If you haven't listened yet to this week's episode of the Access Vikings Podcast (regularly featuring myself and Matt Vensel, with Chip Scoggins as our guest this week), please do so. You can find it right here and also on iTunes (subscribe please!).
One of the bits of minutiae we explored on this week's episode was the end of the first half against San Francisco when Teddy Bridgewater underthrew not one but two Hail Mary attempts. The first one, snapped from the 50, landed incomplete at the San Francisco 12. The second, after a 5-yard penalty on the 49ers moved the ball to their 45, was even shorter — and looked somewhat like a designed play since it was caught by Jarius Wright for a 27-yard gain that had little or no chance of doing any real damage as the half expired.
All three of us had different theories on what happened. On a night during which so many things went wrong, it was more of a curiosity point than a major point of contention. But I know Bridgewater can throw the ball 55 yards in the air. He did it right here, on the run no less (a Hail Mary that was intercepted last year).
Were they underthrows? Designed plays to either score or give Bridgewater confidence? I have no idea. But I do know that while they don't quite enter Christian Ponder Fail Mary territory (NFL.com even calls it that!), they were passes to ponder nonetheless.
