Vikings vs Carolina - How Norv Turner Helped Tailor Their 31-13 victory

[Saca312]

An interesting read and perspective.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2287590-how-norv-turner-has-adjusted-vikings-offense-to-help-teddy-bridgewater

Quote

The Minnesota Vikings took multiple forward steps in their 31-13 victory over the Carolina Panthers in Week 13. Tweaks to the passing game from offensive coordinator Norv Turner contributed greatly to the efficient play of rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, which was a welcome sign.

Up until Sunday, Turner was more of a stubborn coordinator unwilling to change. He asked much of the QB with a sink-or-swim approach, and Bridgewater merely floated, bobbing up and down as rookies do.

By asking Bridgewater to handle downfield route concepts with regularity despite a poor offensive line, Turner left his rookie out to dry with a struggling receiving corps. The loss of numerous vital pieces Minnesota had banked on offensively only asked more of the QB.

None of this even considers that Turner’s offense is a 180-degree difference from the one Bridgewater ran at Louisville.

Bridgewater struggled early on with it, unsurprisingly. Even when he showed a greater understanding of the concepts at hand, the lack of offensive talent around him left the Vikings offense searching for answers. Bridgewater turned into a checkdown machine while trying to manage games and that gave Minnesota no shot at success.

Then Phil Loadholt went down injured, leaving Bridgewater without the right side of the starting OL, without the running back the Vikings would have featured and without stability at the tight end position. Maybe that was the final straw for Turner, pointing to the need for the offense to adapt.

Right out of the gate against Carolina, with plays scripted by offensive coordinators, that’s exactly what he did.

asing Bridgewater into the game by moving the pocket with play-action passes and giving him a few quick-hitting throws paid dividends. Instead of struggling through the first half and trying to find his footing, Bridgewater played a calm and composed game throughout, throwing with accuracy and anticipation.

The bunch sets were a throwback to what the QB often utilized at Louisville, at least much more than Turner’s offense usually asks for.

An early third-down conversion to Greg Jennings came from a bunch.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind
Bunches often give a QB a triangle of reads on one side of the field. In this case, Bridgewater has the out to Jennings and the “snag” route to Charles Johnson underneath. At the top of the triangle is a corner route to Jarius Wright.

Chris B. Brown of Smart Football goes into great detail on triangles in the passing game, including a breakdown of this exact concept.

This look gives the Vikings the best of multiple worlds. It stresses zone coverage, especially Cover 2, because the cornerback has a route-runner above and below him. The corner route is also able to beat man coverage.

Most importantly, Bridgewater has the processing capability to quickly read coverage and make the correct throw. Having more options on the same side of the field helps.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind
When the CB sinks too deep on this occasion, the decision to dump the ball to Jennings at the sticks is a no-brainer.

Bridgewater has shown the ability to execute concepts like this over and over. When given multiple options, he can diagnose coverage quite reliably for a rookie and make the right decision.

These route combinations that strike more quickly don’t ask him to sit in collapsing pockets and throw strikes down the field. Even better, with a bunch grouping like this one, he can glide in that direction when moving from pressure to shorten the throw, which he did here.

Turner’s appropriate script early in the Carolina game got Teddy off to a quick start and the rest was history. Some adjustments showed up late in the game, too, going back to tighter alignments with receivers.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind
On both sides of the field, the QB has high-low reads again. Jennings runs an out and Johnson a corner on the near side. That gives Bridgewater another defined read of the CB.

Credit: NFL Game Rewind
As soon as No. 20’s hips turn up the field, the ball is out. Jennings has not even turned his head around yet, which says something about the rhythm and anticipation Bridgewater is playing with in the second half.

With the ball coming out quickly, Jennings was able to slip the tackler and score, adding to Carolina’s misery.

These sets help a struggling group of receivers as well, not only Bridgewater. The tightness of their alignments makes it very difficult for defenses to press with aggression in coverage, something that has given Minnesota fits for most of the season.

Seems Norv can be decent when he understands the need to adjust for his personnel.

We'll see how it goes.

[t96]

14 of those were blocked punt returns... 

[ncfan]

Wait, you mean no more WRs running to the same spot of the field?

Thats a MASSIVE upgrade to Shula just in that!

[Jon Snow]

17 minutes ago, ncfan said:

Wait, you mean no more WRs running to the same spot of the field?

Thats a MASSIVE upgrade to Shula just in that!

Yeah where did those route combinations come from?  That's not how you do it, Shula told me so.

[Byrdman4real]

Way better then shula

[Snake]

What kills me is people are judging Turner off of Teddy Bridgewater. A guy who was at best a game manager when healthy. While I know it will take a bit for Cam to digest Turners playbook he will and will run it like Aikman, Brees, and Rivers. The Coryell offense was never meant for simple minded players. It's complex but effective because it's complex. Shula is known for extremely complex playbooks that don't produce so we know Cam can articulate it. Bridgewater was never going to be able to. He's just not that good of a QB and it's why he was easily replaced. 

[TheSpecialJuan]

46 minutes ago, ncfan said:

Wait, you mean no more WRs running to the same spot of the field?

Thats a MASSIVE upgrade to Shula just in that!

whoa

[Saca312]

5 minutes ago, Snake said:

What kills me is people are judging Turner off of Teddy Bridgewater. A guy who was at best a game manager when healthy. While I know it will take a bit for Cam to digest Turners playbook he will and will run it like Aikman, Brees, and Rivers. The Coryell offense was never meant for simple minded players. It's complex but effective because it's complex. Shula is known for extremely complex playbooks that don't produce so we know Cam can articulate it. Bridgewater was never going to be able to. He's just not that good of a QB and it's why he was easily replaced. 

to be fair, trying to fit norv's offense on teddy is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. simply cannot make the deep passes expected in an air coryell that well.

shurmur probably would do wonders for teddy and his development as he fits better.

as for cam, obviously cam's one of the best deep passers in the league so he should be fine in that regard.

[Jon Snow]

1 minute ago, Snake said:

What kills me is people are judging Turner off of Teddy Bridgewater. A guy who was at best a game manager when healthy. While I know it will take a bit for Cam to digest Turners playbook he will and will run it like Aikman, Brees, and Rivers. The Coryell offense was never meant for simple minded players. It's complex but effective because it's complex. Shula is known for extremely complex playbooks that don't produce so we know Cam can articulate it. Bridgewater was never going to be able to. He's just not that good of a QB and it's why he was easily replaced. 

Shula's complex playbook was a copy of Norv's playbook that he had marked all up with crayons.

I can hear Norv now when he sees it..."Who the fug drew in this playbook with crayons?"  "What dumbass mixed the routes up this way?"  "That's not how it's supposed to be drawn up."  "Damn, no wonder y'all executed like ass." 

[Snake]

Just now, Jon Snow said:

Shula's complex playbook was a copy of Norv's playbook that he had marked all up with crayons.

I can hear Norv now when he sees it..."Who the fug drew in this playbook with crayons?"  "What dumbass mixed the routes up this way?"  "That's not how it's supposed to be drawn up."  "Damn, no wonder y'all executed like ass." 

Shula was running some sort of EP system. He couldn't grasp the Air Coryell. Shula was great at play design but absolutely sucked at everything else. I mean it was cruel twist of fate. With that said our WRs shouldn't have a problem with Turners system. It's probably going to be less complicated and more efficient. 

[Snake]

4 minutes ago, Saca312 said:

to be fair, trying to fit norv's offense on teddy is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. simply cannot make the deep passes expected in an air coryell that well.

shurmur probably would do wonders for teddy and his development as he fits better.

as for cam, obviously cam's one of the best deep passers in the league so he should be fine in that regard.

Yeah and probably why Turner left. Sometimes you have to admit its not working. Shumur runs a simple and QB friendly system. Cam needs Turner because it will push him to be great. It will push everyone to be there best. Just like you see in New Orleans and in New England. 

[Jon Snow]

2 minutes ago, Snake said:

Shula was running some sort of EP system. He couldn't grasp the Air Coryell. Shula was great at play design but absolutely sucked at everything else. I mean it was cruel twist of fate. With that said our WRs shouldn't have a problem with Turners system. It's probably going to be less complicated and more efficient. 

The same great play designer that sent every receiver to the same area of the field?  The same great designer the puts his best players on the sideline while he telegraphs the next play?  That great play designer?

[Snake]

Just now, Jon Snow said:

The same great play designer that sent every receiver to the same area of the field?  The same great designer the puts his best players on the sideline while he telegraphs the next play?  That great play designer?

Lol you got me there. He did have really good plays peppered in there and 2015 was his peak and also his downturn. 

[Mr. Scot]

Just now, Snake said:

Yeah and probably why Turner left. Sometimes you have to admit its not working. Shumur runs a simple and QB friendly system. Cam needs Turner because it will push him to be great. It will push everyone to be there best. Just like you see in New Orleans and in New England. 

Turner runs a Coryell. Shurmur runs a WCO.

West Coast systems are just about always more quarterback friendly.