Underused Patterson stays upbeat in Vikings' offense

When Cordarrelle Patterson was a high schooler in South Carolina, he once yanked off his gear after an argument with a coach and stormed off the field.

At his junior college in Kansas, he lobbied for the football when it didn't come his way as often as he preferred.

And when he chose to enroll at Tennessee, he picked the Volunteers, who already had a pair of NFL prospects starting at wide receiver, because he believed he could be "the man" right way.

So far in the NFL, though, Patterson has learned to keep his inner diva under wraps.

But Thursday, a week after he had just two catches for 8 yards before exiting the 42-10 loss to the Green Bay Packers because of a hip injury, Patterson joked that if he doesn't start producing like he, the Vikings and the rest of the football world expected him to before this season, he might have to call on the cocksure Cordarrelle of old to help him snap out of his slump.

"People say they don't see it, but … you know at junior college, I was a drama queen. I demanded the ball and it paid off for me," Patterson said. "So if things keep going like this, I may have to be that drama queen one time."

Patterson playfully flashed his trademark grin and had a group of reporters and cameramen cracking up. But the second-year playmaker's lack of production has become no laughing matter at Winter Park.

"I understand everyone's preoccupation with that," offensive coordinator Norv Turner said after the fourth of the five questions he was asked about Patterson on Thursday.

But is Patterson's lack of touches — he has 19 through five games — caused by defenses paying more attention to him, Turner not paying enough attention to him, Patterson not getting open often enough, or the carousel at quarterback preventing him from finding his rhythm?

It's probably a combination of all of the above.

Patterson has 15 catches for 189 yards with no receiving touchdowns through five games. He caught four passes for 46 yards in the team's past two games.

Turner said that the Atlanta Falcons, who did not have to worry about the threat of exiled running back Adrian Peterson, focused their defensive game plan on Patterson, which created an opportunity for fellow wide receiver Jarius Wright to have a career day.

He didn't always beat it, but head coach Mike Zimmer said that he saw progress from Patterson in terms of his route-running and reading of the coverages.

Unfortunately, backup quarterback Christian Ponder didn't look his way, moved off him too quickly or wasn't able to give Patterson much of a chance to make a play when he did throw to him.

"There's times you get open and the ball doesn't come to you. No one sees that. We do," Turner said. "There were some times we had a lot of pressure in that game, the ball didn't come out the way we would like it to, or didn't have an opportunity to get it out."

While the reason differs from play to play, there is no question the Vikings have to find solutions.

Patterson, who is being asked to run deeper routes than he did a year ago, has been targeted on just 14.5 percent of his routes, according to Pro Football Focus. That is last among Vikings wideouts and ranks 120th among NFL wide receivers overall. He is averaging just 1.19 yards per route run, which is tied for 71st out of the 91 qualifying wide receivers.

"Obviously, after the first game, he got a lot of attention when we started moving him back into the backfield," Turner said. "People really got wide. The runs that he had on them were perimeter runs. Those things tend to come back around."

Patterson, who practiced again Thursday and is expected to start Sunday against the Lions, insists that he is not frustrated by his lack of touches. He claimed that playing the role of decoy is fun sometimes. He refused to turn the quarterback situation into an excuse. And he certainly isn't about to walk into his play-caller's office and tell him how to do his job.