Vikings Rewind: Teddy Bridgewater's first career interception

The situation: Down 7-0, the Vikings faced a 1^st and 10 at the Lions' 15 with 8:07 left in the first quarter. They attempted a pass to wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson.

The reason: They looked to cap an impressive opening drive with a touchdown on a play action pass. The Vikings hoped to catch the Lions off guard with the play and cash in six points.

The result: Lions safety Glover Quin intercepted rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater's pass in the end zone and returned it to the 18.

How it happened:

The Vikings motioned tight end Rhett Ellison (circled in yellow) from the left side of the formation into the backfield in an offset "I" formation. Wide receivers Cordarrelle Patterson and Greg Jennings lined up on the right side, with Jennings on the outside. The Lions were in their base 4-3 defense.

As the play developed, Jennings (circled in blue) cutted inside while Patterson (circled in yellow) went outside. Both ran post routes, also known as a "Dino" route. Quin hovered over both receivers but kept his eye Patterson. So did Bridgewater, who stared at him the entire play, right before Patterson broke into his post route. If you look at the pocket, Bridgewater had great protection on this play.

Just as Bridgewater was set to throw the ball, Quin (circled in red) shuffled his feet and baited the rookie quarterback to throw it to Patterson (circled in yellow). Just as he did, Quin hustled over to make a play.

Here's the end zone camera angle to give a better perspective. The ball was still in Bridgewater's hands when Quin (circled in red) jumped the route. Jennings (circled in blue) was covered by a linebacker dropping into zone coverage. Once he got over the linebackers on his route, Jennings was wide open at this point.

Bridgewater didn't look at Jennings (circled in blue) and Quin (circled in red) was in perfect position to make the catch and stall the Vikings opening drive.

"They tried to disguise it with the formation, but once it was snapped, it played out like I thought it would," Quin told MLive.com after the game. As MLive.com noted, the Lions struggled to defend "Dino" routes against the Panthers in Week 2.

There's two things here that Bridgewater did uncharacteristically to create the awful play. Bridgewater is pretty advanced for a rookie in terms of manipulating safeties and reading through his progressions. He did neither on this play and acknowledged after the game the throw was a poor decision.

"I just expected [Quin] to run with the inside guy; I believe it was Greg," Bridgewater said. " He made a great play. Detroit, they have a great defense and those guys were prepared to play us. In that situation, I just have to see the safety. I was expecting him to run with Greg and he ran to the outside receiver and he made a play."

Who knows how the game would've played out if the Vikings score even three points on that drive. Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford struggled without wide receiver Calvin Johnson and a porous offensive line. That offense will not beat a team without Johnson as evident as it was at TCF Bank Stadium.

The Vikings never clicked on offense after that first drive, scoring just three points. The interception was one of three for Bridgewater, with one deflected at the line of scrimmage and the other going through running back Matt Asiata's hands.

"There's some throws that you're not going to be able to control and there will be things that happen throughout the course of a game that you won't be able to control," Bridgewater said. "But at the same time, for me, it was an eye-opener. After my performance against Atlanta, I believe the expectation level is high. But I have a high expectation level for myself also. After today, I'm just going to get back, watch the tape, prepare for Buffalo."

Bridgewater's second career start was definitely a learning experience. The growing pains were expected with the rookie quarterback, but Bridgewater was capable of making a better decision on this particular play.