat.
With receivers on the field who know what they’re doing, Bridgewater’s comfort factor rose. Bridgewater has shown that he’ll make the correct reads and not force the ball. He’s shown that he will hit open receivers if in fact he has open receivers to hit.
In short, you’re not doing Bridgewater any favors by having Patterson on the field. Let’s hope that yesterday’s exhibition of efficient football finally helped the Vikings get over their fascination with Patterson’s potential.
It’s probably too much to ask for Patterson, who clearly has some kind of attitude problem, to learn a lesson from that game as well.
What lesson should he learn? That he’s not as big a deal as the Vikings’ marketing has made him out to be.
It takes more than raw talent to make a receiver in this league. You also need to put in the hard work and learn the position.
Will yesterday’s game convince Patterson that he needs to bear down or will he go into full shutdown mode?
It’s up to Patterson how he responds to this obvious challenge. The great thing for the Vikings is that it doesn’t really matter either way. They want Patterson along for the ride, but if he doesn’t want to get with the program, they’ll just find someone else.
If Charles Johnson can get it done, there are a lot of other people who can get it done. It’s just a matter of wanting to get it done.
Does Patterson want it? We’ll see.