Minnesota Vikings: Four things we learned in the Vikings win over the Saints
Bradford and the boys impress
Bradford threw a lot of short passes in his time as the Vikings starting quarterback in 2016. Bradford did not throw a lot of long passes in his first season at the helm for the purple. I don’t have the stats in front of me, but it felt like for Vikings fans that Bradford threw more deep passes on Monday night than he did all of last season. They were really pretty passes, too.
Just the fact that Bradford threw deep constantly is enough to note, but the fact that he connected with his big receivers for big chunks of yards is what dreams are made of for Vikings fans.
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Two touchdown passes for Bradford were over 15 yards as he spread the attack around to seven different receivers. The deep passes not only brought out highlight catches from the likes of Stefon Diggs and Adam Thielen, but it also nicely set up the run game which really allowed Dalvin Cook to shine late in the game.
The joke was made on Twitter that Sam Bradford couldn’t let Alex Smith be the only check-down Charley to get out of his shell in the first week and Bradford surely broke that mold on Monday. Bradford finished the game with 346 yards while going 27/32 with three touchdowns.
We learned that Bradford isn’t simply a game manager. When the offensive line can give him any sort of time, Bradford and the boys could be something hard to handle.