Teddy Bridgewater still thinks he's thinking too much.

Asked what he's working on, the Vikings rookie quarterback said, "Just think less. Go out there and play pitch and catch.

"I have to keep telling myself to stop thinking so much. Our coaches are calling great plays to allow me to think less. But still, being a young player, I try to be perfect and find myself thinking too much. I have to trust my teammates and trust everything that I'm being taught and let those guys make plays."

Bridgewater said the extra thinking has caused him to hold the ball extra long, which tends to get him clobbered in the pocket extra times. But that has improved the past three weeks.

"You're talking about being sacked eight times, five times and then one time [on Sunday in Tampa]," Bridgewater said. "Our offensive line is doing a great job. I think I've been struggling holding on to the ball a lot and causing those guys to have to block for extra seconds. Coaches have been on me to get rid of the ball and play faster and the past three weeks, we've made those improvements."

The one area of the offense that tends to shut Teddy's brain off to his liking is the two-minute segment.

"Sometimes in the two-minute drills, defenses aren't able to get too many defensive calls to do the exotic things they do with their blitzes and changing their fronts," Bridgewater said. "It's one of those deals where you know what you're going to get from the defenses and you just go out there and play fast."

Sunday in Tampa, Bridgewater directed scoring drives as time expired at the end of each half. The first one gave the Vikings a 3-0 lead. The second one sent the game into overtime.

Overall, Bridgewater completed 8 of 12 passes to four different receivers for 92 yards and six first downs. One of the incompletions was a spike to stop the clock.

Sunday, Bridgewater faces a Redskins defense that ranks 11th overall, seventh against the pass and eighth in sacks per pass play with 21 sacks.

"We don't face many 3-4 teams, but I'm pretty sure our guys have experience facing those teams with those different fronts," Bridgewater said. "They're able to do different things to cause havoc in your pass protection schemes. But I'm pretty sure we're going to put together a scheme that's going to allow us to play fast and think less."