Sid Hartman: Barr's transition comes along nicely

Even though Anthony Barr made a mistake, the rookie linebacker turned out to be the hero in the Vikings' 19-13 overtime victory over Tampa Bay to break a three-game losing streak.

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer was initially upset with the first-round draft pick for not being in the right position on the Buccaneers' first play of overtime, as Austin Seferian-Jenkins had picked up 10 yards before Barr stripped him of the ball and then grabbed the fumble and returned it for the winning touchdown, ending his team's six-game losing streak against Tampa Bay.

The Vikings won this game after their other first-round pick, quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, led them on a nine-play, 61-yard drive in the final minute. He completed five of eight passes for 54 yards to set up Blair Walsh's 38-yard tying field goal.

It should be noted that the Vikings, who improved to 3-5, beat a Tampa Bay team that fell to 1-6 overall and 0-4 at home. The Buccaneers have lost 16 consecutive games in which their opponent scored first.

It was clear this was a game between two of the league's least productive offenses. The game was low-scoring even though Tampa Bay was the worst defensive team in the NFL coming into the contest. The Bucs managed to gain only 72 yards in the first half, but then they gained 71 on their lone touchdown drive, in the fourth quarter.

As for Barr's touchdown, Zimmer told reporters in Tampa, "Initially I was a little upset with him because he wasn't being widened with the tight end enough and he let him catch the ball. But now that it's over, I'm glad he did."

Zimmer talked about how confident he was that Barr would be able to make the transition from playing defensive end and running back at UCLA to linebacker in the NFL.

"I knew he was a great athlete," Zimmer said. "I knew he was a great person. You always have a little bit of doubt when a guy is learning a new position. Sometimes the outside linebacker/defensive end pass rushers that move to a 4-3 linebacker, like we play, have a real difficult transition. He has not had that. Rick [Spielman] and I sat in there and talked about different ways we can use this guy to try and affect offenses, and he's been doing that really good."

Improving each week

Barr said Zimmer is a perfectionist, and he wasn't surprised that his coach thought he was a little out of position on the only play from scrimmage of overtime.

"I thought I did my job, but coach always has something to say," Barr said. "It's good for me though, keeps me on point. Like I said, I was just happy to make the play."

Barr continued: "He just wants everything to be perfect. It's tough to be perfect all the time so if you're not perfect you're going to hear it, so try to be perfect."

As for what he saw on the final play, Barr said: "I was basically man on the tight end, he broke out and I was a little late to get there but I was able to get my hand on the ball and strip it and fortunate to get my hand on the ball and score."

While the Vikings picked up a much-needed victory, Barr said the defense still wasn't happy, even though they blanked the Bucs for three quarters, because they gave up the go-ahead touchdown late in the game for the second week in a row.

"I think we still want to finish better than we did," Barr said. "That last drive they had when they scored, that's not typical of the way they game went, so we have to be better there. But as far as standing up and making big plays when they need to be made, we were able to do that. That was what we preached all week."

Barr was the defender who gave up the Tampa Bay touchdown in the fourth quarter, and he was happy he could make amends for that with his own score.

He added he is taking baby steps every week to improve at his new position, which has made the transition to the NFL even more difficult.

"I think just the position change and playing beyond the ball and trying to get better with my eyes and have better instincts and stuff like that," he said. "That's stuff I've never done before. I feel like I'm getting more comfortable each week.

"I'm a lot more comfortable dropping into coverage and understanding concepts and routes."

Bridgewater improves

Among those praising Bridgewater's improvement over his previous appearances was NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw, the analyst who said on Fox that the rookie did a good job of staying in the pocket and getting rid of the ball quicker than he had in the past.

Bridgewater was sacked only once while being hurried five times, as the offensive line, which had a healthy John Sullivan at center, showed improvement after giving up five sacks last week at Buffalo.

Bridgewater said of the pass protection to reporters: "It was very good. Those guys did a great job winning those 1-on-1 matchups this week. … The sacks went down from eight to five to one today. It just shows the improvements we're making. Coach Zimmer has been on our guys up front. It's also me. I play a role in those sacks also. Today those guys did a great job of allowing me to sit back there and play football."

Bridgewater completed 24 of 42 passes for 241 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions for a 81.5 rating. The Vikings are 2-2 in the four games he has started.

No doubt he put on the best performance of his young career when he led the Vikings to that tying field goal. Walsh also kicked a 46-yard field goal with 59 seconds to go in the first half to give the Vikings a 3-0 lead for the only scoring of the first half, after earlier narrowly missing a 56-yarder.

Ups and downs

Zimmer talked about Bridgewater's performance.

"He was up and down," Zimmer said. "He took good care of the football, which we asked him to do. He was only sacked one time; you know those things are important, too. We definitely have a hard time scoring points, we've got to do a better job there. I think his composure was very good today. He took some shots down the field, which we have to do. We've got to be able to take some, and we missed them. But we keep telling him, well, hit some."

As for others on offense, Zimmer said: "I told Cordarralle [Patterson] this was his best week of practice that he had. I told him before the ballgame now let's take it out to the game and let's play like you can, and I thought he stepped up and played much better today. Charles Johnson made a couple good catches.

"The throw to [Greg] Jennings [on the final drive] was a great catch and an unbelievable throw; he had a guy in his face. Those are the kind of throws that you can make you've just got to keep the pocket clean, and he just has to make those throws."

Sid Hartman can be heard weekdays on 830-AM at 7:40, 8:40 and 9:20 a.m. and on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. shartman@startribune.com