Another missed Bridgewater-Patterson deep connection raises questions

The pass, the one that seemed to hang up in the orbit forever but somehow crashed to the turf upon re-entry, was the latest example of Teddy Bridgewater's struggles throwing the deep ball.

The first-quarter misfire on Sunday was also a microcosm of the lack of an on-field connection between the rookie quarterback and second-year wideout Cordarrelle Patterson, who didn't hide his frustration after the would-be touchdown touched down 2 yards in front of him.

On Monday, coach Mike Zimmer divvied up the blame for their latest missed opportunity, which came after the Washington Redskins blew their coverage scheme and Patterson adjusted his route to run up the left sideline. No defender was within 20 yards of Patterson on the play.

"Teddy was expecting it to be a little more inside," Zimmer said. "So it was more of a miscommunication than anything else. Obviously he should have hit it. But I think maybe Cordarrelle could have done a better job of catching it, too."

After drafting Bridgewater in the first round in May, the Vikings — especially Bridgewater and Patterson — expected big things whenever the two were finally paired together in games. But since Bridgewater took over as the starting quarterback in Week 4, getting the ball into the hands of Patterson, a gifted athlete but raw route runner, has proved difficult.

Bridgewater targeted Patterson seven times in the first 28 minutes of Sunday's 29-26 victory over Washington. Patterson caught only one, for a gain of just 9 yards. Bridgewater did not throw to Patterson again, and the Vikings had four touchdown drives in the final 32 minutes.

That just continued a trend of underwhelming production for Patterson with Bridgewater under center. So on Monday, Zimmer was asked if something was keeping the two players from clicking.

"Yes," Zimmer said. "I'll leave it at that."

After a few seconds of silence, Zimmer couldn't help himself.

"It's nothing between the two [off the field]. We're not precise enough in a lot of areas," Zimmer said. "We're trying to get Cordarrelle involved in the offense. We'd love for him to be involved but guys have to make sure that they are in the right places all the time."

After making strides late in his rookie season, Patterson, who could coast on ability alone back in college, was expected to take another few steps forward in 2014. But he has struggled to separate from man coverage, and based on Zimmer's comments, has not always been running the right routes or refined ones at the proper depth.

Some of the miscues are on Bridgewater, whose 38.5 deep accuracy percentage (passes 20 yards beyond the line of scrimmage) ranks 20th among qualifying quarterbacks, according to Pro Football Focus. But the bottom line is that in Bridgewater's five starts, Patterson has just 13 catches for 157 yards and one touchdown despite Bridgewater targeting him 35 times, more than any other Viking. Two of Bridgewater's five interceptions have come when he was trying to get the ball to Patterson.

"Of course, it is frustrating," Patterson said after Sunday's game. "We got the win and are going to look past that, all of the deep balls. We just need to work in practice and work on getting that communication with each other."

Meanwhile, fellow wide receivers Greg Jennings and Jarius Wright and tight end Chase Ford, who started the season on the practice squad, all caught more passes than Patterson in those games, and running backs Matt Asiata and Jerick McKinnon each had as many receptions.

"I think one of the great things that we're doing, honestly, is we're spreading the ball around. It's not just one guy catching the ball," Zimmer said. "This is never going to be a one-man show."

Still, the Week 8 win against the Tampa Buccaneers gave hope that Bridgewater and Patterson might finally be starting to click. Bridgewater completed six of his 12 attempts to Patterson for 86 yards as Patterson was able to find soft spots in zone coverage, which Bridgewater had no issues identifying.

But the two were again out of sync Sunday.

Of course, no incompletion was more glaring than that errant deep ball, something that has been a recurring issue for Bridgewater. Especially when he is targeting Patterson.

"Cordarrelle, he was wide open early in the game and I just overthrew him," Bridgewater said Sunday. "That's one of those plays where a guy is that wide open, just give him the ball that he can catch and go score a touchdown."