Our natural temptation after watching Teddy Bridgewater throw for 317 yards and rush for a TD in his first start Sunday — helping the Vikings to a 41-28 victory in which they amassed the fourth-most yards in team history — was to compare him to Daunte Culpepper.

Daunte was the last young Vikings QB to make that kind of a splash in his debut; Tarvaris Jackson certainly didn't do it, and even though Christian Ponder did have flashes in his first start against Green Bay, you never looked at him and said, "This is the future, no doubt."

We were at that first Culpepper game — in the Dome, circa 2000, against the Bears — when he ran for three touchdowns and led a 30-27 comeback victory.

What we didn't remember is that Culpepper's passing numbers for the day were pretty ordinary: 13 of 23, 190 yards, no TD passes and one INT. His 13 carries for 73 yards and three TDs were huge, of course, but in our memory for some reason his passing day was better.

We dare say Bridgewater was even better than that against the Falcons, which is saying a lot: 19 for 30, 317 yards, no turnovers, and some key scrambles. More than just the raw numbers, he was composed in the face of adversity. While he benefited from tremendous line play and a fantastic running game, Bridgewater also had to overcome a massive momentum swing when the Falcons took a 28-27 lead.

Bridgewater missed a key deep ball to Jarius Wright, but on what proved to be his final drive he calmly marched the Vikings down the field for a score that gave them the lead they wouldn't relinquish.

A lot of Bridgewater's early work came on short passes — the kind of throws that inflated Ponder's numbers in 2012, when he had Percy Harvin to turn 2-yard gains into more. But he finished the day 8 for 12 for 163 yards on passes that traveled at least 10 yards.

We lobbied hard for the Vikings to draft Johnny Manziel (not that it mattered what we thought, but our Johnny Football love was well-documented). One start will not define the inevitable comparisons between Manziel and Bridgewater, but at least for now the Vikings (and their fans) have to feel very good about the decision.