Souhan: Bridgewater provides hope to Vikings going forward

The last time the Vikings played a late December game at TCF Bank Stadium, they lost to the Chicago Bears 40-14 on Dec. 20, 2010. One team left campus with a strong-armed, freelancing quarterback leading the way to the playoffs. The other helped Brett Favre to his car.

That frigid night, Favre smacked his helmet on the icy turf and left because of a concussion. The most durable quarterback in football history spent most of the game standing on the sideline, swaddled in a heavy coat. He would never play again.

Jay Cutler threw three touchdown passes in that game. The Bears would beat Seattle in the playoffs and lose to the Packers in the NFC Championship Game, Cutler's laconic body language as he stood injured on the sideline that day mushrooming from a Greater Chicagoland annoyance into a national punchline.

Four years later, the Bears' record is the statistical equivalent of a Cutler eyeroll, and the Vikings might have finally found the quarterback who will keep them from sending recruiting parties to Hattiesburg, Miss.

In 2009, the Bears traded for Cutler. In January 2013, they chose Marc Trestman as the coach who would coax Cutler toward success. A quarterback guru would manage one of the most talented passers in the league.

In a span of three months this year, the Vikings became the first of the seemingly dozens of teams who interviewed Mike Zimmer over the years to hire him as a head coach, then traded up in the draft to choose Teddy Bridgewater with the last pick in the first round. A late-career defensive grinder would manage a quarterback whose stock waned as the draft approached.

Two mediocre teams will play Sunday. One oozes hope, and one wallows in regret, because the personalities and career arcs of coaches and quarterback define NFL teams.

This season, Trestman watched Cutler, surrounded by talent, destroy the only chance Trestman will ever get to be an NFL head coach, while Zimmer watched Bridgewater, surrounded by journeymen, grow into his franchise player.

Zimmer is gruff. He admits to nerves before games. He doesn't need to wear emotions on his sleeve, because he broadcasts them with his face.

And Bridgewater? "He's like the anti-me," Zimmer said.

Bridgewater's calm has salvaged his season and the Vikings' plans. On Oct. 19, he had played in four NFL games. His offensive line was leaking. The three skill-position players thought to be the key to success — Adrian Peterson, Kyle Rudolph and Cordarrelle Patterson — were suspended, injured or invisible.

Bridgewater had thrown one touchdown pass and five interceptions. He had been harried by two defenses, Detroit and Buffalo, capable of making potential NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers look amateurish.

After looking wildly inaccurate down the field at midseason, Bridgewater has reworked his mechanics, and begun making the most difficult throws in the NFL — deep outs and sideline patterns — with velocity and touch.

Had Bridgewater faltered in late October, this season would have been a disaster.

Instead, one team playing at the Bank on Sunday found its quarterback while the other was discovering it can't live with its quarterback.

"I've been around a lot of young guys in their first year," said veteran Vikings fullback Jerome Felton.

"Cam Newton and Matthew Stafford, in particular. I'd put Teddy up at the top. Preparationwise, and in how much it means to him, and how he goes about his business.