The Bearswanted the ball in Teddy Bridgewater's hands.
Bears defensive end Jared Allen thinks the Vikings rookie will end up being a good quarterback. But amid some frigid temperatures, Allen couldn't have been happier to see him pulling the ball during zone read plays.
"Some of the stuff they did was a little more traditional, which played to our strengths, I think," Allen said, via ESPN.com. "The little zone read stuff that they do; we've seen it so much this year that's kind of become second nature to us. We knew that if we could be successful on early downs and force negative plays, then we could force the ball in Teddy (Bridgewater's) hands."
It's not farfetched to imagine a defensive coordinator forcing a rookie quarterback to beat his unit. But were the Vikings hoping this could start becoming an advantage after Bridgewater's sixth start of the season?
Over those six starts, Bridgewater has a completion percentage just over 60 and a touchdown-to-interception ratio of four-to-six. He's run the ball 17 times for 70 yards.
It's tough to gauge exactly where the first-round pick is at, though it's easy to see some of the issues that ended up dropping Bridgewater to the edge of the second round.
Bridgewater has a few more cold-weather games against tough defenses -- Detroit, the Jets, Green Bay and Chicago, again -- to show some progress.
Chances are, the game plan against him will be similar.
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