The first half was one of ups and downs for the Vikings. Big ups early followed by some huge valleys.
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First the good: The offense was clicking on all cylinders for the first quarter and much of the second. Norv Turner had the Lions on their heels with his play calling and Teddy Bridgewater was executing the plan to perfection.
Turner had Bridgewater rolling out a lot to take some pressure off the offensive line, and used some creative calls to get a multitude of receivers involved.
To give you an idea of how deep Turner went into the playbook, he even had Matt Asiata lined up wide with an empty backfield, and Bridgewater threw a quick pass to Asiata for a nice gain.
As usual, the big target for Bridgewater in the first half was Charles Johnson, who had a couple of explosive plays receiving the ball.
The best catch of the half came courtesy of Greg Jennings who made a great adjustment on an underthrown ball by Bridgewater on the sideline.
Ok Greg Jennings... https://t.co/vlXBP1gYwy
— Aaron Nagler (@AaronNagler) December 14, 2014
The Vikings scored their two first half TDs on a Matt Asiata dive and later a Greg Jennings catch. With Bridgewater leading the way, the Vikings built a 14-0 lead on Detroit.
Defensively, the Vikes held Detroit in check with a combination of confusing blitzes and good coverage. Going against Mike Zimmer’s statements, the Vikings slapped Xavier Rhodes on Calvin Johnson for most of the first half.
Things were clipping along rather well until Teddy Bridgewater reverted back to his rookie ways late in the second quarter. An overthrown ball over the head of Charles Johnson landed in the arms of Glover Quin for an INT, leading to a relatively easily Golden Tate TD catch.
Bridgewater’s very next pass attempt was another bad throw behind Greg Jennings that was picked off by Darius Slay. Detroit would convert that into a field goal to make it 14-10.
The first half gave us two sides of Teddy Bridgewater: It showed us how good he can be when his throws are on-target and how bad he – or any quarterback – can look when he isn’t putting the ball where it needs to be.
Let’s hope Teddy avoids more turnovers in the second half.